Contemplations of a Mommy "Monk"

Sometimes when the sun has barely begun to rise, my feet hit the ground ready to get outside and walk with God (and my dogs) in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8).  Other days I don't make it out until evening when I can enjoy the setting of the sun on another day as I traipse either through the woods on my land or through the fields and around the lake nearby.  Whether morning or evening, my regular walks are a way for me to lay my burdens at His feet, share the yoke with Him (Matthew 11:28-30), and walk alongside of God in His ways.  I've never been consistent in exercise to be honest but walking has been one thing that I always come back to and recently through Mark Buchanan's writing, I've been aware of how my physical activity in walking is also a spiritual activity of connecting with God.   Have you heard His voice in the cool of the day, calling out to you, "Come Follow Me"?  When you step out in obedience to His call, He will lead you on The Way, which ...

Lord, the last 12 months have been like a large raw gaping wound for our nation.  It has exposed such ugliness, deep hurts, resentment, anger, pain, bitterness and enmity.  No longer do we stand united - we are fractured, we are broken and we are suffering.  Last night we formally mourned the death of 400,000 souls due to a silent enemy that not only brought illness but confusion, misinformation, disagreement and doubt.  Distrust and hatred have spread in a contagious manner over these past months.   We have to humbly admit, we have not truly been a nation Under God in many, many years.  Our hearts have strayed so far from Your ways.  We no longer value holiness or honor our elders; we've lost the heart to love our neighbors, especially those who are not like us.  We've forgotten that it is more blessed to give than receive and made our greedy desires and selfish pleasures our gods.  We have replaced You as the Lord of all with our own g...

Hebrews 12:1 - 3  1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,   2   fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.   3   Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. I am not a runner.  Never have been and probably never will be.  Running takes some serious endurance, training and goal setting, but mainly I'm not a runner because it's HARD.  It hurts and I just want it to be over as soon as possible.  I've ran in a couple of 5K events - one ended with hot cocoa and the other was filled with blasts of color and dance music.  Most serious runners w...

Sunset on the Fox River - on our way to Chicago This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions, ups and downs, and a crazy busy time of year.  Just a glimpse into the last seven days:  I took my eldest daughter down to Chicago to go back to college for the year.  In a time a social unrest, she's returning to a dorm room only a few miles from the looting and rioting a couple weeks ago.  In addition, due to higher rates of COVID infections in our state, she was required to quarantine for her first 14 days back in Illinois.   The long drive to and from a bustling city provided an opportunity to either build anxiety or lay my worries at His feet.  I can't claim to be perfect in this matter as I really thought I was at peace after walking the streets with Katie on a sunshiny day with city-dwellers out for Sunday runs or coffee but ended up at home after 10 hours on the road pretty tired and grumpy.  And then I sat down with  The Return of the Pro...

Lake Superior on a windy day looks as tumultuous as the ocean, the waves crashing against the craggy rocky shoreline.  However, on this day, I climbed the basalt shoreline, jumping across crevices, feeling the breeze through my hair, and hearing the waters crashing upon the same bedrock upon which I stood, and I felt the peace that comes from soaking in God's creation.   As an educator, the summer has long meant time to settle, to rest and recover from the chaotic busyness of life during the school year.  These days, as an administrator, summers are still workdays but usually, the pace slows down enough to appreciate time for refueling and resting.  During a pandemic, however, my whole work-life balance has been upended as working from home has become a reality much of time and the slower pace of summer suddenly becoming a frantic neverending discussion of how to possibly begin school again in the fall with effective safety measures.  The stress and anxi...

This morning I have two things pressing on my mind and they both led me to the same scripture commanding action and changes to improve culture .  I've been doing some self-analysis for the past month.  We did a perceptions survey at work and the results were pretty hard to hear which has led to digging deep to figure out what needs to change.  If I want to build a positive culture in my school, I have to take ownership of where we've fallen short as leaders.  I recently read an article in Harvard Review about building trust among staff.  The author identified 3 areas that can make leaders less likely to be trusted by their employees: Can I trust your reasoning and judgment?  Are you as a leader authentic and real with us?  Do you care about me and my success, are you empathetic?  As I assessed myself as a leader to consider where my shortcomings might be, I was surprised to see that I do not present myself as an empathetic leader.  I genu...

This morning I am feasting on the Word of God, savoring every nuance, drinking deeply of the truth God speaks.  I'm letting Him fill me up to overflowing with hope, peace and love as I soak in Psalm 23.  Even though I've heard these words many times, they are fresh and new today. I shall not want. We live in a fast-paced consumer-driven society.  There is always something more, something better and our hunger seems to never be satisfied.  I think we have a tendency to be compulsively busy, getting antsy if there isn't something to occupy our minds or our hands.  This sitting at home business is boring and maybe it's just me, but I find myself itching to go somewhere, do something, or else I'm working at all hours of the day.  If I'm not working, I'm looking for a book to read or a show to watch - empty time and space in our days can seem vacuous.  Do we know what it means to not want?  Do we know how to settle down and just sit?  When w...

Last week I challenged our students to do some math while they are doing school at home and to motivate them I promised to dye my hair blue if the majority of students participated.  I was thinking a little about how hard it is to be motivated to do your work from home when there isn't someone in front of you requiring you to sit down and get it done.  How hard it is, in general, to be self-motivated and self-disciplined without a clear goal, personal purpose, and possibly even a reward at the end of all that hard work. At the same time, our new puppy has been doing a lot of treat training in the past couple of weeks; a treat for sitting still, a treat for coming, a treat for going potty, for shaking my hand, for walking by my side, for obeying in general.  The 5-year-old lab, however, has to be sometimes be trained with negative reinforcement.  She won't listen or stay in the yard so she has to have the electric fence as a reminder of her boundaries. We can al...

It's been a month - 32 days since the Safe at Home order was first issued in Wisconsin and 44 days since school has been closed.  It's about this time that we need to remember to count our blessings and look for all the things to be thankful for and I'm going to try to find 32: 1.  It's been wonderful to be outside in the mornings with my beautiful Bella.  She lights up my day! 2.  Bailey and Jingle, the other two furry friends in our home also are a blessing. 3.  Morning coffee 4.  Peepers chirping each night and chickadees singing in the mornings 5.  Good books - I just finished Becoming by Michelle Obama and Educated   by Tara Westover 6.  Praise and worship music (Rend Collective does socially distant worship every week) 7.  Family time playing cards, board games, spike ball, etc 8. Baking and creating delicious beauty 9. Dusted off the espresso maker and finally figured out how to froth the milk 10....

On my many trips to the outdoors this week (you can't go anywhere else), I noticed that my daffodils were starting to sprout.  That's one thing I love about perennials - even though they've died off in the fall, they will grow new again each spring.  They are a beautiful visual of God's seasonal purposes and the value of a long winter's rest.  This whole coronavirus situation has got me thinking about growth.  There are lots of different kinds of growth.  Some growth is cyclical like my daffodils, hyacinths and brown eyed susans.  Death and rebirth reoccur regularly throughout the cycle of each plant's life.  Sometimes it feels like that in my spiritual life too.  I go through spiritually dry seasons where reading the Bible is a laborious task and nothing seems to awaken my soul.  And then I find myself thirsting for the Word, finding new insights daily, hearing God's voice on a regular basis as I seek Him each morning.   On the ...

28  “Come to me,  all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.   29  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,  for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.   30  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Have you ever noticed how dogs and cats can just lay down in the middle of the day, multiple times a day and fall sound asleep?  God made them with internal clocks that need breaks and sleep and truth be told, God made us with the same rhythms in our bodies.  We need rest and that's why God created the Sabbath.  God values our work but He tells us to rest from it one day out of seven, to set aside time for Him, for reflection, for quiet, for family.  I think He knew that we could get wrapped up in our work and never put it down and that if we weren't commanded to stop, sit down and rest, we would just try to keep going like the Energizer bunny.  But no matter how energ...

When I was a young adult, living away from home for the first time and feeling pretty alone in my faith, I found a way to be at church almost every time the doors were opened.  I took on a second job working at the preschool because I genuinely loved working with the people from church.  I hardly knew anyone and most people were old enough to be my grandmother or even great-grandmother, but I joined their prayer circle and I soaked up Sunday morning service even if it wasn't the denomination I was familiar with.  The old church was within walking distance of my apartment and it was a place of refuge from the world, an unwelcoming place for someone who wanted to follow God's Word, so it became my home away from home.  I was only there a short time but I dove into that church and served, and found joy and peace in the family of God. And here we are today in 2020 where the world is a bit unwelcoming in general (we have to be, I know).  And we can't meet together ...

2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." This is definitely a time for us as the body of Christ to come together in prayer.  There are so many things to pray for:  healing for those who have contracted COVID-19, safety for those who are vulnerable, that the spread of the virus would come to halt, for all our medical professionals on the front lines, and for the researchers who are trying to find a vaccine or medication that could lessen the symptoms.  YES, let's pray together for healing from this virus and let's fall on knees before God for His intervention because only He has power over disease.   But when I look at this commonly quoted verse in 2 Chronicles, I notice a few things:   One, what is the attitude and heart of this prayer? Two, what is it t...