Category Archives: Run and Be Still

Poems, Prayers, and Promises

July 22, 2015 RunAndBeStill 3 Comments

Last Friday night found me driving with a car of sleeping kids, caravaning north for a short weekend away. It has been longer than I can remember since I have been putting midnight highway miles behind me. As Friday melted into Saturday I was taking a trip down memory lane. Without anyone to protest my choice of music I had chosen John Denver in a moment of nostalgia. The very music my dad would listen to as we headed away on summer adventures. The very music I would have been squawking about having to listen to from the backseat once upon a time. But it just seemed right and I could still sing every word and with those words and midnight miles, and I am sure sleep deprived delirium, there was a storm of crashing emotions.

The days they pass so quickly now
Nights are seldom long…
The changes somehow frighten me
Still I have to smile…
For though my life’s been good to me
There’s still so much to do
So many things my mind has never known*

This summer is flying by in a blur of sports and laundry, camps and mowing, and stolen weekends away like the one we were headed on. And the changes? They are numerous, but the most recent is that we have a new driver in our house. Parents who have been through this, why didn’t you warn those of us journeying behind you that the view from the passenger seat with a teenager driving is such a terrifying thing?!

This very weekend we were traveling with our kids friends in tow, leaving my husband and I staring at each other, saying, “Now what?” It’s just us, left in the dust on the sidewalk, as the kids walk on ahead, laughing and tumbling all over each other. We headed to the lake without the mountain of sand toys and shady pop-up beach tents. (They still made fun of me for all the bags I had packed although no one was complaining when they were eating the food!) We haven’t had a vacation like this ever and it’s beautiful and heart-wrenching at the same time.

We are also quickly hurtling towards a school year where elementary school is in the rear view mirror and we have begun discussions of what to do after high school. The “what I want to be when I grow up” talk. ARGH! But now it’s for real, not dreamy astronaut wishes and I think this talk may be one of the worst.

But there is still so much to do. There is so much I want to be sure they know and bury in their hearts. We are working so hard to pass on the legacy of faith and family that was gifted to us. And that’s why, as I listen to John Denver, I just pray that what we’re teaching is sticking. That although they may not always appear to be listening or watching or liking it, I pray that they are getting it.

I just want to gather my kids and all of their friends and keep them here for just a little bit longer. I want to press pause on summer and spend more late nights laughing with them. I want more afternoons on the lake without schedules to stick to. I want more evenings of grabbing ice cream and walking behind them on the sidewalk. I have read the articles about raising kids and letting them go and they make me cry. I have read the lists of things you should do and shouldn’t do, the debates on the best practices for discipline and they are all valid, all important. I am not an expert (or even close as I confessed in “My kids are doing a really good job of raising themselves.”) and I am not going to impart advice other than to say, just love them. Listen to them, share life with them and pray that in doing so one day they will look back knowing that it’s the little things that helped shape them into the people that they have become.

I continued to drive and ponder the words of John Denver, thinking about my parents and my grandparents, thankful for all that they gave and taught, for their influence and the gift of memories, in this place of the past and the future crashing around in my head…

And talk of poems and prayers and promises
And things that we believe in
How sweet it is to love someone
How right it is to care
How long it’s been since yesterday
What about tomorrow
What about our dreams
And all the memories we share…*

Here’s to enjoying what’s left of summer, dreaming of the future and taking some time to remember!

*Poems, Prayers, and Promises, John Denver

Run and Be Still

From my heart to yours….

February 13, 2015 RunAndBeStill Leave a comment

You know how sometimes, out of the clear blue, you get hit with life…memories…caught, unprepared and vulnerable. Yeah, me too. As I was sitting, watching a stupid tv show and crying my eyes out, I was reminded of how much a heart can hurt. I was reminded how hopeless days can seem. I was reminded of my story, and why I shared it in the first place. So, if reality has snuck up on you, and you find yourself with a broken and hurting heart, let me share a little love with you today. My prayer is that God would speak to you though my story and begin to heal your wounded heart.

I have a stack of e-book codes for my book, Run and Be Still, from WestBow Press that have been sitting on my desk for a year. Today, they are yours. So, if you, or someone you know and care about, needs a little bit of love this Valentine’s Day, email me or use the contact form, and as long as I have codes to give, they are yours.

My Valentine’s Day gift to you, no strings attached. I only ask that you read it…and let God do the rest.

Run and Be Still

So, What Have You Been Up To?

October 10, 2014 RunAndBeStill Leave a comment

I know it’s been a long time…too long. Let me bring you up to speed on what I have been mixed up in. Oh September, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1.) Birthdays – 7 of them that we celebrated to be precise. Including a slumber party for my now 12 year old daughter and 5 of her nearest and dearest where the conversation swung from ISIS, to music, to “Did you see what she did/wore/fill in the blank” and back again in the blink of an eye around the breakfast table. (Breakfast is one of my favorite times for conversation with my kids and their friends. Maybe it’s because they aren’t quite awake yet or aren’t in a hurry to go off and do “things” but I have found that if I feed them good food they will hang around and keep eating and keep talking and you can learn a lot! And they never fail to make me laugh!)

2.) Sporting events – which means practices, and feeding the team, and ticket taking, and ticket selling, and lots of cheering, and even more prayers blasted heavenward for protection. (Thankfully our only ER trip has been on a Sunday afternoon for an infected cut that looked pretty nasty and had gone from 0 to oozing and disgusting in the span of 36 hours.) Then there is a little job I got my husband and myself into this year called Visiting Locker Room Ambassadors. Trust me, not as fancy as the title sounds. In all of this I am considering buying an RV and living in the parking lot at the football field. It would make life much simpler.

3.) Travel – I spent the end of August and beginning of September getting ready for my trip to New York where I made some wonderful new friends and had the opportunity for some real “life” conversations. This was a mid-week trip which meant all the members of my household realized how much “behind-the scenes” work goes on that they were unaware of and yet even out-of-state I was the go-to middle man coordinating rides and pick-up times, and last minute changes of plans.

4.) Homework, Homecoming, and House Renovation – Back to school…back to homework. All I will say is that sometimes a new teacher’s expectations of their students aren’t quite realistic. We are struggling through the work load and learning great life lessons while we do it (says the mom confidently out loud even when she don’t always agree with it in her head.) Then there was the first homecoming and the flowers and new dress clothes (to coordinate with a specific dress color) and the honor of being the freshman attendant and the stress of which group to go with and the parties…which brings me to the house renovations.

I snapped this when the furniture guys went out to "get some tools." I am not sure what tools they thought they had that would have made this fit. — I snapped this when the furniture guys went out to “get some tools.” I am not sure what tools they thought they had that would have made this fit.

“Have a homecoming party” mom says. “We’ll reno the back room in the basement” mom says. “It’ll be great” mom says. So I watch a few hours of HGTV and suddenly I am an expert and have my husband and son removing load-bearing walls and installing header beams and we were all pulling crazy hours in the underworld of our home. (There were only a few tense moments and sleepless nights when my husband was convinced our house was caving in…the things he does for love!) The furniture delivery guys just got the couch “slightly” stuck in the doorway and had to develop a Plan B (Pivot! Pivot! for my fellow Friends fans) but the basement was finished (enough) in time and my house was full (and loud) and we loved it! (And I think the kids did too.)

The month of September was packed full of craziness, and great experiences, and as always lots of fun. But because of that I have all of these thoughts filling my head, bouncing around off of each other and I can only hope that as they begin to pour out I can make them make some logical sense. (I kind of feel like my head is a balloon that is filled too full and about to burst.)

Here is a taste of some of what is going on up there and headed to you in the coming days…

I am loving getting older (yes, crazy) but I am finally confident in me for the sake of me and not anyone else. CS Lewis said, “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be…It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.” Love that!

In New York I talked a lot about moments and I want to share some of that with you too. When you think about your life what are you really thinking about? What defines our lives? It’s the moments…the snapshots of memories that are framed like pictures in our minds. These are the building block of our triumphs and our tragedies. Some of my most treasured moments have occurred in the everyday. Moments also frame the pain that leave us breathless and forever changed. I have learned that God’s most gracious gifts are delivered to us exactly in these moments. Steve Maraboli said, “Sometimes it’s the same moments that take your breath away that breathe purpose and love back into your life.” YES! Who isn’t searching for purpose and love?!

And then, I am a fan of the big gesture. I have shared that before. Go big or go home. I have big dreams, big plans. God has been teaching me a lot about the small lately though and I am beginning to understand on a deeper level Ephesians 3:20 ^“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” “Infinitely more” to me means huge, big things happening here in the infinitely more place, but I am learning that God is a fan of the small. The small is what, through His mighty power, turns into something big, and chances are we don’t even have a clue. The words of Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold come to mind. “It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for…the masses.” Christ left the ninety-nine for the one. So I will challenge you as I find myself challenged to embrace the small.

So much to say…so little time to say it!

Run and Be Still

Rolling Out The Welcome Mat For You

October 9, 2014 RunAndBeStill Leave a comment

Welcome to my new “virtual” home! Come in…make yourself comfortable and take a look around. We are still working out some of the finer points but I couldn’t wait to share the new fresh look with you!

My favorite new feature is the slider bar on the home page. I can share favorite posts from the past, group series posts in one spot…lots of new possibilities and my head is bursting with thoughts that I want to share. Now that this project is (mostly) finished I can begin to shift gears mentally and sort through some of the things running through my head…

In the meantime, may you stand on grace, walk in faith, live in love and may grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Welcome…

Encouragement, Run and Be Still

A Not-So-Spooky Scary Story

October 31, 2013 RunAndBeStill 1 Comment

An appropriate excerpt from my book, Run and Be Still…

A few years later, one night close to Halloween, my 5 year old son and I decided to take a “spooky” four-wheeler ride though the “haunted” woods. He was snuggled up on my lap with just a flashlight to light the woods around us. Venturing deeper into the woods he became more and more frightened. The flashlight’s beam could only illuminate small slices of all that was around us, leaving much to the imagination. For him it was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time and as much as he wanted it to end, he also loved it. As I thought about that night ride I came to understand that the darkness that surrounds us, and terrified my son, is much like the larger journey that we are all on. Here on Earth we fear many enemies. Some imagined, and others real. We lock our doors and turn on alarms. My son hoped that something wouldn’t jump out of the darkness from beyond our path. Isn’t that the same fear that all of us have? Having to face those unexpected events that spring out of the darkness and catch us totally unprepared. Don’t we struggle with putting one foot in front of the other when we can’t see the path, when we are only able to see the “small slices” as we try to move forward? David Jeremiah said “The purpose of the places in which we lose our vision is to strengthen our faith.” This truly is what it means to walk by faith, and although we desperately long for God to shine a floodlight on the path so that we are able to see the entirety of His plan, if He did, what use would there be for faith? Faith would have no reason to exist, for faith is needed for what we can’t see and can’t touch. Faith is what we use to battle the creatures, those life altering events, that we fear are hiding just beyond our vision in the dark.

To read more you can order your copy at http://www.acministries.com and as an extra Halloween treat take a lucky 13% off through Sunday 11/3. Just use code TRICKORTREAT13

Run and Be Still

It’s a book trailer…

October 16, 2013 RunAndBeStill Leave a comment

Run and Be Still Books now available in soft cover and hardback!

Plus, through Wed 10/23 take an additional 10% off with code BOOKTRAILERWP1013!

Things have been busy lately (to put it mildly.) Tonight, I am excited to share my newest project with you, the book trailer, in addition to offering my WordPress readers a special discount. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Run and Be Still

Oh! Happy Day!

September 30, 2013 RunAndBeStill 2 Comments

AMEN! The day has arrived and I have a real book in my hand! What an unbelievable feeling of achievement but I am also humbled beyond belief at what God has accomplished already through this. It’s been an adventure and I have a feeling it is only the beginning. Books will begin shipping 10/7/13. To pre-order an author signed copy or learn more about the book visit our bookstore or the Run and Be Still book page.

I have had this quote marked for a long time because I loved it. Today, I leave you with it…

If someone writes a great story, people praise the author, not the pen. People don’t say, “Oh what an incredible pen…Where can I get a pen like this so I can write great stories?” Well, I am just a pen in the hands of The Lord. He is the author. All praise should go to Him.

Encouragement, Run and Be Still

Today’s not the day and tomorrow isn’t looking so good either.

September 23, 2013 RunAndBeStill Leave a comment

“When darkness overtakes the godly, light will come bursting in” (Psalm 112:4)
I know we have been down this path before but sometimes it feels like life just keeps circling around on itself, like you are stuck in a holding pattern. Today I found out that the hard copy proof of Run and Be Still, that I have been stalking has yet to be created, let alone shipped. To say that I was angry that someone dropped the ball three weeks ago and left it laying in the outfield was putting it mildly. (And that the only reason the mistake was even discovered was because I finally listened to the voice in my gut telling me to call and check on the project progress.) So ok, deep breath, running shoes, and headphones (because it’s really hard to be angry when you are spending time in worship) and things begin to become right in the world again. As I was jogging I realized, through God’s help, that there are forces at work beyond what I can see or even comprehend, really.

Satan’s lies are easiest to believe in our darkest days. I want to stand holding a candle in that darkness, lighting up the lies with the truth of God’s promise and the hope of brighter days ahead, from the shoes of someone who has walked that path. I know that in becoming a light in that darkness it robs Satan of some of his power. He isn’t going to allow that to happen easily. So, the book got “lost.” In realizing this it strengthens my resolve to fight. It encourages me to push to get my book into the hands of those hurting souls who God will begin to heal. And it once again opens my eyes to the very real battle that is waging constantly around us.

“It’s one thing to know that you’re going into a challenging season. You get prepared for it. You get mentally ready. But what about the difficulties that we don’t see coming? The unexpected crisis that catches us off-guard? Sometimes, it can seem so overwhelming that it almost knocks the wind right out of us.   The Scripture says that we shouldn’t be surprised by fiery trials. That’s because the forces of darkness would not be fighting against you if they didn’t know that God has something amazing in your future! Sometimes, those unexpected difficulties are just a sign that you’re on the right track. It’s always darkest just before the dawn appears. The enemy always fights the hardest when you are closest to your breakthrough. The key is to stay the course and keep fighting the good fight of faith. Keep your joy and keep declaring God’s Word over your future. God has promised that you will overcome every obstacle. You will defeat every enemy, and right now, I declare that you will fulfill your destiny in Jesus’ name!” (excerpt from spiritual inspiration)

Keep the faith and light up the darkness with the help of the Son!

Run and Be Still

Sneak Peek

September 2, 2013 RunAndBeStill 2 Comments

I am so excited to share this sneak peak ten years in the making! In May I was approached by WestBow Press, a Christian publishing company who was interested in publishing a manuscript that I had started ten years ago and only recently finished. As God has orchestrated and written my life’s story over the last decade, I have tried my best to capture the lessons I have learned in an effort to bring Him the glory. I cannot even begin to express the sense of wonder I have at seeing this project through to completion. Even bigger than the sense of wonderment though is the sense of God’s hand in this whole process. His BIG answers have absolutely humbled my heart. So without further ado, I present to you my first book, Run and Be Still. (It actually was named “Through the Valley” until I came to my senses mid-July and realized through a series of events that it needed to follow the blog’s title, Run and Be Still.) I really have no words…

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20 NLT)

AVAILABLE OCTOBER 2013