Now that the house it quiet again, I’m taking time to look back and write down what I learned this summer. Although I usually do this monthly, I realized early on that it is better to collect and hold my list until summer’s end instead of forcing it upon our wild and free days of summer. I’m glad I waited.
#1: God moves in close when we’re hurting.
If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there;
if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath. (Psalm 34:8)
I entered June tender, more tender than I thought. Through conversations and quiet, God exposed a lie that I was believing and the hurt that lived behind it, and He offered Himself as my Healer. {He is Jehovah Rapha.}
This summer I learned to rest and let God tend to the broken parts of me.
#2: You can change the color of your grout to update your brick.
In June, we packed up the fam and headed to San Antonio to help friends do some work on their newly purchased home. I went there to paint, and painting we did, but my friend, Amanda, had other plans. She wanted to do something to her out-dated, tired brick. After finding some pictures we loved on Pinterest, we decided this was a project we could handle. (Hopefully)
This half wall was our “test run”. Through trial and error, we found a method that worked. Boring, drab brick became super cute and new.
We loved it so much (and were so impressed with ourselves) that we started on the two story brick wall that ran the length of her living room.
In this picture, you can see how the old, dingy brick (top) is transformed with antique white grout (bottom).
We were both on the ladder because at this point, we were desperate to be DONE. Which brings me the next lesson I learned …
#3: You should wear gloves and/or use proper tools when working with grout.
Amanda and I are really good at trying new things together, but we aren’t very good at reading the directions. By about halfway through that big wall, our fingers started bleeding. Apparently you can get chemical burns on your skin with “prolonged exposure” to sanded grout. We read that on the directions after the blisters appeared. We HAD to finish, so we wrapped our fingers in band-aids and duct tape and finished strong (ish).
A few weeks later, I helped my mom redo her fire place – this time with tools and gloves. Don’t you just love the transformation?!? (We were almost finished when I took this picture, but you can see the old grout at the bottom of the seat and in the top right corner.)
#4: When wanting to start a new project, wait for the fire.
When I finished writing my first Bible study, I didn’t know if I’d ever be given the opportunity to write another one again. But now on the other side of study number two, I know that this is what I was made to do. It is my joy and my purpose – the good thing that Jesus has prepared in advance for me to do (Ephesians 2:10). But having the desire or even the topic for a study is not enough.
I have to wait for the fire.
I’ve had a certain topic on my heart and mind for almost three years, but I could never get the ball rolling. What I was missing was the “fire”. The fire is when the “want to” collides with the “have to“. It’s when the desire and the topic burn from within.
This summer I bought a new binder and began again. The fire is here.
#5: God can propel things forward in record time.
All Spring long, I felt like I was dragging my feet to complete Seeds. Every time I pulled up to the computer, I suddenly wanted to take a nap, clean dishes or leave the house all together. I had NO fire. Instead of forcing it, I put it on the back burner and waited.
This summer, God did this. In record time, He put me to work and finished the book.
Written so many years ago, the prayers in Seeds were the starting place of my writing. God used those prayers and that season to draw me to His Word. It was then that I began to understand the importance and power of wall-papering my mind with Truth and praying it over my family.
This summer God taught me again to wait on Him and trust in His timing. Seeds is proof that God can use all things (old and new) for His glory and His good.
#6: Bonine has changed our family’s car-driving lives.
Where has this been all my car-puking life? This saved my boy and I this summer. Hang the banners. Sound the trumpets. Bonine for the win!!
#7: We still focus on the wrong tree.
This summer my friend Lori replied to a group text with a quote from her husband, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I wish I had taken a screen-shot of their exact words, but the thought was something like this:
In the garden of Eden there were two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were told that they could eat freely from the tree of life, but they were forbidden to eat from the other tree. Eve focused on the wrong tree, and maybe we do too.
When parenting (per our group text) or in making decisions in general, are we focused more on tree of life questions (Does this bring life? Does this glorify God?) OR on tree of the knowledge of good and evil questions (Is this right or wrong? Good or bad?)
More often than not, I think we’re asking tree of the knowledge of good and evil questions without considering tree of life questions.
Which makes me think we still might be focusing on the wrong tree.
#8: Keep more open ended conversations with God.
I started a conversation with God this summer about an area of discontent in my life. But instead of pushing for answers and change (like I usually do), I decided to sit with Him in the unknown. When thoughts of discontent or questions of “why” came to the forefront of my mind, I practiced directing them to the Father and leaving them there, content to trust and wait, remembering that His timing almost always feels slow to me.
The cool thing, I learned, is that when I pray like this, I make more room not only for His answer but also His presence, which is an answer in and of itself.
I want to do this more.
#9: It’s good to feel small by the ocean.
This summer we took our first family vacation to the beach. Standing at water’s edge, I soaked in my smallness.
A friend reminded me of why:
There is something inside us that desires to be dwarfed. We go to the ocean or the mountains so that we can look at something grand and feel small. Really it’s that thing inside us that desires to see God and be dwarfed by His majesty and vastness.
#10: I’ve missed youth ministry.
All summer long I had the privilege of meeting and talking with these girls about truth and life and the Word of God. It brought me back to the early days in our marriage when Erik worked for K-Life Ministries, and it made me miss our sweet season of working with youth.
My heart is now bent towards cheering on women in their everyday life with Jesus, but I sure had fun with these “little women” this summer.
#11: Only female mosquitoes bite us.
It’s true. Both male and female feed mainly on fruit and plant nectar, but the female also needs the protein in blood to help her eggs develop. Once she’s had her fill of blood, she’ll rest for a couple of days before laying her eggs.
This feels like an important thing to know. I have certainly contributed to the furthering of life to many a mosquito.
Now ONWARD we go. TO FALL!!
What did you learn this summer?
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