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Mar 11 2015
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fruit snack faith

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I know I’ve talked about my friends quite a bit on here before, but I’m going to talk about them again. Well, really just one because she’s the one that inspired tonight’s post.

About a week ago (8 days to be exact), my dear friend posted this on Instagram:

I had one of those days where things just kept going wrong. I couldn’t help but have a really sinful thought, “I have very little to be thankful for. God you haven’t blessed me lately.”

And I nodded along, “Ditto, sister. Ditto.”

It was just one of those weeks. Every woe-is-me emotion was making its way to the surface of my life and I just wanted to have a good cry. I’ve had this thought run through my mind more than once over the past year: “What do I have to do to get You to show You care about me?!”

Sinful, I know.

Honest? Yup. Very.

It’s easy for me to try to work my way towards blessings. I want to be the good little athlete I’ve always been and earn my spot. I was to prove that I’m worth it.

I can’t accept grace, mercy, justice, divine love at face value. I find it hard to believe that God is good just because.

And then I start feeling bad about feeling bad

“Why are you complaining, Smith? You ARE blessed. You have a home to live in, food to eat, clothes to wear, a family & friends that love you. Stop it!”

The pendulum then swings towards self-reliance and not wanting to ‘burden’ God with my needs. I cheapen His love & grace by thinking that my needs aren’t worth His time.

Both of these attitudes are sinful. Both say God isn’t good, enough, just, holy. Both say that my way is better and I can just do this life alone.

But then my friend finished her post:

A little later I opened my variety pack fruit snack and found 3 raspberries. It’s my favorite flavor and you’re lucky if you get 1. (Yesterday I got none.) BUT today I found 3 waiting for me. Sounds so silly, but I was so humbled. Even if it is just about my fruit snack, I have so much to be thankful for. We have a Savior who already won the battle. #fruitsnackfaith #choosejoy #Heisalwaysgood

(Sorry, not sorry that I left the hashtags in there.)

God does bless us in the most mundane ways.

God does care about our simple & small desires.

He knows us so intimately, and wants us to know His love so greatly, that He gives us our favorite fruit snacks at just the right moment.

It can be easy to look past God’s goodness in the everyday life moments, and it can be just as easy to think He doesn’t care about something as small as me wanting queso for dinner.

Know that He does care. He does love extravagantly. He knows our hearts so well that He’s giving us just what we desire and need, exactly when we need it.

Take heart, precious one. He has won the battle & holds your heart.

*and yes, in case you were wondering, that IS the original fruit snack picture that inspired this whole thing!

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Nov 27 2014
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use your words

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I like to talk. When I was in kindergarten, I typically got in trouble for sitting on my desk after I was finished with my work and jabbering away. I can also vividly remember having to sit in the hallway on the first day of school every year until 5th grade because of my blabber mouth. I finally learned how to get my business under control in 5th grade, I guess.

Now, one of my favorite things is sitting around a dinner or coffee table and having long conversations that lose all sense of time.

I like to talk.

I’m also living in a time when everyone likes to talk and loves sharing their opinion on any and every matter they can. Everyone has a voice, and I don’t want to dismiss that, but I’m also a little concerned that we don’t fully understand the weight of our words.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29)

As Christians, I think we love to use this verse to shut down potty mouths. It’s simple to point to the first portion of this verse and remind those around us that we shouldn’t be cussing or tearing others down with our words, which I completely agree with.

But I think we’ve lost the last part. I think we’ve lost grace in our words. I don’t think we try to speak in such a way that our words give grace to those who hear. 

When you ask me about my dating status, I tell you I’m still single, and you answer with, “Oh what a bummer.” – that isn’t giving me grace.
When you ask me about marriage and I say, “Yeah, this season is really hard because I desire marriage and a family and I’m just struggling right now,” and you reply with, “Well, it’ll happen in God’s timing.” – that isn’t giving me grace.

Be okay with my singleness when I’m okay with it. Be a little bummed with me when I’m bummed about it. Don’t dismiss my feelings, but rather speak grace into my life.

Our words are powerful. Our reactions to situations and seasons in life mean something to those around us. As followers of Jesus we carry grace with us in our voices.

I know that I’ve not always used my words to give grace to those who hear, but I know that’s what I’m called to. I’m called to speak grace. And what an opportunity we have to build those around us up, speak life, truth, and grace into this world, and maybe, just maybe, show people Jesus with our words.

*watch Kristen & JT play Secret Word here!

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Nov 19 2014
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stuck in the suckiness

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I’m a pretty good complainer. I can take a 72 degree, puffy cloud and blue sky day and make it seem like we’re knee deep in snow and ice. And there’s definitely been seasons (pun intended) in my life where I’ve lived in the complaints. I’ve planted my feet firmly in the suckiness of life and not moved.

Disclaimer: please don’t tell my momma that I used the word “suck” – or some variation of the word – in this blog post. She hates the word and will make me run laps for it. Seriously.

Back to life being sucky.

I think we can get really good at complaining about life and not moving out of it. We can sit over coffee for hours and talk about how horrible we have it because we aren’t dating anyone, aren’t married, don’t own a house, don’t have any leftover pizza, etc. and just feel sorry for ourselves. We can get stuck in the suckiness, and that’s a dangerous place to be.

This summer I heard a sermon over the following psalm:

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (85:6)

I think the writer was experiencing some suckiness. But I also think that the writer knew suckiness was not the place to stay in. They knew that they needed to go to the feet of the Lord and ask for revival, beg if needed.

As the pastor said during the sermon, revival may not come today. It may not even come tomorrow, or the next day/month/year. BUT we can’t sit in the crappy seasons of life complaining about how bad we have it and expect change. We can’t expect joy in our lives if we aren’t willing to go to Jesus and say, “Please. Revive my heart in ways only You can.”

It’s easy to stay stuck in the suckiness. It’s not always easy to pray for and wait on revival.

But staying stuck in the suckiness isn’t where Jesus wants us to stay. He wants us to stay with Him. So let’s agree to let each other be emotional people, to allow one another time to vent and express frustration, but to also remind each other that God is still God, God is still good, and we need to move out of the suckiness.

*get some travel advise from Judy Grimes here!!

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Oct 01 2014
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living on yesterday

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A friend said to me last week, “You can’t depend on yesterday’s manna to sustain you.”

It was basically the slap in the face I needed. Don’t worry though, she didn’t really slap me. She said it over the phone, so no physical altercation occurred.

But she was dead on.

In Exodus chapter 16, the Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea, had witnessed bitter water made sweet in order for them to drink it, and had entered Elim, where, according to Exodus 15:27, “there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.”

Really, Israel? 70 palm trees?

Anyways. Begin chapter 16.

Israel sets out from Elim and enters the wilderness. While in the wilderness the “whole congregation of the people of Israel” [so….a LOT of people…] “grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” The people were a little ticked because they had nothing to eat. Well, just as He had in Egypt, at the Red Sea, in Elim…the Lord heard their cries and provided for them. He rained down manna from heaven in the morning, and brought up quail in the camp at evening for the people of Israel to eat and be filled.

The only thing He told them was to gather only a day’s portion. And being the obedient, observant people they were, Israel did the exact opposite, and their manna became rotten. The Bible actually says, “it bred worms and stank.”

Don’t get me started. Don’t EVEN get me started.

But, you know what, I’m like Israel a lot.

I try to depend on what God did yesterday. I use last week’s Bible study as time with the Lord for today. I use my rollover Jesus time for days on end.

I try to depend on yesterday’s manna to sustain me.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says this,

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

If the Creator of all provides new mercy for me daily, why do I not step in to that joy and freedom daily? Why do I rely only on what God revealed to me 2 weeks ago?

Especially when it comes to struggling in seasons of life, such as singleness, I must go to the Lord daily and receive mercy, grace, forgiveness, joy, comfort, and peace for the day to come.

I need to gather my manna daily, then go back tomorrow for more.

*to enjoy the comedic stylings of Jeannie Darcy, click here!

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Sep 17 2014
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don’t give the game away

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I coach a softball team and it’s probably my favorite fall activity outside of deer hunting and wassail. But both are probably more of a winter activity because of the rut (for deer hunting, and that’s usually when you see more action) and wassail is typically a Christmas drink, but I can make it WHENEVER I WANT! You’re not the boss of me.

I digress.

I love my team. I love watching my girls develop. I love watching them have fun with their friends. But I don’t love watching them lose. It literally breaks my heart every time.

We had a game tonight and at one point we were only down 4 runs (in a VERY high scoring game). We were up to bat and before the girls grabbed their helmets for a big inning, I said, “you have 2 options here: you can either compete and fight to get back into this game, or you can lay down and give it away.”

I know, I know…coach of the year material right here.

They did fight. They didn’t quit. And that made me a proud coach.

By this point you’re probably thinking, “But Kayla, this isn’t a coaching blog!” And you’re right, it’s not. To which I say, thank you for paying attention the last 38 weeks!

Here’s where it connects for me: in the season of singleness I have 2 choices – I can either press into Jesus and find my identity, worth, and value in Him, or I can settle.

Now please don’t hear me saying that being married is “settling.” I’m not saying that at all. But I AM saying that chasing after anything that is not Christ is settling. Allowing some temporal, earthly pursuit to come between you and Jesus is settling.

I wrote a few weeks ago about being competitive and how it’s sometimes not the best idea, but tonight I’m loving the idea of competitive nature. I’m thankful for an athletic mentality that tells me, “Hey, it’s time to make a decision and go after it. Either you’re in or you’re out. What’s it gonna be?”

And I like having the drive and (sometimes) the discipline to see it through.

I’m going to compete for Jesus. I’m going to scratch and claw my way into joy, into fullness, into Christ.

And I’m not going to quit until I get there.

If you want to see Maya & Kristen crack up in this hilarious sketch, click here!

Also, if you enjoy what you’ve read above, would you mind sharing it with others? After all, sharing is caring 🙂 

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