LIFE IN BLOOM

Learning How to Flourish in God's Grace

Tag Archives: Family


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Commit to the Lord…

I love the refreshing feeling of something new.  I believe that part of the reason that I enjoyed school both as a student and a teacher is because there’s always the opportunity to start anew.  Whether it’s at the end of the quarter, the semester, or the year; or even the next day, there are plenty of opportunities for a fresh start.  Purchasing new notebooks and planners gives me the same feeling- as if there’s a total blank slate laid out before me, and I have the ability and power to fill it with things that I desire.  Walking into something new, though challenging, always brings me fresh energy and excitement.

I feel the same way about 2013.  I recall being at the beginning of 2012 (or the end of 2011) and knowing that I was on the brink of major life changes.  And they happened.  I got married, started a new job, moved to a new (but still familiar) place.  And while change makes me nervous, the only way I know to handle it is summed up in the quote below:

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” – Proverbs 16:3

The best way for me to manage all of the things that I’m hopeful for and expecting in 2013, is to commit it all to the Lord.  All of the desires of my heart, my hopes and expectations- I must commit it to Him, and He will establish my plans.  This means that He will not only help it come to pass, but He will give me the knowledge and wisdom so that I may see those things through in excellence.

It’s hard to operate in faith like this, but it DOES get easier with practice.  Faith is like a muscle, it gets stronger the more you exercise it.  And for me, I KNOW that this plan works, because it’s worked for me before.  Let me show you how God works.

This past semester was my LAST semester of classes.  After completing these two classes, it would be all dissertation for me.  So, I went ahead and signed up for those two classes.  And I wasn’t really thinking about that whole wedding that I was having in the middle of the semester.  Nor was I thinking about the extent of my church commitments.  I was just ready to be done, and I figured that plowing through would be the best plan.  Preacherman and I talked about it, and we believed it could be done; with the right amount of discipline.  But it wasn’t enough for me to just finish- I wanted to finish well.  I wanted my final semester of classes to be all A’s, and earn that 4.0 that I knew I was capable of attaining.  After much work, many hours of reading, class chats, and discussion posts, I’m happy to say that I, with God’s help, did indeed earn that 4.0.  What I committed to him earlier, was established.

I’m not sure what you are believing God for in 2013, but I encourage you to commit it to the Lord, so that He can establish it.  Preacherman and I will begin this year as we have begun previous years, in consecration with our church; turning down our plates, and committing this year to God.  It will be a time of prayer, and listening for God’s voice so that we can be instructed on how to move so that He can establish our plans.  Please keep us and our family in your prayers as we seek to hear God’s voice so that we can serve Him as He directs us.

Cheers to 2013- Your best year yet!


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Life Matters.

I read a few blogs each day.  It helps to satisfy my hunger for reading, despite the lack of time that I have to actually read books other than the Bible and what I’m reading for my classes.  I find it to be a nice stress reliever; and for some blogs that I have been reading for years, I almost feel like I know the author.

I guess I kinda do know the authors.  After years of reading about their successes, their struggles, their faith, their loves, their losses, their joy, their pain…I kinda do know them.  And even though I only “know” them through what they write, that doesn’t change the fact that I feel connected to them; that their words and their thoughts have moved me to pray, to change, to seek, to love, to grow.

So, my heart has been heavy over the past week or so because two of the bloggers that I read regularly have both lost their sisters.  They aren’t related, but the stories of their losses are very similar.  And because I feel like I “know” them, my heart aches for them.

As I’ve read their blogs through this difficult time, what resonates to me is that life matters.  All of it matters.  All the time. And it matters that much more because we don’t know how much time we have left.

So much of life is spent focused on things that don’t matter: pleasing people we don’t really care about, acquiring things that we will only leave behind, worried about things that are really of very little significance.  I’m so guilty of it.  I’ve wasted so much of my life focused on the wrong things that don’t really matter.  My life matters.  How I spend my time matters.  Choosing to value people over things matters.  Looking for the opportunity to always do right by others matters.  Seeking each opportunity to make a memory instead of an excuse matters.  Taking every chance possible to leave each person, place, and thing that I encounter better than I found it matters.  Loving people beyond their faults matters.  Forgiveness matters.  Investing in my family matters.  Leaving a legacy of faith and love matters.  Life matters.

While I am praying for my dear blog friends, I am also praying that God “teach us to number our days” so that we can fully understand and execute wisdom in life through acting in grace, humility, love and faith.

Life matters.  Live wisely.  Love freely.

Be encouraged!