God – Page 14

3 Prayers for Every Mom to Pray

October 9, 2014 by Ann Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I had the gift of getting to speak to a MOPS group several suburbs away. The time we shared together was refreshing and fun, and I was able to speak to the group about growing spiritually in a season with little ones. I think that, as moms, we often feel tired—and that makes us feel like growing spiritually is a luxury that we can’t afford between nap times, play-dates, and crazy schedules. My heart was to offer these fellow moms some practical tools for how to stay connected to God even in this wild season of mothering with small kids. And as I’m reflecting on our time together, my heart is turning toward how we, as women, might be able to pray for ourselves and for one another. Not all of us are moms, but all moms need prayer—and lots of it! If you would, take a moment to pray these prayers for the moms that you interact with at work, at church, at the gym. We all need God’s guidance and help as we navigate these waters of learning how to love and live as moms.

Pray that the moms you know would connect meaningfully with Jesus and that they would know their worth in Christ. Getting much-needed quiet time with God can be increasingly difficult in a season where the “quiet” in “quiet time” is MIA for months—or years. Pray that the moms around you would have the space to meet with Jesus consistently and that their personal worth would only stem from who God says they are—not who culture tells them they should be.

Pray that the moms you know would have Godly wisdom to know how to parent their particular children. Mothering isn’t a generic role to fill—each child has their own needs, quirks, and desires. We need God’s wisdom to know how to love our children and lead them as He does.

Pray that the moms you know would have supernatural energy to do all that they need to do in order to mother with love and grace. Kids usually have a lot more energy than their parents—ha! Oftentimes, our fuses are short because we are t-i-r-e-d. Pray that God would refresh and renew the moms that you know.

How might our parenting change if we, as women, prayed these simple prayers for one another consistently? I’d love to join you in praying for the moms in our lives–ourselves included!

Filed Under: God, Motherhood, Parenting Tagged With: children, Christ, Christian, Christian parenting, Christianity, God, Godly wisdom, grace, Jesus, kids, mom, moms, mothering, parenting, prayers, praying for mom, praying for moms, quiet time for moms

Small Home Hospitality: A Guest Post at (in)courage!

October 7, 2014 by Ann 8 Comments

Today, I’m writing for (in)courage about being hospitable in a small home–our small home!

Here is the start of the article. I would love for you to join me at (in)courage!

We have a small home — a split-level condo with two bedrooms and a galley kitchen that never seems to have enough counter space. I know that in most places in the world, our home size would be considered normal, or perhaps even large. But here in affluent suburbia where we live, our square footage is, comparatively, on the compact end of things.

Any time we have more than a handful of people over — such as this last weekend for my daughter’s first birthday party — we run out of seating quickly. Often, guests start spilling onto the stairs, sitting on steps when the couches and chairs are full.

My tendency, in the past, was to worry about the lack of space, to try and fix things by giving up my seat or finding another stool. Because when I saw people sitting on the stairs, my hospitality button got pushed: I didn’t feel like I could provide what my guests needed. I never want anyone to feel uncomfortable in my home — physically or socially — and I was concerned that our small home would make people feel cramped and unwelcome.

Read the rest of the article here!

Filed Under: God, Guest Post, Life, Writing Tagged With: Christian marriage, Christianity, faith, friendship, God, God's faithfulness, guest post, hospitality, incourage, Jesus, kindness, small home, Writing

Changing the World Through Coffee

September 29, 2014 by Ann 1 Comment

If you know me, you know that I am a committed coffee drinker. And if you know me, you also know that I deeply care about ending sex trafficking in our generation and helping women heal from the horrors of the pain that they have had to live through.

I had the distinct privilege of interviewing the co-founder of Sweet Aroma Coffee, a subscription-based coffee service that uses a large percentage of their profits to help rehabilitate women who are coming out of the sex industry. I love the vision behind this company, and I love that something as simple as purchasing coffee can actually change lives.

Click here to read the full interview over at Darling Magazine. And then click over to Sweet Aroma Coffee to sign up for a coffee subscription that’s truly doing good in the world!

Filed Under: God, Guest Post, Writing Tagged With: Christianity, coffee, coffee drinker, Darling Magazine, drinking coffee, ending sex trafficking, faith, freedom, Jesus, purchase with a purpose, Sweet Aroma Coffee

Receiving Grace: Friendship that Points to Jesus

September 17, 2014 by Ann 2 Comments

Things have been a little quieter around here, in large part because I’m back to teaching. But they’re also quieter because I’ve intentionally pulled back a bit. I’ve realized, over the last month, that my heart simply needs more time away from the screen, and even from the words that I love so much. More time to rest, more time to think, more time to journal, more time to pray. I need more time with my husband, I need more time with my little girl, I need more time with the women who hold up my arms as a new mom and are in these beautiful and difficult trenches with me.

I have been feeling soul-tired lately, and when that happens its time to get back to the basics: Jesus, family, friends, sleep. As a chronic over-achiever, I would like to think that I can push through anything, but that’s not the case.

And, so, I am slowing in the ways that I can. And I am opening up these soul-tired places in me to my friends. I am sharing my life with them so that they can speak truth, offer encouragement, and point me to Jesus. These are the things we have been doing for each other for years; lately, though, I find I am more on the receiving end than usual. And that’s ok. We all have seasons where we need others to offer their strength to us. I’m grateful.

My real-life friends are central in this journey I am living. But next week, I am also thankful that I get to go and make some new friends–and turn online friends into real-life friends. I’m headed to the Influence Conference, which focuses on keeping Jesus at the center of our online lives–something so beautiful and so necessary.

For those women who I will meet there, we are sharing a link-up. So here’s a bit about me: I’m a wife, mom, pastor’s wife, and college instructor. I was in school for most of my life as a student, and now I’m still in school–but on the other side of the classroom. I teach creative writing and creative nonfiction courses to college students, and I love it. I also write for multiple publications and love speaking to groups of women. My husband is my best friend and February will mark 10 years of dating (we’ve been married for 8+ of those years). I hope we have a good 60+ years left together! Our daughter, Ella, was born on our seventh anniversary and she is a delight!

I’m very much looking forward to the Strategy classes, and you’ll rarely find me without a cardigan (I get cold easily…and I’m a teacher. Ha!).

I’d love to meet you online as we prepare for #influenceconf, and I’m so looking forward to giving you a hug in person next week! Here’s to making much of Jesus!

Filed Under: About, God, Teaching Tagged With: anniversary, Christianity, faith, Influence Conference, Influence Network, marriage, mom, motherhood, my soul is tired, soul tired, Writer, Writing

He is Our Brave

September 10, 2014 by Ann 6 Comments

I do not think of myself as a naturally brave person. I’ve never been bungee jumping or sky diving—and I have zero desire to do so. I like knowing what’s coming at me, and I prefer having a life that’s fairly scheduled. I’m not a big fan of change. I’ve never done anything particularly heroic or courageous that anyone else would have noticed.

But in this past week, I have been drawn to this song, entitled “You Make Me Brave.” Here are some of the lyrics:

As Your love,
in wave after wave 
Crashes over me,
crashes over me 
For You are for us 
You are not against us 
Champion of Heaven 
You made a way for all to enter in

I have heard You call my name
 I have heard the song of love that You sing 
So I will let You draw me out beyond the shore 
Into Your grace 
Into Your grace

You make me brave 
You make me brave 
You call me out beyond the shore into the waves 
You make me brave 
You make me brave 
No fear can hinder now the love that made a way

Those words remind me of the words of the One who called Joshua to be “strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9), the words of the One who says that His “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18) and the One whose words tell me that I am like the matriarch Sarah, if I “do good and do not fear anything that is frightening” (1 Peter 3:6). So much of Scripture is filled with the call to let go of fear and to grasp onto the love of God—the only unfailing love that fills us with courage even as He calls us into new and challenging things.

And as I’ve been thinking about bravery, I feel like God has gently shown me that I have been brave during this last year. Not in ways that anyone else would notice—I have not run into any burning houses or jumped from any helicopters. But I have realized that these last fifteen months of my life—becoming a mama—have required me to be braver than I ever thought I could be. I’ve written before, but the transition into motherhood wasn’t easy for me. I had no idea how it would change everything in my life all at once–and remember, change isn’t easy for me. But, the love of God upheld me. And mothering Ella is simultaneously the most wonderful and the most crazy thing I’ve ever done.

Every day I realize, afresh, that no one else can be her mother. And that requires great bravery from me—to keep saying yes.

Every day, even when I feel like I have very little in my own tank, I say yes to Jesus. And He—He is the one who makes me brave. He is the one who enables me to say yes again to the responsibility and yes to the joy and yes to the exhaustion and yes to the love and yes to the consistency and yes to the laughter and yes to the constant reality is life as a mom. It is costing much of me to be a present, loving mother. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But some days, it is a brave choice for me to show up and love and serve and giggle and clothe and bathe and feed again, one day at a time.

So, to my fellow mamas: you might not be saving the world today, but you are brave. You are raising and loving and serving a little life—or several little lives—and Jesus knows the bravery that requires. He knows the cost. What may not look like much to the outside world—making meals, wiping bottoms, changing clothes, cleaning up Cheerios—looks like bravery from Heaven’s perspective. You are brave for showing up again today, for not pulling your heart out of this beautiful and costly work of mothering. You can be strong and courageous, and you can let His love cast out your fear—because Christ is with you and in you.

He is our brave.

Filed Under: About, Baby, God, Life, Parenting, Uncategorized Tagged With: baby, be you bravely, bethel music, brave, Christianity, faith, Jesus, keep your heart alive, mom, motherhood, newborn, saying yes, you make me brave

It’s OK to Want to Be Famous: An Article at RELEVANT Magazine

September 4, 2014 by Ann 2 Comments

Do you ever feel the desire to be famous? I do. Honestly, I think it’s a desire that is inside all of us at some point or another–and I think it’s a desire that comes from God.

How we use that ache for fame, though–that’s a different story.

Wrestling with this idea is what my newest piece is about over at RELEVANT Magazine. I’d love for you to read it and share your thoughts!