From Frazzled to Fun

2020...BEST YEAR EVER...period.

This past year goes down as my most ironic calendar ever. 

Every day in the midst of "one more" unprecedented and unexpected change, I kept seeing...

BEST YEAR EVER. Haha.

On New Year's Eve my family and I lingered around the table and I was blown away as we recounted how many great things actually DID happen in our lives in the midst of all of 2020's twists and turns.

I am grateful the first week of January 2020 I felt the Lord whisper to my heart Redeem the time on your knees. 

As I sought to honor that directive and carved out more time than usual to pray and be in the Word, I saw Him multiply my time in unexpected ways and was reminded of Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

If I had known in January all the challenges that the next 12 months would hold, it would have been too heavy a burden to bear.

But day by day the Lord met me as I bent my knee to Him and sought...

I pray a blessed Thanksgiving for you and your family this year.

I would guess your kids aren't being taught the strong Christian origins of not only Thanksgiving, but the founding of America itself?

I know I never heard it in school, and much of it I only learned this year after doing some digging.

Hear my short teaching on what I discovered.

A few things included in that teaching:

• The first landing of America in 1607 included a group that erected a 7-foot oak cross and prayed (after they had spent 3 days ashore on the ship in repentance and prayer to embark as "right" with the Lord)
• At that first landing, Rev. Robert Hunt consecrated the continent to the glory of God. In covenantal language he declared, “…from these very shores the Gospel shall go forth to not only this New World, but the entire world.”
• Thirteen years later in 1620, the Pilgrims came to America in pursuit of holiness and the building of an ideal Christian Commonwealth
• First Thanksgiving - Three-day feast in
...

If stress, anxiety and overwhelm seem to be getting the best of you these days, you are not alone. It seems every day there is news to deal with emotionally, and it's a lot.

Yesterday I was discouraged...

It's so hard to see so many in our nation suffering, 

I have a child who is struggling with online school at home,

People are divided on so many issues,

We are experiencing the hottest summer in Phoenix's history,

and I'm concerned our freedoms and Republic could slip away.

A dear friend reminded me of this precious, tender hymn last night and it soothed my soul. Now I want to share it with you.

I encourage you to click on the link below to hear it, but come back to these lyrics, breathe, and take every word in.

Like a River Glorious, by Frances R. Havergal, 1876

1. Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
   Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
   Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
   Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
   • Refrain:
     Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts
   ...