Can’t get away?

April 5, 2013 By 3 Comments

If you’re like me, sometimes you just need an escape. A time set apart especially for some time away. A chance to recharge. A retreat.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word retreat?

For me, a retreat includes time away. Either by myself or with others to recharge. When I think retreat, I think out of town. I think rest. I think relaxation. I think worship. I think quiet time. I think sleep. 

Stolen from my sister's trip to Florida

Stolen from my sister’s trip to Florida

If retreat means the act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy, then this means that I do not have to go out of town. It doesn’t even mean that I would have to leave my house. To retreat, simply means to withdraw.

When physical withdrawal isn’t an option, we can still withdraw within our selves. We can mentally withdraw. We can emotionally withdraw. We can spiritually withdraw. We can build this practice into our lives. We can do this consistently. Without breaking the bank. Without spending a dime. All it takes is discipline.

We can set out a specific time, day, and place to simply get away. To retreat into the arms of our God. To retreat into His Word. To retreat into surrender.

To retreat, is to follow in the footsteps of our Savior. Many times in Scripture we’re given the example of retreating to be alone. Sometimes he did so by himself. Sometimes he did so with a close group of friends.

  • …He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place… Matthew 14:13
  • In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. Mark 1:35
  • …”Come away by yourselves to a secluded place”… …went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. Mark 6:31-2
  • …Jesus left and went to a secluded place… Luke 4:42
  • …withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. John 6:15
  • And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray… Luke 22:41

So, what would it look like for you to retreat? Maybe you need a daily “retreat” to refresh and recharge. Maybe it’s weekly. Perhaps monthly. However often it is needed, I want to encourage you to just do it.

Even if it seems impossible. Try. Set apart an hour, a half hour, 15 minutes. Whatever you can. Say a quick prayer. Journal. Take a deep breath. Stare at His creation. Whatever it takes. Make the time to reconnect. Find a way to retreat.

Even if only momentarily.

Filed Under: Battles, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual Tagged With: , , 3 Comments

This Month on MustLoveGod

April 1, 2013 By 3 Comments

Spring is often reminiscent with new beginnings.  Spring cleaning.  Fresh starts.  New growth.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1

What season are you in?  This month at MustLoveGod, part of our focus is spring retreat and how that applies to our lives.

Are you due for some spring cleaning?  Do you have dust and cobwebs that need cleaned out?  Is He calling you to a place of rest?  Does He want you to rise up?  Is this a season in which you need to get stronger?

As we explore this topic and all other things related to spring this month, we invite you to join us both in the comments and on our facebook group.  We invite you to participate on twitter and instagram, using the hashtag #springretreat.

Pull up a place at the picnic table and join the link ups on Thursdays for Count Me Accountable.

We hope to share bedtime tips as many of us are trying to get out of the #insomnialounge and #get2sleep in order to find that place of sweet rest with the Lord.

We will rise up to the challenge presented by the gals over at HelloExercise to have an #awesomeApril, making faith, fitness, and good food choices part of every day.

April on MLG

I’ll get this party started. What does spring mean to you? What is your favorite part of spring?

Filed Under: Accountability, Goals, Mental, Physical, Spiritual Tagged With: , , , 3 Comments

Redeemed

January 2, 2013 By 4 Comments

The past several days, each and every time I wake up I keep hearing the same lyrics in my head. This is impressive because, any more, I’m up at least every 3 hours, if not more often. I find myself being lulled to sleep by these words:

I can’t help but stop and think. With the start of the new year, we often take this time to reflect on the year that’s just passed. We rejoice over the good. We weep over the bad. We lick our wounds, often in private. Then we stop, lift our head up high, looking forward to all the possibilities of the next year.

My question is this:  How often do we look ahead, yet often find ourselves being brought down by the mistakes of yesteryear?

What if, this year, we truly discover what it means to have our battles already won? To rediscover the fact that we have a Creator who loves us enough that He sent His Son?

For us.
For me.
For you.

We just wrapped up our yearly celebration of Christ’s birth on this earth. In just a few months, we’ll be reflecting on the sacrifice of that same Son. In the meantime, can we take the time to think on the meaning of this redemption in each of our lives?

 

Filed Under: Emotional, Mental, Spiritual Tagged With: , , , 4 Comments

Dear Body of Mine…

November 8, 2012 By 3 Comments

Dear Body of Mine,

I owe you an apology.  For years and years I’ve been trying to change you.

I’ve been trying to force you to match the skinny image in my head while cramming junk food down your throat and piling on layer after layer of stress and depression.  I’m so sorry. I’ve mistreated and neglected you in so many ways.

What I should have been doing was loving you.

I’m so sorry that I haven’t been loving you all these years.

I promise that’s changed.  I love you now.

Just the way you are.  

The extra 50 pounds doesn’t matter.  I love you.

And I’m going to start treating you like I do the people I love.

No more trying to force you to change.  

Instead, I’m just going to treat you right, and let you be however you need to be.  I’m going to feed you piles of delicious, healthy fresh, clean foods.  Fill you with water, give you a break with plenty of rest, and keep you moving with regular walks, yoga and exercise.

I’m going to listen to you, and let you take charge.  

We can do this together.  I’ll treat you right, the way I think God intended me to, making all the best choices I can for you.  Consistently. And you?  You can decide if you need to hang on to those 50 pounds, or if you’re being treated well enough to let a few go.

Either way, I’ll still love you and treat you right.

Finally.

Love,

Me



Filed Under: Accountability, Mental, Physical Tagged With: 3 Comments

For such a season as this

October 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

There are times when everything seems to be moving forward, yet standing still at the same time.

That is where I am right now.  My diet is under control, I’m actually exercising regularly, I’m knee deep in my Bible studies.

Yet on Thursday I couldn’t get out of bed.  I was overcome with anxiety.  My husband, bless his heart, helped me out and let me have some time to work things out.

I lamented all day, wrestling with my thoughts, crying out to God to take away my panic and fear.  I tried all the weapons in my arsenal, music, prayers, journaling…nothing calmed the storm that raged on my heart.

I put myself in survival mode, that’s what we moms have to do, right?  I put my kids first, got dinner on the table, and quieted my heart before God.

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  Esther 4:14

Now I know that I’m no Esther story.  This down time in this mom’s life doesn’t compare to a princess in training that saves her people.  But I know that God has set this time aside for me, for a purpose.  There are lessons to be learned, as well as dishes to be washed, faces to be wiped, and hearts to pray over.  The overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety do not make sense right now, but I know I’m being refined in the fire.  I know this is a time of preparation for something, and even right now, in this moment, I see Him moving.  No, I don’t think He has placed this anxiety in me, but I believe He is using it to grow me for Him.

What season of life are you in right now?  Do you see these moments as moments for Him, no matter if it’s a hill or valley?  I believe each of us, no matter what season, is being prepared for such a time as this.

Filed Under: Emotional, Mental, Physical Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment

Personal Forgiveness {CMA}

October 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Friends, this post today is a hard one. Primarily because I’d absolutely love to say that I’ve been perfectly hitting every goal I’ve set out to in the past couple months. When the truth is, I haven’t. I have been failing miserably. Well, in every aspect besides having healthy weight gain throughout this crazy thing called pregnancy. I’ll go into the nitty gritty on my personal Count Me Accountable post.

Does anyone else find themselves setting out with the best of intentions only to feel like they’re slipping further and further behind? I know I have been feeling that way often. While I know that each day is a new day, a new chance for a better start, I find it so hard to let the feeling of failing go. Or, I should say, I have a hard time forgiving myself.

It could be in the big, seemingly obvious mistakes, or the little, not-so-noticeable mistakes. It doesn’t matter. When it comes to forgiving myself, allowing myself to move on from the transgression (whether against myself, others, or God) and living my life as one who’s received grace from the One who really matters.

Why is it so easy to forgive others, yet so hard to forgive myself? I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it all comes down to the enemy of my soul wants nothing more than for me to allow myself to live in the shadow of my mistakes. Satan will do anything to keep us from walking in the light of the grace we receive each and every time we humble ourselves before our Father who gave up His life, that I might live in and for Him. I so easily forget that in His last days, Christ told us:

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27

Ah, what would life be like to live in the middle of that truth? I doubt it’d be so hard for me to let myself off the hook. Since Christ left His peace with me when He ascended up to Heaven, as well as His Spirit, then I can do this. I can let myself move on from the things that are holding me back from living wholeheartedly for the God I proclaim to love.

So whether you’re like me and feeling the press of failure for one reason or another, or if you have something ugly that is still lying in our hearts, I think it’s time that we humble ourselves and sit/kneel/bow/lay at the feet of our Father. While doing so, it may be time to journal the issue out, then to tear it up, a reminder that as these pieces are separated from each other forever, so are our transgressions separated from us. Then, will it be time to stand up, in a new light, ready to fight against Satan and stop believing that those issues/failures/mistakes define us.



Filed Under: Accountability, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual Leave a Comment

Anything But Safe

October 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Image courtesy of James Baker / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

I’m a huge Narnia fan…I’ve read the series several times, and we own all the movies that have been released so far.  By far, one of my favorite scenes is the conversation in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe between Lucy and Mr. Beaver about Aslan…

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good…”

In the past few months, things have been changing a lot for me.  I knew that God was getting ready to do something, to move me in a new direction.  He started  giving me new dreams and goals, and bringing back to the forefront dreams that I had pushed aside years ago.  He’s been making things even clearer the past couple of weeks.

I’m excited…but I’m also shaking in my boots.  Scared out of my mind.  Absolutely terrified.  I’m standing on the brink of huge new God-sized dreams, and I’m thinking to myself, “You have lost your mind.  You’re insane.  What on earth were you thinking?”  But I think that’s exactly what God wants.

I think we’ve made a terrible mistake in our Christian walk.  God has called to us to dream big, to be world changers – but we think He’s simply called us to be safe.  God is anything but safe.  He’s good…but He’s never safe.  Abraham wasn’t safe when he left his homeland to follow a God he’d never known before.  Joseph wasn’t safe when he was sold into slavery.  The disciples certainly weren’t safe when they gave up everything to follow Jesus.  But they chased their dreams anyway – and they changed the world.

If our dreams aren’t leaving us feeling at least a little scared, they’re probably not big enough.  College still scares me almost every day.  After I graduate, one of my dreams is to go on short-term medical missions trips.  Am I excited?  Yes!  But the thought of leaving my family for 10 to 14 days and flying off to a foreign country leaves me a little nervous.  As I take the first steps toward some of the other dreams God is speaking to me about, I’ve found myself literally shaking as I forge ahead.  I believe that God is going to honor my steps of obedience, especially in the face of my fears.  My fears are laced with a lot of excitement about where He’s going to take me.

Are you ready to take steps toward God-sized dreams?  I would love to chat with you.

What’s your big dream – the one that leaves you shaking with both excitement and fear?

Filed Under: Mental, Spiritual Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

4×4 Reset: Saturday Reflection – The Doxology like you have never heard it before

September 22, 2012 By 1 Comment

Welcome! We’ve created a Special Series for you this month! We’ll
take 4 weeks and focus on 4 elements to ‘Reset’ our lives for Him.
We’re calling it ’4×4 Reset’. If you missed the introduction, you
can find more details here. Each post will feature a READ IT
(scripture verse), a SEE IT (motivation), & a DO IT (challenge/
call to action). Our 4×4 Reset Toolbox is available and has links
to all the posts and to our resources, including our Build a Firm
Foundation Printable tracking page. Be sure to subscribe to not
miss a day, & join us on Twitter & Instagram using our hashtag
#4x4Reset!

 

While we pause, and reflect on the sheer amazing-ness of our God in Heaven, let’s praise Him all ye here below (as in the Doxology).

Watch Doxology, by Gungor — truly one of the most compelling performances I have ever seen.

And as we revel in His majesty, and we allow ourselves to rest in His love, may the peace the passes all understanding surround us all.

Thank you, Father.

Amen.

Filed Under: 4x4Reset, Mental 1 Comment

How to Hold onto Jesus for all you are Worth

September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Welcome! We’ve created a Special Series for you this month! We’ll
take 4 weeks and focus on 4 elements to ‘Reset’ our lives for Him.
We’re calling it ’4×4 Reset’. If you missed the introduction, you
can find more details here. Each post will feature a READ IT
(scripture verse), a SEE IT (motivation), & a DO IT (challenge/
call to action). Our 4×4 Reset Toolbox is available and has links
to all the posts and to our resources, including our Build a Firm
Foundation Printable tracking page. Be sure to subscribe to not
miss a day, & join us on Twitter & Instagram using our hashtag
#4x4Reset!

How to Hold onto Jesus for All You Are Worth

My mom was 22 years old when she experienced the worst day of her life — before and since. A midnight plane crash, as family and friends watched unable to stop this dreadful nightmare, injured the co-pilot, pilot, and my parents, and then took the life of their firstborn child.

My mom tells me it was in the wake of that unbelievable storm that she learned how to hold onto Jesus for all she was worth.

I have held her words close to my heart for many years now, but never truly understood their merit, their weight until facing my own worst day — the worst season of my life.

Walking through the valley of infertility and undiagnosed chronic pain for two years had already left me reeling to trust in this God who had seemingly been faithful to me my entire life, but somehow was failing me. I remember thinking, “God hates me,” and even articulating those words to my husband when grief felt like a mantle, absorbing its way into my own skin, leaving me wondering if I would feel anything on my own ever again.

That’s when the call came — the one where I found out that my parents, living in Haiti, could not be reached after a 7.0 earthquake had rocked that tiny nation.

For 17 hours my sister and I held vigil, calling, messaging, researching every aspect, person, organization, news site that could give us any scrap of information.

At Hour 14, I felt my faith and sanity slipping. I said to my sister, “I’m not thinking right. I need to go pray.”

I barely made it into my bedroom, scrambling to close the door, before I fell to the floor and tears burst from the most guttural place in my soul. I forcefully, without the slightest of inhibition, reminded God of His promises to me and to my parents that they WOULD indeed SEE their children’s children. And there…in that rawest of moments, He opened a glimpse of the future and showed me my parents laughing and playing with their as-of-yet-unseen grandchildren, securing the promise from His word into my broken heart.

Almost 3 hours later, we finally heard from my parents, that they were alive and safe!!  To say that was the most amazing relief I have felt in my life, would simply be an understatement.

My personal journey of recovery since that time has been arduous and tiresome, joyful and faith-challenging, holding-on-to-Jesus-for-all-you-are-worth-filled.

I am an analytical girl whose mind is a breeding ground of activity that the devil often uses to destroy the threads of peace the Father is weaving into my mind. And yet, the more I put Him in my focus, and not the storms that assault me, the less the enemy’s words consume my soul.

Here are a few Scriptures and a prayer that helps me to place my thoughts under his thoughts….may this encourage and strengthen you today.

READ IT::

SEE IT::

 

DO IT::

No matter what your situation, God has a promise and a truth JUST FOR YOU. Ask Him for it with faith that He loves you enough to give you that assurance and then…hold onto that promise for all you are worth. When your mind begins to wander or falter, lift your eyes to Him, holding tightly to the promise He has dropped into your heart. THERE…you will find peace.

“Jesus, I thank you that you give me perfect peace when I focus my heart, my thoughts, my attention on You. ___________ {fill in your situation} is really scaring me and consuming my mind. I make a choice today to lift my eyes to You, knowing that You have a plan, a way out or through, an oasis in this desert, even when I do not see it.  I choose to set my hope on You, Father, maker of Heaven and earth….and me. Remind me of your promises TO me today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Filed Under: 4x4Reset, Mental Tagged With: , Leave a Comment

The Glory of Comfort in My Own Skin

August 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

My husband and I had the honor of speaking with a Navy veteran this past weekend.  We both were waiting for our food at a burger restaurant.  This nice gentleman came and sat by us for a short time and we were able to ask him all sorts of questions.  He was quite sure of himself, being that he was 74 years old.  He looked physically fit, said he went to the gym regularly, and kept himself busy with various projects.  You could just tell he was quite comfortable in his own skin… years of living created a grace and self-assurance within.

Meeting him got me thinking as to what it means to be comfortable in my own skin, and how and when does this occur?  Does years of living create this comfort or can I realize it now?

I have a couple of girlfriends that told me they feel most comfortable in their own skin when those around them accept them and don’t judge.  Those type of friends are usually lifelong friends… those who know almost everything possible about you, have seen you at your worst and best.  These friends seem to know you better than you know yourself, and have walked through many life situations with you.  They know your true heart, and yet love you unconditionally.  

Isn’t that how GOD loves us?  When there is no wall or barrier between myself and GOD, then HE knows me, my faults and all!  Ahh yes!  There IS a comfort there with HIM.  When GOD is my everything, and I can do all things through HIM, then I am confident and comfortable within myself… I am more confident before HIS throne of grace, and my life path is more certain before me.  I can rest comfortably in HIS love.

Psalm 139 has always given me great comfort… how wonderful to know that HE created me and knew me before I was born!  A trust is developed when you realize that GOD knows all about you, knows every hair on your head!  My thoughts, decisions, and all of my soul are acceptable to HIM!  My FATHER in Heaven embraces my inmost being that HE sees as beautiful, even when I can’t see it!  And that beauty is there because HE created me!  HE gives me that ultimate comfort I am looking for in my own skin… no one else can ever love me that way.  No one else sees me the way HE does.  And no one else deserves the Glory! 

So the next time you are down on yourself or just wonder who the heck you are… look to GOD.  HE will embrace you, love you, and lift you up in a way no one else ever will!

ISAIAH 51:12 “I, even I, am HE who comforts.”

 

 

Filed Under: Friendship, Mental, Spiritual Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment
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