Maximizing Moments

Dear Blog & Blog Readers,

Oh how I have missed thee.  I have been on a serious Summer hiatus and am happy to be getting back into a regular regimen.  While I was gone, the Lord has been speaking to me.  Yet, it all wraps up into one thing; moments.  Recently, my kids went away for the summer with my parents who live in Oklahoma.

Yes, in the South you wake up, eat breakfast and jump in the pool (with jammies on of course)! 

Yep, I'm an "okie" girl and proud of it!  Since they have been gone, the house has been silent during the day and it provides great opportunity for me to think, dream and thank God for His many blessings.  Yet in my thinking time God has been speaking to me that I have been missing and not maximizing moments.  I have been so focused on accomplishing goals, being faithful to things the Lord has asked of me and ensuring that no one kills the other person with anything.  Being so focused on the to-do's and goals has damaged an "attitude of  gratitude" that the Lord has asked me to have and turned it into an "I got this" attitude.

The spontaneity of Summer rendezvous lunch dates: fun, love, purity in convos. 

Here is what I have recognized, missing moments is not on God's agenda for my life.  When I  am so locked in to having morning quiet time w/ God,  keeping a clean house, organized schedules, activities for kids, making menus for the week and creating other checklists, it's more about me "checking the list" than it is about God getting all the glory through what I am doing.  I sat and thought, "What are some of my happiest and thankful moments?"  It was the impromptu's of the summer: meeting a friend and kids at a park, turning on sprinklers, asking my kids what they want for dinner,  reading classics to my kids out loud, laying a blanket in the front yard and "being" with them, sitting in an adinorack chair talking to my teenager, a 48 pack of push pops running out every 3 days, picnics at the park, or flying kites in the middle of a parking lot with my husband and racing each other. These are the places where God is glorified most!  It's the organic, naked, unexpected moments where God is!  Where laughter is at an all time high.  Think about it... How many times this week have you just, laughed?  When was the last time you have just had the opportunity to "be"?

Now don't get me wrong, there is a place for order and getting things done.  However, when getting things done collides with making memories with your spouse, children, and friends , it's time to reevaluate.  I am not the most organized person and even I am missing moments and not maximizing them. Maximizing moments means meeting and seeing God glory fulfilled in the little things of life, that we so often take for granted.  These little things are the things within our hearts that God is really trying to make known to us, whether good or bad.

So, here's the challenge.  For the next 7 days, embrace the impromptus and maximize moments!  Yep, let's do it(in my cheerleader voice)!  Embrace the moment and if you are organized or just remember, comment below on some of the moments you have maximized. God's desire is that we be people who see every moment orchestrated and blessed by Him alone.  How else does He get the glory out of our lives!

xoxo

Restless

Recently, my family and I celebrated our husband, father and friend graduating from law school.  K.O. worked full-time and attended law school part-time for 4 1/2 years.  Well, here we are now at the end of it all, a finished goal and I don't wanna move forward.  You heard me correctly, I am fearful of moving forward.  Let me explain.

Over these past for 4 1/2 years, God has done so many wonderful and miraculous things in my soul and in my life.  Here are few to date:

• the Lord called me into full-time home ministry right before my hubby received his acceptance letter.
• the Lord has given me a heart for my home through this season.
• the Lord changed my attitude, responses and behavior towards my children.
• the Lord did miracles in my families life.
• the Lord allowed me to support my husband in the way God designed and desired it to be.
• the Lord drew me and my teenage son closer to one another.
• the Lord allowed me to forge deep, authentic and genuine relationships with women in my church and neighborhood.
• the Lord allowed me to become more faithful in areas I threw by the wayside. 
• the Lord allowed me to be engaged in both my kids schools wholeheartedly.
• the Lord allowed me to see other women embrace biblical womanhood.
• the Lord allowed me to have women come into my home weekly and eat and fellowship at the table.
• the Lord allowed me to study His Word so much!  Wow!
• the Lord allowed me to witness marriages restored and share the gospel in places I never thought I would have even shared.
• the Lord allowed me to pray, be still, and pray some more with other women weekly.
• the Lord allowed me to share the gospel and lead my son through the plan of salvation.  

Just writing this down brings tears of joy to my soul.  So, this is why I have been restless ya'll.  God did so much in this season as my girlfriend said "season of surviving", that I don't want to leave and walk into my land of promise. I felt like I didn't wanna leave "it" because I see what the Lord has done & I can't see what's in the land of promise. Ugh! Just talking about this is freeing for me right now!

So here's the deal, when I sat with the Lord and the Word and prayed with a couple of homies I pray with weekly, this is where the Lord led me. He led me right to Deuteronomy 29:1-15.  God did ALL this so that He could establish & keep me and my family as His people and so He could be our God.  Thank you LAWD!

All this was for me to know who He is for and who I am for, Him and His. Name. Alone.  So, I don't have to go into the place He has given us with fears  of will He be good, just like He was good in "survival mode"?  No, I can walk into the next season knowing not only is He good and for my good, but my heart is for Him and what He provides will be for His glory alone!  That's good ya'll!  I don't wanna take His glory!  I have struggled for years with pride and acceptance and every other baggage that comes with all this.  But, because I know I am  His and He is mine and it's all for His glory, Whew! (Shoutin' in my house right now!)

What about you? Are you in a season or space in life where you are doubting & questioning..."Does God really have good for me?"  Are you in a space where your heart feels like surviving is better than the land of promise?

Ponder: Read Deuteronomy 29:1-15.

Pause:  Answer the following question(s) above.

Petition:  Tell Him. Listen. Do.

xoxo