We Belong to the Day

New life is born in struggle, on your knees, tearing at your soul. Agony in the depths breeds the deepest joys and ultimate thankfulness.

In Timothy it says, “We belong to the day.” We belong to the light. We are children of light. But we die a death to live and live to have that death again. The dark refines and sheds away the dead things. In a gut-wrenching pull toward the light we burst from the soil. We rush ourselves to open the bud and tear the delicate process and God doesn’t always mend but calls it good and clean and whole. A ripped mess of God’s holy glory refined for new life. In a barren field we cling to the promises of God to restore and to fill our harvest with what He’s promised. The hope that His promises are not forgotten and are coming soon brings humility and release.

In the overflow of God’s bleeding heart are our own bloody hearts whole and yet torn and bleeding. Refined but broken. The overflow of His heart drowns us and we gasp for new life amidst the outpouring. We think we may die, and we really won’t live until that death occurs.

Amidst the drowning we are being rescued. The rescue isn’t in our comfortable living without pain but it is in the sharp inhale of bloody drowning overflow where God cleans us out of ourselves and fills us with holy breath and heaven shaking life. We are then alive in divinely holy and clean disturbed beauty. In the dark, the death sheds off and new life explodes in a painful and lovely surrender to the day that draws us out of ourselves so that we can fully live.

And we can only fully surrender to the joys of life by embracing the depth of God’s rescue amidst the deep unfulfilled longing and wounded healing soul. In trusting that life comes from death comes from life. Dark sheds death and life is new again.

Passion that laughs at the terrors of hell will overflow you with a beautiful death so that you can live the fullest life of resurrection and freedom. Praise God!

The Paradox Series: 3: Hosanna is the Battle Cry

Hosanna – “Save us!

 

If you are listening and train your ear, you will hear God whispering. Others will call out life in you and you will write it down and look back time and time again. Sometimes God will say something crazy sounding that is meant for later. Sometimes that will eventually or right now change your entire life.

 

Once, years ago, on a porch in Africa, God did that to me. In fact, He said a lot of things then that didn’t make sense until now. Now it means more than my thankful heart can hold without bursting. One of those things was that I would be a mother and a wife. I would raise up a warrior family. At the time it seemed pretty obvious, my plans had been to do that all along. So, duh God, is what I was thinking in the most eloquent tone of course. It’s been on my heart lately though because I’ve recently been reminded of the promise. No, Nana, I’m still not married, but I am holding my hands open to receive it… you know, whenever.

 

Now my literal family, the one that is tangible now, is precious. I laugh recently at the string of serious texts from my mom (non-texter) that ended in “true that”. It’s been a somewhat unconventional upbringing filled with Italian hand gestures and unnecessarily loud family gatherings. We’ve got some prayer warriors and some good examples of fight. But I want more, I want new life.

 

So, warrior kids, eh? Warrior family? Warriors who are fighting now for the promise later. What in the world?

 

It sits in my mind, sometimes stirring to dance around or get the thoughts processed.

 

How do I fight for things while relinquishing control to God? How do I hold to promises while keeping hands open to receive and not grasp?

 

The word Hosannah means “Save us!” It’s a cry of surrender. It’s a pain-laden cry of desperation for new life. Save us. We sang a song about it on Monday a few weeks ago. Then it hit me. The words rolled through me like a waterfall, “Hosannah is your battle cry.”

 

Surrender is my battle cry? “Save us” can really only get me so far, right? So far, I’m working on proclaiming truth over my husband and family, proclaiming love and truth, and getting close to God so I can be that warrior with God leading.

But “save us” is hardly the cry of a warrior, right?

 

But, the truth actually is that the core of the heart of a warrior is a heart of full surrender and vulnerability to the transformation He has for those who love. So hosanna is the act of letting go, opening the hands, receiving and not grasping.

 

In this place of warrior hearts, surrender brings forth victory. Sweet (holy family of God) victory.

 

By the way, my husband is intensely awesome, and my kids are perfect and wild adventurers of heart and heavenly earth. I can see it even now. True that.

The Paradox Series: 2: The Least of These

We’ve done it, haven’t we. We’ve sat in church, a silent bloody wreck inside. We’ve preached deliverance as something we would actually have the guts to reach for. We’ve claimed God provides but we’ve clutched our wallets and pinched every cent. We’ve spoken about good news but live as if it’s a fairy tale.

We’ve also gone out (if we can step past the church walls far enough) to serve “the least of these”.

 

The least. Who exactly are the “least”? We’ve seen it portrayed as many things, right? Are they the women in Africa wildly singing and dancing their hearts out with growling bellies and swollen feet? Are they the women fighting for their lives in brothels? Are they the single dad crying himself to sleep at night because of the fear and anxiety and pressure? Are they the pastor of a church who claims to love Jesus but can’t stop preaching damnation long enough to accept the depth of God’s love and grace? Is it me? Is it you?

Yea, I think so. Maybe.

 

 

A year ago, I was in a college group with over 50 women and we had a married couple come speak. After awhile we all split up guys and girls and the woman said, “Ask me literally anything you want.” Knowing the boy-crazy girls that I love so dearly I was waiting for a slew of relationship questions. To my biggest surprise, the question that was repeated in various forms over and over from the lips of at least a dozen girls was about loneliness. Almost everyone there, in a room of over 50 girls, felt desperately lonely. How ironic. How wild. We all sat in a room of multiple women feeling singularly lonely. Were we the least then?

 

Maybe when God says “love your neighbor” it doesn’t mean falling all over yourself to fulfill duties and laws. Maybe it doesn’t look like a check list of duties.

Feed the hungry, check.

Donate a coat, check.

Lead worship in a church, check.

 

Maybe it looks like hugging someone. Holding a baby. Changing the way you speak about a people group. Changing the negative habits that hinder you from giving and receiving love. Bringing water to the tent community in town and sitting down for a chat, weekly. Going to a strip club with the sole purpose of showing the women that they are loved no matter what choices they make and we will never call them the names they’ve been called in the past.* Maybe it’s about getting to know people more deeply and living life on the same level.

 

Maybe all of us are “the least” and maybe because we all are the least, maybe none of us are. Maybe because we are all the least, we are actually all the greatest. What a beautiful paradox.

 

In love, God pursues us all to full renewal and life. He is reckless and relentless in His pursuit and no one is safe from His wild rushing wind and heartbeat.

 

Romans 8:37-39 “Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us. For I am persuaded beyond doubt that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

 

*If you ever want to go into a club with the idea that you are serving the least of these, DO NOT GO. But feel free to talk to me before you do decide to go and we can have a heartfelt discussion about how much God LOVES over coffee. **

** Coffee means hanging out or Skyping.

The Paradox Series: 1: Using Your Voice

It is time. Let’s speak up for a hot second. I want to do a series on paradoxes. The first being this idea of “use your voice” I hear lately. What does it look like when using your voice, in fact, involves being silent?

 

It’s been quiet lately. Deathly quiet. Sometimes loud, but mostly hushed up. With a lot of people telling me to use my voice lately it seems like such a paradox to keep quiet. I know all too well the ability to cut down with words as I’ve been victim and seeming victor in that. But some divine wisdom has hushed me often lately. At times it can be like God shutting the mouths of lions.

 

The wise hold their tongue. They react with calm.

 

Photo by Kendra Wiklund

 

 

Upon first recognition it seems that using your voice actually is about being loud, proclaiming things, speaking up. Yea, it’s that too. Yes, we can use our voice fighting for change, for justice, for hope, for creativity. All of that is a true and worthy use of your voice reverberating in echoes of the heart memory. In fact, we need a lot more proclamations and MOVEMENT. But more on moving forward while standing still another time.

 

So, what of the silent echo? What of the times you held your tongue for the good? What of the power in a look? That wide-eyed look of hope and longing, yea, you know the one. What if that were filled with words of worry and chatter? Lord knows (for real), that I’ve been there and don’t want any more of myself droning on and on in useless voice tones. It’s good to exercise your voice out loud and its good to know when to hold.

 

So often we think of using our voice as merely speaking, or a one-way means of communication. But actually, it looks like a lot of things, I think. I believe it can look like singing about how much you want joy and love. I think it looks like a lingering moment of catching the eye and dialoging unspoken understanding. I think it involves movement and standing still. I think it involves calling out the best in others. I also think it is the guttural groans of our pain. I think it looks different than we perceive.

 

I can shout about injustice to crowds of people, but I can also walk into a strip club and just bring waters for the girls and sit to chat about life. I can drown my heart in conversation of the meticulous speculations of lost love or I can embrace the sorrows of loss in being held by a friend who knows. I can have a vision of a movement that goes unseen or I can put pen to paper.

 

This using of the voice, it is not black and white. Its silent forms reverberate and shake and shatter as well. Don’t stop using your voice for good. Do it for the good of others, for the good of your heart. Shake things up with your loud and your quiet. You have something to say and are worthy of saying it.

Songs 8:6-7

Hang my locket around your neck,
wear my ring on your finger.
Love is invincible facing danger and death.
 Passion laughs at the terrors of hell.
The fire of love stops at nothing—
it sweeps everything before it.
Flood waters can’t drown love,
torrents of rain can’t put it out.
Love can’t be bought, love can’t be sold—
it’s not to be found in the marketplace.

 

Love can’t be bought.

 

Love can’t be sold.

 

It’s not to be found in the marketplace.

 

 

Other versions of this (NLT, NIV) say this, “Love is as strong as death.” What do we know of death? It is coming and we cannot stop it. It is painful for some and easy for others. Some are ready and some are not. It is relentless. It is often merciful amidst pain and suffering. What do we know of death and of love?

 

“Love flashes like fire, the brightest flame.”

 

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm.” Place me over your heart for healing and on your arm as a badge of honor.

 

God what are you stirring in this place?

The “Single” Dirty Word

A History: Nana’s 10-Year Prayer

It doesn’t matter how old you are. Once you turn 18 in this family you should have a husband in mind, or at least a few prospects. Seeing as I am nearing 28 and Paul Rudd is already married, I tend to shrug my shoulders a bit when I’m asked about marriage. That’s not entirely true, I have plenty of opinions about the state of marriage in society today and the role the church plays in that (for another time or platform perhaps), but as far as my story goes, I’ve been busy, okay. I’ve been busy learning, making mistakes, taking adventures, learning what to carry and what to release. I have enjoyed every last bit of it and where it’s taking me now. I’m certainly not worried, and yea, I’m offended when people suggest that I should be. This is God’s story being woven in me, not my own, or I’d have chosen, without His help, a hard road years ago. But that’s just my personal side of this story, a story which we all have and tell differently.

 

Let me take a step back. When I say “family” perhaps I’m not being fair. By family I mean my grandma, “Nana”. Now, at this point, I am to the point of hearing from God about my future husband and family and praying over them, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Nana’s prayers other than perhaps being more personal given what God’s speaking. If it were up to her dear heart I would have been hitched a long time ago and it’s no secret that it is a topic of high concern for her. She tells me every time we speak that she prays every day for me to find a Godly husband. Every day for ten years, she’s prayed over my future marriage. I genuinely tell her that I love her for it and my future husband and I are grateful for her prayers. I’m sure he’s grateful, after all. I mean we are pretty much covered, right? I’m praying, Nana’s praying, he’s probably praying. I can’t imagine anything being prayed over more, to be honest. She’s a warrior for my future and present. I try to direct her prayers to the anti-trafficking movement, or African babies, but she persists, and I am honestly humbled by her devotion to the end to my singleness. She probably prays for that other stuff too, or maybe leaves it to me since it looks to her like the former issue is not quite as pressing to me.

 

 

A Free-Joyful-Heart

What has God promised that He’s intended for your life? Think about it, what does GOD promise? Freedom, joy, life abundantly… and what I want when I feel I am ready to have it. Wait… that can’t be right. He’s calling us to adventure, and I frankly don’t know what I want or need, to an extent.

 

Let’s sidestep Nana for a second, which, by the way, would be hard to do if you were following her as she drives her electric scooter. Marriage is a tricky subject for a lot of people. It took me forever to think of what to write about it because of that. Whether you are married or not, it brings up ideas and emotions. Rights and wrongs. Fears and insecurities. Joys and sorrows. We are absolutely relational beings to our very core.

 

So, if God is crafting His goodness and life in us, why can it be such a dirty word to announce our “single” status? Even now, ideas others have planted in our hearts try to spring up at the mention of it. There is a temptation there to believe the lies that have been spoken in generations of lonely hearts. It is loneliness that leaves us empty and tempts us to fill the empty with broken things and lies.

 

The temptation in singleness is to be led to think we are broken and need fixing, and that one other person (THE one) will fix it. We are setting one another up for failure.

 

“MY grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

GOD’s grace. It is grace that is sufficient. That sufficient means: Equal to the end proposed; adequate to wants; enough; ample; competent; as, provision sufficient for a family.

 

I almost hesitate to bring any scripture into this because so many verses have been twisted to represent what we want them to. Thus, we ignore the facets of God’s glory that should be at our very core of understanding anything relational. The only verses I could then bring to the forefront are ones of God’s goodness, mercy, and grace, and those speaking over our identity in Christ. Those are the beginning of our understanding of self and then branch into understanding of others in our relationship.

 

So often I see women and men consumed to the point of despair over their singleness. Being in despair is like letting a thief come in and take away what God is showing you in this time! This is YOUR time alone with God. What will you make of it?

 

 

The Story is Yours

Everyone’s story is different. For me, it all boils down to the fact that God wants me to experience utmost joy, life, and freedom through His love. So, in coming to finally accept that, then His promises are made known to me for the future.

 

So, I propose (no pun intended) that we change the way we talk about singleness and marriage. I don’t want to be “fixed up” per say, and I don’t desire to “live happily ever after” because I want to weather storms together, too. So, I would prefer to follow in God’s footsteps and see where His love leads me, because He can and has saved me when I was seemingly beyond repair.

 

I want my husband to see God in me and vice versa, knowing for a fact that we’ll never fix each other, but loving without condition and providing comfort in the depths that may come. Because what greater love story is there than the one of rescue God’s already given both of us? So, why not love in the midst of that?

Isaiah 43:1 “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name, you are mine.”

 

So, see through the eyes of your Father and follow in His love. Don’t strive or toil, you are clothed in righteousness and you will be restored.

Isaiah 61:10 “I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.”

 

We are the bride of Christ. Therefore, what we anticipate with longing is being placed on that which it was not intended. Once it is placed rightly, we can truly embrace the roles God has for us each in each others’ lives. Not a role of rescue and completion, but of communion with Christ.

An Adventurous Life – Trusting Off the Edge

Adventure

To take risk; to venture upon.

 

What does it mean to live a life of adventure? Some definitions talk about danger, and hazardous experiences. But what does that look like when you are tirelessly working to maintain your family life, and a steady job, and church life here? Is adventure only an option if you are taking off to do something different? Or can you do something different and radical just where you are? Does it involve living differently? I believe so, but how does that look right where you are? Because your community needs change, too, right?

 

I used to think that being adventurous was to go out into the world, into unknown places far away and bring light. But if I carry light, do I not shine everywhere I go? Do you?

 

A question asked of me recently was, “What makes your heart beat?” I see those things and that heart beat growing into adventurously stepping out into any thing God calls me to. For me, running to another country is easier than being here. However, that’s not what God’s speaking right now. What happens when that’s not the adventure God’s called you into?

 

How do you recognize adventure right where you are?

 

Adventurous Trust

Right now, I am two weeks into my internship with a missions organization. I’ve been overseas with them before, and God has called me back. More specifically He’s called me back to an adventure that is all mine; I am standing here alone with God in it. So, the adventure starts with trust. I talked before about jumping off a cliff into unknown. Every so often I land on another ledge and choose, do I jump again? Do I take that one step further, again?

 

Trust is a funny thing. With trust come doubts, and then fears can creep in. Will I be sustained? Are you still my provider? Can I rest into you, God? So, what does that look like for you personally? What’s your adventure of trusting leading you towards? Is God big enough to not only be confident for you through your doubting and fears, but to anticipate your reactions before you even feel them?

 

So, this God who sustains us and who provides time and time again, He’s calling you out. Maybe not to foreign lands, maybe where you are. What does adventure look like then? It looks unexpected, so you probably didn’t anticipate it looking the way it does or the way it may shift. But those times are when you see God most clearly. Even if it seems foggy, it’s unfiltered grace God offers in the process.

 

What’s after trust though? Well, that story is still unwritten.

 

Adventurous Growth – Ministry Update

I don’t claim to know what is going to happen in the time I am here but I’d love to share what my position involves at the offices and in the community thus far. I am in the office setting up trips for youth groups and mobilizing the next generation onto the mission field for the summer. It’s a humbling thought that I can be used to bring life around the world by sitting at a desk and providing churches access to trips to light their youth’s hearts on fire in realization of the world beyond themselves. It’s my greatest desire here that these youth groups will be overwhelmed with experiencing God in new ways and make their faith their own.

 

Another aspect of the internship is that I will be able to be discipled and have a season of learning and growth to take into the coming seasons, whatever they may hold.

 

I still need people to join my journey, I still have $6000 to raise to be fully funded in this time. If you would like to make a one time or monthly donation to the mobilization of the next generation onto the mission field, I would love if you would help me reach that goal. Support me here!

“Hiding Among the Baggage”

“Just take a few steps in the light I’ve shown you and then trust me to light the rest as you go…what I have for you is better than you can imagine so pay close attention because you don’t want to miss this!”

 

Those are all words that have been spoken over me by my God as I enter this season. It is a season of change, growth, pursuit, and apparently of doubt and questioning. I truly believe that doubt and questioning are from and of God and that in the midst of that we come to truth. It’s just not that safe place you wish you could sit in for growth and throughout change. It’s not the comfort of being cradled and carried always, though He is the Comforter. He leads us into seasons of change to continue our growth, which isn’t easy.

 

There’s a Bob Dylan song that says, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” That quote just hit my radar yesterday and got me thinking. If you’ve been there though, you know that being born is just as fraught with peril in the temptation to be overcome by wild life, which is scary as I think it should be. Kind of like the rip current I’ve mentioned before.

 

Change can suck, for lack of a better sentiment.

 

I’ve been reflecting on this passage in 1 Samuel 10, about God’s people not wanting to rely on just God as their King anymore. They wanted something like the other nations had, and so God gave them Saul. The thing about him though was that he was pretty innocuous, from a small tribe and easy to overlook under normal circumstances.

 

Once it had all been whittled down, they ended up finding him “hiding among the baggage” (1 Sam. 10:22).

 

This always sticks with me, because we do that a lot, I think. Don’t you? God is calling us to something great, into our inheritance through Him, and I, for one, can end up balled up hiding among my junk thinking, “It’s cool, I got this.” As if I am doing some divine, ‘resting’ but I am really just being ridiculous.

Do we not even hide from the GOOD things, too, sometimes?

 

So, how can we embrace change and the big story God is calling us into? Because you know the story is bigger and better than you can imagine, right? And you are totally worthy of all this hullabaloo of searching through all the tribes and all the people and then all the baggage you just snuck into to ‘rest’ and be with God while you are also running from His bigness. God is pursuing you. What keeps you hiding?

It’s wild. It’s all wild. It’s like we consider the wilderness to be dry and full of anguish but it’s light and it’s hard but refreshing because God promises that, too, in our deserts.

 

Do not be afraid for I have ransomed you [bought you with a price]. I have called you by name; you are mine. (Isa. 43:1)

That passage goes on to say that the rivers will not drown you and the fire will not burn you up. But you have to first know that he has called you so you can get out of the baggage and be free with your Papa, right?

 

You have been bought with a hefty price and that is the love of your life. Get out of the baggage and embrace it!

Joining the Journey

* SUPPORT ME – LINK!

** Swaziland Blogs

*** IRELAND

Follow this season:

Twitter

So, THIS is Christmas?

It used to be that Christmas was all flashy and a production of sorts. My dad was crazy about Christmas and fought to make the house really sparkle. Even in hard  financial times I remember reading through the JCPenney catalog, circling what I wanted (rock polisher for my budding archaeologist career) and getting some of the things (crazy purple cat footie pajamas).

 

This year wasn’t exactly a year for THAT glitzy Christmas glamour. Though my sweatpants may be a step away from.

 

\\ A Little Christmas Background

To say I have a crazy family would be an understatement. If you are one of those people who needs extra clarification as to what brand of crazy or why I would say such things on “the most wonderful day of the year” I have one word for you, Italian. I don’t know why that’s an excuse, but it totally is. You have to be one to fully know. TRUST ME. Mafia is the least scary part, and I’m not fully convinced my grandpa isn’t part of it anyway.

Now, to say I love that crazy family would be redundant because I just spent Christmas with them and gosh darn, I meant every second I spent giving hugs and catching up.

 

\\ More Nuggets of Golden Factoids

Seven years ago my mom remarried. Three years ago my younger sister got married to her childhood sweetheart. These facts add to the crazy because they are… southern boys. I love them, too. It’s just that we’re from New Jersey originally and so my family is like Jersey Italian: arms flailing, shout talking, put-on-a-full-pot-of-coffee-any-time-of-day, eat garlic raw (“It’s good for your heart!” …ew), Italian. My stepdad is Irish and if you are what you eat then he’s going to transform into a potato any second now. My bro-in-law is just as loud and boisterous as the Italians but he also goes hunting and has a camo case for his cell phone.

 

All that said, here are five highlights from Crazy Family Christmas 2011:

1. \\ Machete – My bro-in-law got a Bear Grylls knife and flint rock set… aaaaand a machete. Said bro-in-law used said machete to CHOP DOWN A TREE in their backyard. The real highlight was when he didn’t know that I already knew and he proudly said, “Come here, I want to show you something in the backyard!” Barefoot in the dark I gingerly trudged toward the sound of him rustling the fallen branches, “Don’t worry cuz, follow me and you won’t step in anything.”

 

2. \\ Christmas boycott 2011 – A certain someone I know opted out of Christmas this year. They wouldn’t even look at their presents or eat Christmas food. I have to hand it to them, the sheer will power it takes to put that much energy into not celebrating the most joyful time of year is enough to get a chuckle from me. This would be more than I can bare, because other than love and God and laughter and stuff, Christmas as a holiday has two of my all-time favorite things: free food and opening things.

 

3. \\ Grandma ran over… a grapevine, a kitchen island, a… - We all sat and shared lots of good-hearted stories from my grandma, some being about her driving. We shared classics like when she once hit the gas instead of the brakes and drove all the way into her backyard and into their grapevines. No grapes were harmed. Nana? Oh, she’s great, she does this a lot. I also had the opportunity to sit and soak up stories about her past. She’s an adventurously strong woman of faith.

 

4. \\ Peanut Butter Pie – Our family tradition is apparently to make 4 times more food than necessary for the number of people attending. My grandma sent every single person home with an entire peanut butter pie. I almost left without one when those traitorous word slipped from my mouth, “Mmm, it looks delicious.” I carried my personal P.B.P. to the car soon afterward.

 

5. \\ Solitude – Yes, yes, holidays are about joy and love and others and sharing. Yes, I know. This Christmas was just… solitude-y. I made that word up. Whatever. I just found a lot of moments. It was like I was soaking up my last Christmas as it is now. Like, things will change next year somehow and I anticipate it greatly. Not that things aren’t right and good now, but things are developing and growing and I anticipate it and long after it in a sense. I thought a lot about this during those quiet moments. What is Christmas? Is THIS all Christmas? So, God came to earth as Jesus. I mean, he came to redeem and save us.

 

He came to us.

 

That’s what hit me as I walked through the neighborhood on the street my entire extended family shares. I noticed the invisible bike tracks from where I rode my bike as a kid down those streets. I remembered running and laughing. Hideaways along the path where I felt sad, scared, or lonely. I saw rocks along the edge that I wondered at them even having been around long enough to have heard our laughter as we rode bikes frantically or jumped over sprinklers and hid from SuperSoakers in the summertime.

 

The road was empty and silent. I thought, “Unto US a child is born. Unto US a child is given.” To us. Our gift is not in fancy productions or everyone getting along and celebrating together. It is in together but it’s also alone. Get a little lonely and grow. Be in solitude and just BE because your gift isn’t the really killer boots your mom gave you or the wicked scarf your sis picked out, even though it is fun to give and receive and celebrate.

 

Our gift is in redemption, heavy burdens lifted, sins cleansed, us clean, for US, to US, no caveats or take-backs. My sister will borrow my scarf, perhaps, but God won’t take this back.

 

Cherish the moments alone with God, as you walk, drive, ride, roll in the grass or snow, whatever. Cherish it, it’s everything.

Merry Christmas! From my crazies to yours.