Do you ever feel like the Lord speaks in a whisper?
I know, I know, Elijah’s story tells us the Lord is not in the great wind, the earthquake or the fire, but rather in the gentle whisper.
Could it be that He speaks differently, with different volumes at different times?
For the past 2 years, to me personally, the voice of the Lord has been loud.
And as I obeyed the prompting set before me, it seemed to get louder and clearer. I began writing again, even wrote a book (that’s being edited) of my journey with Him. He’s laid specific people on my heart to pray for or call and the timing was perfect. Our family traveled to Kenya, and heard Him call us back home. He’s provided for us to remodel our house.
A few months ago I was introduced to Jen Daugherty on Twitter. Yes, Twitter! A friend of hers said we had similar stories and we should meet. I’m so thankful for that!
For 31 days, Jen is dissecting the topic of brave. And since brave and faith are first cousins, I asked if she would drop a few lines for me about faith. So, here she is….
Faith is a journey…always moving forward. Many times, this means that just about the time we start to feel comfortable with where we are, we are called to change. We’re called to be brave and take our next step in faith.
Today I woke up with no words to share. I felt like I poured them all out and the spicket dried up. Then I went to church.
The pastor who’s known me since I was 12, greeted me at the door. As this man who counseled and married Adam and I hugged me, I felt tears well up that I didn’t know existed.
I am so thankful for a place to share this 31 day journey of faith. I have shared about saying goodbye to friends leaving for Kenya, for dark times of my seed dying in the fresh earth and for this journey of homeschooling God has me on.
It’s been a beautiful 16 days.
Today feels like a new chapter. A transition onto further growth. Today I want to share something with you I’ve processed and I hope it will deepen your relationship with Jesus and help shed some light on areas that you often don’t understand. For we all have those, yes?
For the last few days, I’ve shared my struggle with homeschooling. We haven’t quit. But I want to share something with my fellow, hard working, homeschool moms.
Just a warning…this post my offend you. But I believe it needs to be said.
Homeschooling is a noble journey.
It’s tough. It’s self-less. It requires faith.
However, homeschooling only works when it’s best for all involved. That includes the Mom. As the saying goes, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
“The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devil obsessed and lift them up. We are not built for the mountains… We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in.” Oswald Chambers, Utmost for His Highest
So that’s why this feels like the valley….it is!!
I do love those mountain top experiences, though. I even like the climb. It’s exciting, invigorating, courageous and adrenaline pumping.
But I don’t like to climb down. The steep decline hurts my knees. I might slip on the rocks. God must push me on farther.
I complain that I’ve seen all the scenery before. I want to turn around and go back up, but God gently tells me it’s time to go back to “real” life.
John 12:24 “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
The harsh reality of bearing fruit for God’s kingdom rather than my own is that the first criterion involves death. The death of myself.
My wishes.
My plans.
My dreams.
God knows the desires of my heart. He knows what I love, what I long for, what I dream of. But before they can be His gift to me that produces fruit for His kingdom, all the ME must die.
I must on bended knee with sincerity of heart hand it over to Him and drop my hand away.
I wasn’t going to do this. I had another post all queued up ready for send-off, but I have a story I don’t want you to miss.
A new blogging friend Jen Daugherty asked me to guest post for her on the topic brave. After praying about it, I had my story.
Many of you know I married my high school sweetheart and we’ve enjoyed 16 good years of marriage. I often post about marriage and how we can Meet in the Middle, Truths that can Transform it or Do you Pray with your Spouse. I honor my husband by bragging on him anytime I can. I’m so thankful for him.
But I also know the other side – when “meeting in the middle” didn’t happen and what resulted was a broken family. For you see, that’s the back half to my story. And for all you other moms and dads out there living a life of single-parenthood, my hat goes off to you.
You are so brave. So. Brave. I hope you’ve read What I Learned Through My Parents Divorceand I hope you know that when I post about marriage tips and prayers, I am never forgetting you and your struggles.
So, here’s to you. All you brave men and women. Keep being brave. Keep showing Jesus to the little eyes that are looking to you to help make since of this mess we call life. Jesus will never leave them, or you, never!
So, here’s my story I shared over at Jen’s place Sunday.
When I think of the word brave, the picture I see in my mind is young David standing before the giant Goliath. This young man, barely shaving age valiantly stood before and defeated the man everyone else feared, with no armor and no spear. He used only what he knew how to use: a sling and a few stones.
While everyone around him shouted reasons to just drop off the sandwiches to his brothers and go back home, David saw an opportunity. He’d slung that sling many hundred times before and killed many a wolf trying to attack his flock of sheep.
Why should this time be any different?
We don’t hear much fear or doubt in David’s story, but I’m sure they were there.
There’s just a taste, but please, hop on over and view the whole thing HERE.
I’m glad you stopped by today. See you tomorrow!
~Julie
For the month of October, I’m taking the challenge to write and post everyday. For a listings of all the days, just click HERE.
Friends. We all need them. They come in all shapes and sizes, countries and regions. This writing business has challenged me to find friends over the waves of the internet. People I’ve never met have read my words and I’ve read theirs.
Today I have some friends I want you to meet. They’ve fed my soul over the last 11 days and I think they’ll feed yours as well.
The first friend isn’t a writer, but rather a musician. Lauren Daigle. Her song and album How Can It Be have spoke such words of truth to my heart time and time again. So the first order of business is here…
From there, I want to share some other 31 days writers that have encouraged me on my faith journey.
The first is Jen Daugherty. Just her web address alone (faithmustardseed.com) confirmed she was someone to follow. Jen is talking about Brave for this month of October. One of my favorites of hers is called At the Edge, where she describes a bungee jumping experience…
“When you’re standing at the edge, you can’t see the bungee. You can only see the leap.”
I hope you’ll visit her site, here’s the address again.
Next on the list: Alisa Stoner. Alisa and I know each other in real life and not just via the internet! We share a common bond of homeschooling and also a love of writing. I’m so thankful to be sharing this 31 day challenge with her. I love her blog, Dreams Running. And for 31 days, that’s exactly what she’s talking about – dreams. Her post yesterday called, Living Your Dreams on the Way to the Promised Landespecially resounded with me.
“We don’t feel like we’re living our dreams when we’re just being faithful with a normal day, but that’s the only way to our promised lands. The only way to our promised land is by living each day in Him. Doing what we know is right. Living for His glory now–before it ever feels glorious.”
See what I mean? Yes, she is one to follow.
So right after I read Alisa’s post, I read a post by Katie Reid called Delays Construct Character and I couldn’t believe how much alike the two sounded. She said,
“Sometimes God restores by taking us down a road that we weren’t expecting. Sometimes God renews our perspective by rerouting us. Detours and delays can be frustrating but they aren’t the same as dead-ends.” Which is what Alisa was getting to with “Living for His glory now- before it ever feels glorious.”
For 31 days, Katie is writing about Restoring our Soul. She calls herself a tightly wound woman and she’s trying to unravel that, which is why her blog title reads, “Finding Grace in the Unraveling.” As another tightly wound woman, and one who can visualize unraveling a string of yarn, Katie’s blog is one of my new favorites.
Finally I want to share with you a lady named Sarah Koontz. Sarah’s blog is titled, “Embrace the story God has Inscribed on Your Heart.” For October she has chosen to share quotes with awe-inspiring pictures to go with them. They are beautiful. But my favorite post that I want to share wasn’t actually part of the 31 day challenge. It’s called It’s Time to Stop Apologizing for Being You.
She put to words what I do a lot…apologize for things that are, well, just ME! She greatly encouraged me with the words, “It is so easy for me to see the beauty in others, but I struggle to find it within myself. Maybe you can relate? When I look inward, all I see are the things I don’t like. But recently, I found myself wondering…What if all of the things I dislike about myself are actually gifts from God to be used for His glory?”
Can you see how all this is feeding and watering my faith seed? God is working and speaking through you wonderful people! Thank you so much for pouring your heart and soul out and then pushing publish for all the world to read. It has meant a lot to me!
And Sarah, if you read this, here’s a picture of my little guy I think you’ll appreciate:
Have you missed a post? I hope you’ll catch up! Simply click HERE.
Julie Steck 