Year-End Sentiments

“I’m not making any plans for 2021 - I want to see what I’m agreeing to first!”

Have you noticed there isn’t much goal-setting and resolution-making going on right now? What a strange year this has been! Many of us are looking at 2021 a little hesitant, not sure of what awaits us. Either that or we are frantically rushing forward to leave 2020 behind!

“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:27-31

Each time we have moved to a new place, there have been little brown sparrows. I’ve learned to look for them; sitting on the wire at one apartment, resting in the trees at another house, and now they perch all along our fence. They show up on their own, happily chirping without a care in the world. They are a constant reminder to me of how the Lord has cared for me and my family, regardless of what goes on around us!

I believe 2020 has been a good year, because the Lord ordained it. He saw fit to bring each day and its dealings. It has been a hard year, no doubt about that. But He has exposed darkness, He has shone light in even the corner shadows where evil has lurked unnoticed. He has shuffled our lives so that we - if we are paying attention - can see yet again how life is not in our control. He has been re-prioritizing many things for many people. Has it come without pain? Some of it, but not all of it. Yet He knows what He’s doing and He has cared for us.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope you leave 2020 energized. Going forward, we have such opportunity to share the hope of the Gospel to a dying world! We are not able to go on in life just coasting along; we either believe in the Lord or we don’t. We will either stand for His truth or we won’t. It’s hard, but it’s simple.

These are good days, friends. These are days we get to show our children how to live for Christ. These are days we get to be even more purposeful in teaching them and training them in the way God lays out for us. Now is the time to be intentional with our marriages, to put our minds to work in our households, to know that what we are doing as wives and mothers is a holy calling.

This next year is unknown, just like any other year. It will likely be hard and refining. But praise God for the refinement, that we would know Him more and be better able to bring Him glory!

Keep your chin up, dear friends, as we go into this new year. We are not without hope! Be refreshed, knowing that the Lord has already numbered your days and He will not leave you for any one of them. He is always present; a very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1) and always near you in pleasant times too.

Run the race the Lord has called you to. Spend your days immersed in His Word and in prayer, looking for ways to serve and bless others. We have good works ahead of us for His glory, let’s walk in them. A life spent wholly for the Lord is certainly not a life wasted!

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10

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“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12-14

Happy New Year!

- Amy

Friday Magnify - 3

“Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.”
Psalm 34:3

This week, as with every week, there are countless things to be thankful for! We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with family and a friend, and it was wonderful. I’m thankful for the time spent together, the yummy food, the laughter and joy throughout the house. Gifts from our Lord!

I also am thankful for this book, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot. Elisabeth Elliot and Amy Carmichael are two of my heroines; they both were steadfast in their faith and the Lord used their lives to touch many. This book is serving as a great encouragement and inspiration to me in this season - I highly recommend it!

God is so good to us. He sends rain on the just and the unjust… blessed be the name of the Lord!

Have a great weekend, friends. :)

Ever Want to Be a Missionary? Here's Our Chance

Have you ever wanted to be a missionary?

I have. I thought I’d be a missionary elsewhere - specifically Belize, where I got the coins above - and I had a picture of what it would look like. The things I would spend my days doing, the boldness I would naturally have to tell everyone about Jesus (because becoming a missionary automatically means you’re bold, right? ;))

Maybe you’ve thought the same thing, or maybe you are a missionary right now in a place outside your birth country. I’m writing this as an American to fellow Americans, but hopefully those of you in other countries will benefit as well.

We are living in a time that’s unfamiliar. It’s nerve-wracking, uncomfortable, strange, and sometimes plain ol’ scary. We’ve gone from normal to not-normal pretty quick, and if you haven’t come to grips with this yet I’ll be the one to tell you: it isn’t going back to normal. Because God is always Lord, not going back to normal will be okay. But it has been and will be quite an adjustment.

Look around, what do you see?

Fear? Panic? Lust for evil? Addiction? Injustice? Hatred, betrayal, anxiety?

This year, the great 2020, people have been pushed to limits and stretched out far. When we are pressed, what’s deep inside is that which comes out. If people don’t have Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit is not what comes out!

As we wonder what things will look like in our country, and as we see what is unfolding, I want to encourage you.

The balm for all of this is not our government. The government has a role, but it is not savior. Jesus Christ is Savior, and the balm that we all need.

So while we fight for good politics and leaders, we also need to realize that people desperately need Jesus. We are missionaries - here, right now.

I believe we will have more opportunities to share our hope than we’ve had before. It is very evident now who is truly at peace and who is not. What’s the reason for your peace? How can you have hope and purpose as the world is falling apart?

We have a Savior who strengthens us through even the hardest challenges. We can feel the panic and shed the tears, but we can continue on knowing that we are safe in Christ. We can do our daily duties knowing that they are worthwhile to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things — that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed (Titus 2:1-5).

This exhortation doesn’t change with the times! Are you an older woman? Hopefully you know how this section applies to your life, and if I may say - we younger women need you to follow this! We desperately need Godly women in our lives, and we need you to take your role seriously. Reach out, invite us over, offer to stop by with coffee and chat. Many of us want to learn and have Godly examples. Encourage us with your testimonies of God’s faithfulness in your life!

Are you a younger woman, like me? Let’s not push the older women away or roll our eyes at their suggestions and stories. Let’s invite them in where appropriate, and learn to appreciate their wisdom and God-given role in our lives. Along with this, we are given the rest of that passage; love our husbands and children, be self-controlled and pure (ESV), homemakers, kind and submissive to our husbands. This is where our faithfulness and duty to the Lord starts: with our families. With the world around us fraying at the seams, it is ever more clearly important that we serve wholeheartedly in our homes. Our days of prepping meals, teaching math, doing laundry, and listening to our husband’s challenges are not in vain, they are faithful service. They truly are beautiful deeds if done for the Lord.

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward (Matthew 10:42).

How many drinks do you hand out during the day?! We know God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7) and one who gives freely without expecting anything in return. When you pass out drinks and plates of food, do it cheerfully and with thanksgiving! The Lord has given you opportunities today to serve on His behalf.

Beyond the walls of our own homes, we have friends and family and neighbors who desperately need the goodness of the Lord. They need to know that all of us have fallen short of God’s standards, and we need a Savior. We need a Savior to rescue us from our bondage to sin - and those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord know that He is the most wonderful, gracious, complete Savior!

Here is our chance, friends. Talk with your neighbors and get to know them. Let the neighborhood kids come play in your yard, and pass out cups of water to them too. Bake goodies with your kids and deliver them to elderly men and women, or to families who haven’t left their houses in weeks. We don’t all have to be on the same page politically to be able to serve and show Christ’s love. Let others see the freedom you have in Christ, and that they can have it too.

Invite people over for meals with no strings attached. Help with someone’s yard work, and do it joyfully. Call relatives you haven’t seen for a while, just to chat.

Yes, it’s work. But we are called to reach out on behalf of Christ, and it is good work! It is sanctifying work, work that makes us more like Jesus and blesses others at the same time. It is living out the Gospel, and it is rough and messy and absolutely beautiful. Don’t be afraid to spend your life for the sake of the Gospel. In fact, do it!

In this trying time, may we cling more to the Word of God and be people who do what it says. Now is the time for us to be missionaries, right where we are and with increased fervor.

I am praying for you, reader, as we go at this together!

Standing for Our Children

This is a Facebook post I recently wrote, and I wanted to share it here as well. We are facing things in our beloved USA that we have never faced, and amidst it all - our children are being overlooked.

***

From the beginning of this whole thing...what shall we call it? It started with a virus and now who knows what's going on, it'll just be remembered as the infamous "2020".

From the beginning, I have been burdened for our children. Not just my kids, I mean kids across our nation. Bear with me, and please, put aside politics for a minute. I am desperate that you hear this.

We took them out of schools. We closed everything. No playgrounds, no libraries, no nothing. Away from consistency, friends, social life, space to play and learn and release energy.

Many families have actually thrived with this - God has used so much for good.

Yet there's another side. A side where I do trust He is still working, but a side that absolutely sickens me.

For many kids, home is not safe. Home is terrifying. Home is where they are abused, neglected, exposed. They are not protected.

And in the last 6+ months, as we've seen adult suicide and depression rates skyrocket, the number of cases being reported to DHS has dropped. I know this because I asked. Do you see what that means?
People are not reporting abuse (of course, if you're an abuser stuck at home with children...you're not reporting it and neither is anyone else). Children are not. being. protected.

And more recently, the exposure of human trafficking. We all knew it existed, but most of us didn't realize the extent of it. I am grateful it has been exposed, praise God for shedding light on what has been hidden in darkness. It is pure evil.

So what is our response?

To continue putting masks on our children's faces? Again - put aside the politics, please. If you look at a group of children in masks, they all look similar. Do you realize pedophiles are using this to their great advantage?? Do you know that traffickers are out and about - with children - and nobody even knows because we can't see each other's faces?

And defunding the police - are people thinking of the implications this has for *children*? Police are their defense! The police show up to calls for domestic abuse, they are the ones who wait with hurting children while a home is found for them to go to. They do the hard work to protect kids in our own neighborhoods.

Friends, will we keep failing our children?

Or will we think beyond ourselves, and think of the generations that come after us? Will we look out for those who can't look out for themselves?

It starts in our own homes, protecting our own children. Don't you feel bad for protecting your children. Don't be cow toed into things you know are not in your children's best interest. Fight for your kids.

And as we look out - if we see something, say something. Get trained to know the signs of abuse. (Operation Underground Railroad has fantastic resources for this.)

I'm still searching. I feel so helpless with it all, knowing there are children being preyed on and not knowing what on earth to do. But these couple things and a lot of prayer - I know those are places to start. Please, join me.

"When the cares of my heart are many,
Your consolations cheer my soul."
Psalm 94:19

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?"
Micah 6:8