Focus, Focus, Focus

I don’t know about you, but there are moments in my day (and days in my week!) where I just feel frazzled, out of control, and clearly scatter-brained! (Can I get an amen?) What’s a gal to do to regain her focus? What’s a mom to do in order to help her kids regain their focus?

I read a brilliant book called Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster. Actually I’ve read it several times now and each time I am drawn by his conversation on the simple complexity of prayer.

One of my favorite suggestions he makes is to select a “breath prayer” for yourself that you offer up many times a day. Something that is on your heart that can be said in one breath, so to speak. How often do I intend to pray “if only I had more time”. This gives me the ability to pray without ceasing on one matter that will greatly impact my day, and allow me to focus my heart and attentions. (Oh, I wish you would go and read the book. I’m making this sound an awful lot like a chore…he is much more inviting about this…)


Please read the rest of my article for Heart Of The Matter here.

Wow-ful Women Wednesdays

Have I posted this one before? I should have. Can't believe it has taken me so long...If only I knew the message this song presents when I was in high school... or university....or...

I am so inexpressibly grateful that it isn't up to me to become beautiful enough or holy enough or kind enough or just enough or anything enough. It is the righteousness of Christ draped over me, wrapped around me, saturating me that allows me to stand in front of the Lord, clean and acceptable and beautiful. I don't need to try any harder. You make me beautiful. You make me stand in awe. You are beautiful, Lord. That's all that matters.

Wow-ful Women Wednesday

No words. Except this is my heart's cry today. This is the soaring, proclaiming, exalting, uplifting, God-glorifying message I want my life to display. Yes, I will praise the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

"What's a Motto for You?"

When my hubby and I were first dating,and then when I had brainwashed and hypnotized him into thinking he couldn't live without me (bwahahahaha), we sat down and spent a lot of time writing up a Family Mission and Vision Statment. What an exercise! If you ever think you know what you want your life or your family or your marriage to look like, and if you think your spouse wants the same, you should definitely be ready for your eyes to be opened by a truly fun, and exceptionally useful, exercise such as this.

I remember one of the things we had on our list "wants" for our marriage and our home was peace and a lack of anger. Great idea. What does that look like? Where does that come from? Well, we searched out the scriptures to find what the Word said about anger, and boy, did I ever learn I had a LOT to work through from my own angry, angst-ridden past before I could truly live in peace with anyone. Very eye-opening...and humbling.

Recently, I've been looking at Romans (you just gotta love Romans) and I have found several passages that would make for wonderful starting points for a family motto. Chris and I have been revisiting our goals and our vision for the family and these passages sure set a beautiful tone. Read these, and try and convince me this isn't what you want for your marriage, your family, your workplace, your ministry, your relationships, your church.


Romans 14:19 "So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding."

(my new favourite) Romans 15:5-6 "May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Jesus Christ, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now both of those have SO much to dig deeper in to, and more to define and grasp that you could really study that for a long, long time. But just imagine what your home, what my home, might look like if one of these was the new motto, or the new focus and mind set.

What scriptures do you look to for purpose and focus? Do you have a key verse, or a life verse, that drives you?

Easter Monday

I think I may just spend some time today thinking about these lyrics:

(I must say I love this singalong version. Having the whole body of believers confessing with their mouths that Jesus is the Risen Lord is just pretty stunning to me.)



True Love -- Phil Wickham

Come close listen to the story
About a love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father's Broken Heart
Tears were filling Heaven's Eyes
The day that True Love died, the day that True Love died
When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died, The day that True Love died

Search your heart you know you can't deny it
Come on, lose your life just so you can find it
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

The Earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt The Fathers broken heart
Tears were filling Heaven's Eyes
The day that True Love died, the day that True Love died


When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died, The day that True Love died

Now, Jesus is alive

Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Oh, He is alive
He rose again

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died, The day that True Love died

Come close listen to the story

Heard at My House

Setting: tucking the 3 year old into bed, in the room she shares with 2 older sisters.

On the floor is assorted "big sister stuff", like books etc. There is also a basket of clean laundry that I have not helped the 3 year old put away.

Enter sweet little 3 year old girl (who, adorably, can't quite say her 'r' sounds):

"Seriously. Are you kidding me? This room is a disaster!"


(mental note to self: Mom may need to keep some thoughts and commentaries in her head and find a bit kinder vocabulary.)

Wow-ful Women Wednesdays

Everytime I hear the opening strains to this song, I feel like throwing open the windows, dancing in my living room, and singing into a hairbrush. Or going on a road trip. Or studying 18th century British Literature which is what I spent most of my time doing when I listened to this song "back in the day". That fact is what caused me to smile at the lyric, "I spent 4 years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper and I was free." Nice. Except I only spent 3 and 1/2 years and the paper I left with was a marriage certificate....no complaints over here. I'm a much better housewife than thespian. :-)

So you need to know that I really enjoy this song. However, there is a whole lot of "world view selling" going on here that I can't buy. I've written a few of my thoughts here if you'd like to get my inside scoop on what this song is missing.

But for now, enjoy this great piece of music, with brilliant vocals, fantastic harmonies, and a melody that just puts a smile in my heart.

Closer To Fine -- The Indigo Girls

Closer to Fine

Wow, did you really come over here for my insights into this song? Well then, I'd better step it up and have something smart to say :-)

First off, how's this for a fabulous lyric:

"Well the darkness has a hunger that's insatiable.
And the lightness has a call that's hard to hear.
I wrapped my fear around me like a blanket.
I sailed my ship of safety til I sank it..."

I can relate to that. If you've been here any length of time, you've likely tripped across my posts on my tangle with Post-Partum depression. And you've likely also read about how I am highly driven by fear. I'm not going to get in to all of that again today, because though it was real, it will not define me. What I do want to say is that it is so very true that the darkness has an insatiable hunger, and it may well want to devour you.

However, here's the good news that the ladies in this song miss. They say "There's more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line."
I say there may well be many "answers", but there is surely only one truth that speaks to the heart of your confusion and sheds light on your darkness in a way that frees you indeed, fully and completely. His name is Jesus, and no matter what darkness you find yourself in, His is the light and the answer you need. And no, that is not a trite answer. It is a simple truth, with some complex implications.

So you need to know that this is one of my favourite songs of all time, and these ladies are fabulously talented. But they miss the point. There is absolute truth. There is one way. There is someone that answers all the burning questions and makes clear all the messy ideas this world tries to sell. And to say "we looked to the Bible" and to have walked away unchanged means they didn't likely look very long at all. Just this past Sunday my pastor said that in 29 years of pastoring he has yet to find an issue "come across his desk", so to speak, that did not have a resolution in the Word of God.

What questions do you have today? Are you willing to look in the Bible to find the answers? As Easter approaches, are you willing to consider the reality of who Jesus Christ is, and the sacrifice He made, and how that can change everything for you? The lyric says "The less I seek my source for some definitive the closer I am to fine." This just isn't so. The source of our life and our every breath is God the Father who made us and loves us. And so the more we seek him for the answers and purpose of our life, the closer we are to fine, and fulfilled, and content, and at peace.


I know, I know. Pretty deep thoughts for a Wow-ful Women Wednesday, but I didn't want to leave these things unsaid today. Thanks for reading...

Clean Floors

How often do you wash your kitchen floor? I mean, really clean them. Not just run-the-Swiffer-over-them clean, or kind-of-sweep-them clean, but on-your-hands-and-knees-hot-and-soapy-water clean?

Rarely, if I'm being honest. But I would like to tell you about how it came about that I washed my floors like that on Christmas Eve morning.

Faithful readers here may recall that months ago I promised a series of blog posts, one inspirational and one funny. The inspirational one has been posted: today's is the funny one. (That was your prompt and licence to laugh at me with great vigor!).

Imagine with me, if you will, what a typical Christmas Eve morning is like. As I see it, there are two options. It can be an idyllic, quiet, contemplative time around the tree, with hot apple cider in one hand, Bible in the other, and good snacks (post-delicious brunch, of course) always in easy reach. The children are contentedly playing, loving on one another with the compassion of Mother Theresa, the housework and gift-making are caught up, and the Roast Beast is simmering in a red wine flavoured broth preparing for a magical, culinary experience. We are patiently, yet breathlessly awaiting the candle-light service at the church. The children all say, "Santa who?" and instead prepare cards and gifts for the birth of Christ the King. All is right with the world.

That is option one. That was not our reality this year.

Christmas Eve was a Thursday in 2009, as you may recall. That is only significant in that my daughter's flyer route needs to be worked on Thursdays. Only. Period. Wednesday or Friday delivery of flyers constitutes grounds for immediate dismissal. Thursday morning it is.

Plus, this was the year that I jumped back into the world of "Church Drama" and was preparing for the second night of Christmas Plays. Let's just sum that up by saying my brain is not as sharp as it was 7 children and 11 years ago! Hello, Memory? Anyone home? Right. Didn't think so.

Plus, this was the year our church jumped back into the world of "Choir", which is such a highlight for me that I may need to do an entire post on choir someday. This required me to go through an intense period of humbling as I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, hairbrush in hand (to my mouth, of course), repeatedly asking myself if I have any clue how to sing!

Plus, this was the year that I decided to be a mock-athelete and began running for the first time since the boys in the playground were throwing rocks at me.

Plus, this was the year that I thought I should really try to sew some lovely bags for some people I love as gifts. Like my Grandma. Who I would be seeing tomorrow. Whose bag I hadn't started yet. Oops.

And so it was, that I was in a very happy place that Christmas Eve morning doing a lot of things I loved and enjoyed, but found my mind a wee distracted...

The whole gang of us piled in to the van first thing in the morning, and delivered my eldest's 95 flyers, in record time, glad for the nice weather. Then we came home to realize the basement was about to be declared a national emergency site due to the unusually large amount of toys strewn around. So here I am in the kitchen, beginning lunch, barking orders for the basement to be cleaned, kissing my husband who just came home from his morning at the office, putting the baby down for his nap, and thinking the breakfast dishes should be washed, and then thinking I should go and check on the cleaning efforts in the basement.

As I go down to check on the basement overhaul, I realize that my physical presence there with them may be the thing to speed their endeavor, and so I sit and check email. It is in the email that my fate was sealed, I believe. My lovely friend, Kristina who I love, sent me a link to a stunning video of Celtic Woman singing "O Holy Night". Stunning. I sat spell-bound for the 5 minutes of vocal bliss. My bliss was radically, sharply, disasterously ended by my 8 year old's cherubic voice, innocently asking me, "Mommy, what is that water?"

Water? What water? And so I look in to the (praise the Lord) unfinished part of our basement to see water, no sheets of water, falling, pouring, gushing out of my duct work. Did I say gushing? I meant flooding. Rapidly. And spreading fast. Now there is a leak over our freezer. Now it is coming out over the laundry area.

My dear husband is wondering if a pipe froze and burst. "Where is this water coming from?" he cries? "Go make sure everything is off while I shut of the main!"

And my dear oldest daughter says, "Mom! I saw you turn on the kitchen sink!" She flies up the stairs to turn off the kitchen sink, but before she can reach the faucet she falls squarely on her heiny. The water has flooded the counter, and spilled, hot and soapy, all over the kitchen floor. Should I remind the gentle reader here that we have porcelain tiles in our kitchen? Mental note to self: porcelain tiles + hot, soapy water = ice rink.

So as 7 children are screaming "GET MORE TOWELS!!" and "EMPTY THE GARBAGE PAILS TO CATCH THE WATER!!!" I am trying to remember when exactly I turned the sink on. Clearly, somewhere in the "I thought I should wash the breakfast dishes" moment, I actually plugged the sink, squirted in the soap, and turned the tap on full hot.

And now I am sitting on the floor, sopping up water from the inside of my cabinets, and the drawers and the entire kitchen counter, trying really hard not to say out loud any of the names I'm calling myself in my head because there are 14 little eyes and ears watching and listeing to see how mom reacts in a crisis.

At one point, my 8 year old who is notorious for saying the funniest things without trying to be funny, is in a full out fit worrying about how this is going to play out, says with great fervor, "And Mom, this better not become a Facebook Status, because this is *NOT* funny!"

Soon, the basement is dried up, the kitchen is dried up, my husband is reassuring the 8 year old that the house is fine, and sound, and no damage done. I am hiding in the garage, giving full vent to all the pent up rage and self-disgust I previously held inside. I hear my husband's loving voice ask one of the girls, "Where's your mom?" and I get the courage to come in and dry my eyes on his shirt collar. He is half laughing at me, half consoling me. I need both to get through this.

I figured I had ruined Christmas Eve. What happened instead was my kids saw that even "the best mom in the world" makes stupid mistakes, which gives them the freedom to try and fail too. And my kitchen floor got "on-your-hands-and-knees-hot-and-soapy-water clean".

All in all, it was the perfect Christmas Eve morning.

Buying the Lie

My daughter had an appointment with a specialist recently. This doctor is lovely. Truly one of the best physicians I’ve ever had to deal with. She is intelligent, patient, understanding, funny, great with my 3 year old, gentle, encouraging, non-condescending. She has a lot of letters after her name. I won’t even try to understand what they all mean, other than a lot of schooling and a lot of expertise. Along with all of that comes the pay-check, the lifestyle, the wardrobe, the respect, and the pride that accompanies such a career achievement. She is living the dream!

Except…

Once when my daughter was in to see her, this doctor asked me how many children I had. I told her we had seven. She asked if I worked out side of the home. I said no. And that we homeschool. And then she said something I will never forget.


Please read the rest of my latest Heart of the Matter article here.