Becky > Recent Status Updates

They (Mary and Elizabeth) could accept and adjust to the changes that came into their lives because they were centered on God not self.

“Ironically it wasn’t Astrid’s gift for solving riddles that helped her wish come true, but her courage and honesty.”

“It is good to be on the mph train; body and soul get well there, and life becomes happy again.”

“But the dear Lord had already thought it all out so much better than I knew…”

You realize that Christ didn’t die for you because you had good qualities that were worth saving. He died for you because you had bad qualities that left you without a prayer. When you understand this, you can use your grace-based environment to extend a graciousness toward your children when they struggle with sin in their lives.

Small acts, done in love, matter every bit as much as the ones that make the newspapers and history books.

A lovely read aloud for Lily (9yo) and I to share together 💕🌼🌹

“God does not reveal the intimate things of his heart to those who casually come and go”

There’s an intimacy with God that can be experienced only after seeking him for hour after hour, and we’re missing out if we’re not willing to spend that kind of time with Him

“These have been really hard days. But I know God more, I love God more, and I am enjoying closer communion with avid than I ever have. I guess if God is the goal, then these are great days” -D. Platt

In the end the reason we want gifts more than the Giver is that we have too high a view of gifts and too low a view of God.

If we’re not careful, we can receive and enjoy these good gifts in such a way that we begin to love them more than we love the God who gave them to us.

Obsession is fundamental to being a follower of Christ (Luke 14:26)

To be a follower of Jesus is to live with zeal for all nations to know Jesus. The spread of the gospel among all nations is not a program for a chosen few. It’s actually the purpose for which we all have breath and the end toward which all of history is headed.

…Brito spoke up again. ‘When you share these stories about Jesus, I feel like I have a dirty heart. Is there a way my heart can be made clean?’ ‘That’s the good news about Jesus,’ I said ‘The reason he came was to give us a totally new heart.’

My favorite verse is quite possibly James 5:17, which reads ‘Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, had he prayed fervently.’ Don’t keep yourself from praying desperately and courageously for the Spirit to work in your life simply bc you are not the prophet Elijah. As this verse says, Elijah was a human being with a nature like ours. He was just like us. The key thing about him? He prayed fervently.

But what does effect change is when we begin to ask God to make this fruit manifest in our lives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and when we spend time in communion with our God

But despite our inability to change ourselves in this way, to simply become more peaceful or joyful, we expect to do a great deal of effort trying. We focus on what God wants us to do and forget the kind of people He wants us to be.

When we exhibit the peace that surpasses the worlds understanding, that’s when the world notices. That’s when people say, ‘Your Lord-He is God’”.

Contemporary calls to make America great have resounded among Christians and illustrate how easily the church is distracted from our mandate to make Jesus great among all the peoples of the earth.

My hope is that instead of searching for “Gods will for my life”, each of us would learn to seek hard after “the Spirits leading in my life today”. May we learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the Spirits leading….

I think a lot of need to forget about Gods will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Holy Spirits leading today, in this moment than about what we intend to so next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in todays decisions.

“But meeting people from around the world and sharing close community with them in our church has changed me. I’ve learned so much about God, myself, the church, and the world around me.”

We do not apologize for our creaturely needs and dependence on others, for we discover this is how Hod made us, and it is good.

He (the serpent) implies that divinely given limits are a fault to be overcome rather than a beneficial gift to be honored.

“Our sins darken our feelings of his gracious heart, but his heart cannot be diminished for his own people due to their sins any more than the suns existence can be threatened due to the passing of a few wispy clouds or even an extended thunderstorm.”

How do you balance the impossible tension of loving a child like they are your own when they are not? You keep a string hold on your thoughts, a close leash on your worries. You keep your mind sealed up tight. But you don’t ever close your heart, you keep that wide open.

As I’ve rocked and comforted my foster babies I’ve often thought ‘you may not remember me, but your brain and body will remember this. And it will make all the difference’”
Attachment teaches a child ‘the world makes sense, my needs will be met, people are trustworthy.’”

Attachment is the whole point of foster care, after all. Kids don’t just need homes and food and caretakers. They need families, families who are willing to give them their hearts, life them as their own, and get “too attached”.