What will you do with gift of this day??

THINK

“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” C. S. Lewis The Weight of Glory

PRAY

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. 

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. 

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen. 

--Lenten Prayer fo St. Ephrem

ACT

We have so few silences in our days! Even times that are quiet, we fill with  clicking and scrolling, the images and the words rushing into our brains and cramming spaces to overflowing. And in our clicking and our scrolling, we fall prey to an inner dialogue that is often replete with comparing and competing.

There we sit, thumbs flicking over images, as we judge and we give way to idle talk. The day clicks by. 

It's a day! A gift of a whole day that is given freely by the Creator to fill with good things for his glory. And there we are. Heads bowed. Shoulders hunched. In a posture of slothful,  mindless waste.

Today is a good day to fast, to become more aware of the time pulled away from the good and worthy and given over to habits that suck the life out of us. 

For moms at home, after you complete any essential morning tasks at the computer for the first time today, turn it off. Do not return to the computer today unless/until it is essential for the running of your household or the care of your children. Use your smartphone only for phone calls. If you are obligated to use technology to work during the day today, clearly delineate when work time ends. Put it all away.  Give the people in front of you focused attention. Fill alone time and silences with heart-to-heart conversations with Jesus. Let Him do most of the talking.

~*~*~*~

If #morningrun blesses you, please share the image so that others can find us here?

Motherhood can feel like the loneliest vocation in the world. Surrounded by children, who frequently bring us to our knees, both literally and figuratively, we can be overwhelmed by isolation. Mothers need community. We can be community for one another. We can encourage on another and hold each other accountable. If you like these short devotions, please share the image and send another woman here. And when you're here, please take a moment to pray with another mother who is visiting. Leave a comment and when you do, pray for the woman whose comment is just above yours. Just a moment--blessed--will begin to build community.

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun.

if you love them, they will come

THINK

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24

PRAY

Dear God, What is it you want me to do today? What about tomorrow? What's the long-term plan? Please show me. Don't let me look left or right. Don't let me compare the communities of others to my own loneliness.. Instead, equip me so that my life is a testimony to your grace, the grace poured out for me especially. 

ACT

Have you ever been in search of community and felt shut out? You look at well-established groups or organizations and feel like you just don't fit? You can't find that place where you were intended to belong? I think it's a common feeling. We all want to belong. What is community? I think that for Christians, community is all about companions on a journey to help us travel in step with God. Community is the people we serve and the people who serve alongside us. It's easy to fall into the trap of envying another woman's community. The life of someone else might look fuller, richer, holier, and more engaged in lively, purposeful friendships. It looks like there is more value. It looks like she is more valued by the people who surround her.

But.

What if?

What if, instead of searching for the perfect community in which to do God's work--and the perfect people to support us-- we look instead to settle into the particular course and ministry we received from the Lord? What if we discern what it is we were made to do and asked Jesus to help us see clearly where and with whom He'd have us do it? Can you bring Jesus into daily round of your life, whether in an office or in a school or waiting at the pediatrician, or standing on a sideline, or lying with a child while she drifts off to sleep? Just love the next person, whoever that person is?

You can.

You can take every step in faith that if you follow your unique course, He will be there and He will provide community. Or, He will step into the loneliness. You can fill with His grace and you can testify to grace by making your mission simple: Love God. Love people. And do the next thing with Him.

I'm stepping out in faith today and trusting that if I just do love, community will come.

~*~*~*~

If #morningrun blesses you, please share the image so that others can find us here?

Motherhood can feel like the loneliest vocation in the world. Surrounded by children, who frequently bring us to our knees, both literally and figuratively, we can be overwhelmed by isolation. Mothers need community. We can be community for one another. We can encourage on another and hold each other accountable. If you like these short devotions, please share the image and send another woman here. And when you're here, please take a moment to pray with another mother who is visiting. Leave a comment and when you do, pray for the woman whose comment is just above yours. Just a moment--blessed--will begin to build community.

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun.

We Need Community

THINK

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

PRAY

Dear Jesus, Speak into my loneliness. It's not good for me to be alone. Give me the grace to seek and find community. Give me the words to connect with people who love me. Give me the courage to love well. God, please put into my life people who will bring me closer to You. Help me to recognize the gift that they are and show me how to return that gift a hundredfold. 

ACT

If you are not lonely, pray the prayer above for someone who is. No matter what, reach out today. Speak into someone else's loneliness. Give someone the words. Make the first move. Break the silence. Be the friend you want to have. 

~*~*~*~

If #morningrun blesses you, please share the image so that others can find us here?

Motherhood can feel like the loneliest vocation in the world. Surrounded by children, who frequently bring us to our knees, both literally and figuratively, we can be overwhelmed by isolation. Mothers need community. We can be community for one another. We can encourage on another and hold each other accountable. If you like these short devotions, please share the image and send another woman here. And when you're here, please take a moment to pray with another mother who is visiting. Leave a comment and when you do, pray for the woman whose comment is just above yours. Just a moment--blessed--will begin to build community.

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun.

Disappointment and Better Plans

THINK

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

PRAY

It seemed like such a good plan, God. I had all the details worked out and You were in it. At least I thought you were. My plan was certainly to have you play a big part. But it's falling apart. It looked like such a good, good thing. But it's not going to come to fruition. At least not the way I envisioned it. You have a better plan. I know you do. I want to walk joyfully in your will. Remind me that your plan is better. Please remind me.

ACT

Sometimes it's a little thing, a tidy "to-do" list gone awry by the pressing needs of a child. Sometimes it's a bigger thing: a canceled trip, a broken heart, or an abrupt detour on a career trajectory. We carefully craft our plans--often in elaborate detail in our imaginations--and then, it all falls apart. Stand still in the rubble of those once beautiful plans, big or small. See God in the shattered pieces. He has something so much better for you. Better than all the imagining you've done. But first you have to relinquish your plan, the one you've been holding so tightly. Let it go. Let it shatter. Leave your hands empty so that He can fill them with something He's got especially for you.

Have you ever been so sad when your plans have been upended? Bitterly disappointed? Hurt?  I recently shared some of those times here. Tell me about your plans and tell me how God had a better plan. I know someone who could use the encouragement of your stories.

Wherever You Go

Industrial Park behind the NOVA Field House, Chantilly, 2/24/15, 6:05PM

Poland Road, South Riding, 2/23/15, 5:40 PM

THINK

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

PRAY

Dear God, Let me notice you in the sunrise and in the sunset. Remind me that you are with me wherever I go.

ACT

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with the dawn and with the dusk. Last year, when I started getting outside before the sun came up, I also quickly learned the glory in a sunrise. Day after day, the colors of the sky promised me that God is vast and rather amazing. Watching the way He opened the day made me so sure that He could handle everything that was coming far better than I could. In every sunrise, there was surrender. 

Then came the sunsets. I am captivated by the sky. Truly. This winter has been too cold most mornings for sunrise walks outside. The sidewalks aren't predictably cleared and it's not all that safe to walk or run in streets narrowed by banks of snow. I've observed a fair share of sunrises from the warmth of my house. And I've been more than a little disappointed not to be out in it. 

Sunsets are a different story. I've pursued them this week. Even though I've been driving hither and yon, I've been soaking in sunsets. (Have I told you about the soccer team that never cancels practice due to weather? Yes, I'm familiar with ever indoor facility within a twenty mile radius.) The last two days, I've literally pulled over, gotten out of the car, and stood there to inhale the sky. Yesterday, Nick was with me. He didn't bat an eye at the strange behavior of his mother and I am extremely grateful for that. 

I have noticed people noticing me noticing the sun. Sometimes, when I've stopped to take a picture, they honk. Whatever. Those people probably need to slow down in their own lives. Mostly, though, people will pass me and see that I'm looking at canvas across the sky and they will pause, too. And they will look, too. They'll most likely smile with a shared recognition of having witnessed something remarkable. The evening will be more peaceful for the looking.

Seriously, if God can do that in the heavens, what else can He do? Pretty much anything, right? And the thing about the sunset? When I get back in the car and drive to whichever soccer venue is my duty that day, the sun is setting all along the way. One view after another, one more glorious than the next. He's there. Wherever I go. By the time, the sun finally sinks over the Blue Ridge, I see how silly all the anxieties I've carried all day are in light of His vast majesty. The God of that sky? He's the Lord of my life. 

With the sunrise, let's put all the cares of the day into His strong hands. Let us be neither frightened nor dismayed. With the sunset, let's count our blessings and see all the ways He was faithful.

Nations Street South Riding 2/24/15 5:42 PM