Unconventional

The unexpected is often sweeter than the anticipated...
So much of our lives spent going through the motions...
"Playing church..." settling for the norm of small dreams.
The safe of what has always been is good enough, right?

This princess doesn't want to settle for safe... she wants to live in expectation... hopeful that each day has sweet gifts of its own... She chooses risk... reaching out and grabbing hold of the unexpected.

I don't want to play by the world's rules...  I have no use for a vending machine God... investments going in when I want something... treat of choice all too often getting stuck in the rungs.

I desire...
The unconventional Jesus.
The Jesus that does the radical...  inviting us out on the water for a late night miracle.
I want a Jesus that loves more than I'll ever know... always seeing who I am becoming.
A Jesus that fights for my name and my beauty.
A Jesus that wants my heart more than my money or my attendance.
A Jesus that whispers through winds... shouts through storms and stamps with His color.

My heart burns for The Unconventional Jesus... He is who I follow.  It's terrifyingly wonderful.
It impacts all facets of my life.
Pastor and I... parent, teach, school, discipline, and feed our children differently because of the MORE rooted deep in our hearts.
It is SUCH A MESSY PROCESS!

Our smalls pay the price for being set apart...
They do not get what the world says they are entitled to.
Most of the time they get a simple..."I see you, and I thank you."
We have instilled the value of being a team.
They act out of love and honor... they delight in being seen.

Other times... sweet rewards and fun are the fruits of their labor.
Instead of coins or cash... candy is the payment of choice.

The eldest... 10 and still very much enjoying the art of imagination... she doesn't buy into the lie that she is too old for make believe fun.  

Being childlike has value for all ages.

Paper-play in hand for jobs well done... simple pleasures are enjoyed.

I smile as I observe their methods... 

Precision like a Dr. doing surgery...  Reaching and choosing... No room for error.

Delighted in their delicious plunder...

Mounds of joy... covering the counter...

Buckets fill fast...

Unconventional...

Training hearts against seeking entitlement. 

For just like me they live out of the abundance of sonship not the poverty of slavery.

  

I love the Father so I seek to honor...

He receives my love offerings with joy.

He blesses because He is good... not because He owes.

As a daughter... I receive with great joy.

He cannot be put into a box.

He is not a formula. 

And so we invite the...

Unconventional and unpredictable...  

We savor the ways He speaks and moves...  ways contrary to the world... we leave safe and step out of the boat...

Hungry to lay down my backpack of entitlement and pick up my pail of provisions...

He is so much better than the vending machine... His ways so much better than convention.

tickle fight

"We have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.  We are fools for Christ's sake."
1 Cor. 4:10

Nothing like a tickle fight to make you abandon EVERYTHING.

Dignity lost in laughter...

The roar draws a crowd...

It's contagious... you can't help but let face and belly join in too...

When it comes to laughter on Ridgegate, everyone wants a piece...

 Flying out of control... in the arms of love.

When our smalls are totally abandoned... when they release... their bodily functions are all out of whack. Alarming sounds go off...

It is quite a spectacle...

Everyone looks in wonder...

Unfortunately... as we grow so do our inhibitions...

We no longer invite the tickles that bring the foolish...

We want order and control.

Pastor and I have been talking much about what it looks like for us to live a life undignified.  We will keep asking that question.  We want to become fool's for Christ's sake.  

It's not easy being stared at... but just like with anything else... the more it happens the more you stop running from it... you learn to rest in the reckless...

Like smalls... I want to lie on my back in surrender... I want to be a woman of wild abandonment... welcoming holy laughter in all forms... I want to join Paul's ranks and be a spectacle for the King... 

Unhindered.

Fully alive.

Making waves.

Drawing crowds.

He's that good... He deserves an audience... it's an honor for it to be at my expense.

culture of faith

What do you do when your kids start applying what you teach?
What do you do when they buy all the things you have sold out your life for?
What do you do when they start hearing for themselves?

These are questions I have been processing as Pastor and I have tried to create a culture of faith in our home.
We are seeing fruits and I am back to learning the new.

Last week after our contract fell through we entered into deeper prayer.  Several of those nights I could hear my two oldest singing together before drifting off to dream.  They were singing, "Prince of Peace."
A very appropriate song in times uncertain to us.

The next day Emmiline shared that she had a vision during her time of worship.

She went on to explain what she saw.  It was rather odd and sounded much like a New Testament vision.  

A vision imparting freedom.  

Her visions were several nights in a row, and they all had to with bizarre plates of foods.  The only common bond was that they were all foods she was allergic to.  Pastor was away so I told her she needed to press in and ask God what it meant... I surely didn't know and didn't want to guess.  

After much prayer and seeking she sensed she was being healed from her allergies.  She felt ready to test it out... flying solo... I was a little slower.  It felt risky...

It required faith...

So...  with Pastor home we stepped into risk...

We offered the formerly forbidden...

3 chocolate chips for a princess.

We declared... we asked... and we gave thanks... 

Then... we responded with obedience... we stepped out in faith... and she tried her first ever Nestles.

And for the first time in her life since she was two... she enjoyed dairy without regurgitation.

It's been a sunny day in her world.  Her parents too.

So in regards to my earlier questions...

When my children are spoken to by a greater voice... hearing things that I can't...

I seek tools that have proven true...

 I listen... I ask... I cry out... I pray... I value and I encourage forward motion...

Knowing that the Spirit's work is fully alive in them.  I must pay MORE careful attention to what I hear.

"Out of the mouths of babes."

We will continue testing it out... Aware that there is NO easy button when it comes to walking by faith...

Celebrating all forms of hearing and healing today... 

All voices of faith...

One morsel at a time. 

never gets old

No one ever grows weary of hearing how much they are loved and enjoyed.

No matter how many times we have done this... or will do this... the result is certain...

When Daddy returns everyone crawls and clings for his affection.

Little people around these parts really love their Pop.

It really is a fun sight... and sound.

Hours of late night driving and arriving early morning... 

Slept in his clothes for just a few winks...

He offers and delights as if he is fully rested.

This momma can learn lessons here too... so often ready to trade hugs for "to do's."  

So much yet to conquer around Ridgegate and so little time before Pastor will pack up again.  

I need to mimic Mary... I need to choose what is best.

I also need to mimic Charli...

This little teacher has been full of valuable lessons regarding affection.  She just can't seem to get enough cuddles... making up for lost time, I guess... Again, I learn.

Bud makes his priorities known ... lot's of quality time with Daddy... kitchen, books, cars, trains... the list is endless... 

For now... good ole' fashioned couch time will do just fine.  Pastor enjoys some Heaven on earth.  

My kids delight in many things... they love the big and the small.  But when it comes to family togetherness...

They lock on and don't let go... 

Enjoying the gifts that togetherness brings.

It never gets old.

more light

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.   Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." 1 COR 13:12

This life... dimly lit...  offered worldly water and we drink.  Water housed in the strong and lovely...  Thinking we see in fullness... parched we drink...

It is only a copy... it will NEVER satisfy...

It's a polluted well.

I have a lot of muddy cisterns in my little world.  They offer refreshment, and I entertain the soothe.  Comforts come with the sipping, but they leave the mouth feeling dirty and the stomach sour.

I ask for more light... one that allows me to see greater truths about who He is... and who He has gifted me to be...

When I doubt who He is... I doubt my own name...  Seeing Him in my reflection causes a glorious doubletake.

We are a forgetful people.  He sees and knows and invites us to bind the remembering around us...

Our battle scars are deep...  He covers our wounds with jewels.

Being marked by The Maker... resting in who He is and who He calls us brings MORE light into our souls...

As we see and embrace our own beauty we can begin to share out of the depths of who we are and impart into other growing beauties...  beauties that  one day might too easily forget and doubt their own names.

So many walking around with lie-names around their necks... 

It's time to reclaim name-calling... 

We must be warriors that speak royal names over each other... We must receive and live out of those names...

Wearing our weapons of reminding like shackles of joy.

In regards to the light and dimly lit mirrors... I keep asking... holding out and holding onto MORE...  Because when The Perfect comes... ALL PARTIAL will pass away... and I shall behold Him FACE TO FACE... no more dirt-filled, rusty, water sources... 

Total access... fully knowing and enjoying... fully known and seeing the truth that was planted in me all along... that I am fully enjoyed. 

The more I see... the more I see...  

Light is increasing.  So is my vision.  Thankful.

artful reminders

This was the late morning view outside my window...

A princess drinking in the sunshine... 

Waiting in the light of hope...

Paving her way in the dust...

Living in hope is often seen like living in a fairytale.  It is easily misunderstood.  

Often times creating distance between the hopefuls and the viewing one.

I will not deceive... living in Hope turns your view on EVERYTHING upside down...

You have to learn to see in a whole new way... mind renewal is key

You've gotta wrap your hands all around the new colors added to your box...

This is tricky because everyone knows when you are making a masterpiece... process is messy...

We are learning that markings are good, and we partner in the branding...

In every lesson we practice truth... letter by letter.

H.O.P.E

Sometimes artistry happens on the first try...

And... sometimes... 

It looks more like scribbles.

Either way... we remind ourselves and we remind each other... to keep our eyes fixed...

Sometimes squinting... sometimes eyes closed... sometimes tear-filled... and sometimes filled with wild joy... NO matter what... we keep spelling HIS TRUTH on stone... engraving the earth with His artful reminders.