Sunday Sentiments

I had a conversation a few days ago with one of my friends...about daily devotions. She confessed to me that they sometimes feel like a chore to her and she felt bad saying that.

I told her I understood both the way she felt...and the way she felt about the way she felt. I'd been there in different seasons of my life. 

My parents raised me on family devotions every night before bed. I tended to throw a fit when it was time for them, not so much because I didn't like devotions, but because the arrival of devotions signaled the end of the day and bedtime around the corner. I fought bedtime then as hard as I fight it now. 

But I remember when I turned eleven and decided to take my faith seriously. I started by taking personal devotions seriously. I set aside a solid thirty minutes every night before bed to read the Bible, journal, and pray. It clicked for me, and I loved it. All the way through junior high, high school, college, and beyond, I was insistent about that half hour. Even my college roommates knew that was a big deal to me and I preferred to be left alone when arranged on my bunk with all my devo supplies.

But even though I'm great at keeping an appointment, there have certainly been seasons where my heart hasn't been as invested, and that always makes me feel terribly sad inside. 

This week I read a list of verses about what my response to Scripture should be, and the words I read in the Word challenged my heart:

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. - Joshua 1:8

I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. - Job 23:12

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. - Psalm 119:103

I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. - Psalm 119:131

I underlined the words in my Bible and asked God for a fresh hunger and desire to spend time at length studying, learning, and ingesting. 

There are so many loud noises clamoring for my attention. The noises clamoring for yours may be different, but they exist, just the same. But to sit before the Lord and stay in His presence is the desire of my heart. 

The Saturday Six

One.

I don't have tabs on my Bible - but I saw this set and really loved them. I think if I were going to put tabs on my Bible, this would be the set I'd pick. Not only do I love the font, but I love it that the color scheme matches the breakdown of books throughout Scripture. (Law, history, poetry, etc.) Super cute!

Two.

Some friends of mine used to live in Cannon Beach, Oregon, and that's how I first learned about the beautiful Haystack Rock and the small town feel of this place. It is absolutely on my list of places I want to go with Ryan! Any of you ever been there? 

Three.

If you're learning about houseplants like I am, maybe this article would be helpful to you! I'm still getting the hang of our plants and what they need in terms of light and water. 

Four.

I hunted back through the history of the blog and could not find where I had linked to this before, but if I have, just bless my heart and read it again! Meanwhile...Ryan, let's take a year off and do THIS!!!! 

Five.

Between the pandemic, our move, and our new job, our practice of hospitality looks mightily different than it used to. But I ran across this article this week and discovered we do many of these things right in our own building with our tenants! As we look ahead to days when more of you might be gathering with others again, keep some of these simple things in mind! 

Six.

It's not a healthy recipe, but it sure does look delicious. And homemade ice cream cakes fascinate me so much. How about you? 

Memories...Months 71-80

 

In the 10 months I recapped yesterday, Ryan and I had just enjoyed a taste of working together in ministry, and we had no idea that the next ten months would bring some of the biggest challenges and testing we'd faced in our marriage. Not because of marriage itself, but because of life. These ten months we're about to peek at today were so hard, but so refining to us individually and as a couple!

Month 71. 

This was the month in which we expanded our dog-sitting beyond Phoebe and met sweet Deuce, an Australian Blue-Heeler who belonged to Ryan's cousin. He stayed with us for a week, and we fell madly in love with him. We also opened our home to a missionary on his way back home from the field - which kind of felt like having an Airbnb for a week! We sold a piece of land we'd owned for our entire marriage, after we learned we couldn't build on it like we dreamed. (A hard loss, but a relief in the end.) We had the best time hiking Turkey Run State Park with our friends Shawn and Amber, which resulted in about a dozen scrapbook pages of memories. I was called for jury duty but the case was moved to a different court and I was dismissed. But the biggest and hardest news of the month was finding out Ryan's mom had a brain tumor. Just a few days after her diagnosis, she had surgery to have it removed and forty-one of us showed up in the hospital waiting room for that surgery. (That hospital did not know what was coming that day.) The surgery was successful in removing the tumor, but we knew it was just a temporary fix and that the long-term prognosis was not good. 

Month 72.

Right after Ryan's mom's surgery, we headed off to serve at another women's retreat, and we had a great time in ministry AND in staying with friends that weekend! Because this month was November, we also decorated for Christmas, had Thanksgiving with our families, and had a super fun Black Friday date at the Carmel Christkindlmarket. But the most memorable time for this month started the day we came home from that women's retreat: Ryan's mom moved in with us for two weeks so Ryan could take care of her as she recovered from surgery. He was a gem: monitoring her medication, reading her devos to her, keeping track of her vitals, taking her to the rehab hospital to exercise, taking her shopping...and I did my best to be a good caregiver, but I'm not the natural that he is. I did cook all her meals (which were on a strict diet to monitor her sugar and carbs), did her laundry, talked with her often, welcomed her visitors, and made sure she didn't try to do anything she shouldn't. And one time, when things got rough, Ryan left work to bring me donuts in the closet, where I was hiding to cry for a little bit. Husband of the year! 

In the middle of all the caretaking, we were able to get away for a long weekend to celebrate our sixth anniversary. We went to Louisville, Kentucky, and we had a lot of fun that weekend! We stayed in the CUTEST Airbnb, took a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum, at at Guy Fieri's Smokehouse, Toured a old plantation home, went through Lights Under Louisville (Christmas lights in a drive thru cave!), and had brunch in a rotating restaurant high above the Ohio River!

Month 73. 

We came home from our anniversary and immediately had some visitors stay with us! My niece and her husband and baby were in town for a funeral and stayed with us for a couple of days! We were sorry for the reason for their visit, but we sure were glad to see them! We did all our regular Christmas dates, but most of our free time was spent Ryan's hospital visiting his mom, who was there for a couple of weeks. And since she was hospitalized so close to our house, we hosted the family Christmas that year. Between that family Christmas and Ryan's extended family Christmas, we took plenty of pictures, because we figured it would be the last one for everyone to be together just like this. 

Month 74. 

We actually spent our monthiversary to enter this month at the hospital with Ryan's mom, after she had a serious setback that signaled the beginning of the end. Everything changed on the day this month began. Ryan and I did as much as we could to go on dates and spend quality time together: went to First Friday in Kokomo, went on breakfast dates, watched Deuce again, and even hosted our friends Frog and Jenna at our home for a couple of stays. But most of our time was spent driving back and forth to Indianapolis to see Ryan's mom in ICU and then driving out to the cabin twice a week for our shifts in caring for her. 

Month 75.

Ryan and Shawn were able to go on their second annual ski trip this month, which was a break Ryan so very much needed. I kept track of the ski lodge all day. ;) I did a couple of speaking engagements this moth, and we also marked Kosciusko County off our tour list. (And I moved it to the top of the list of counties I'd like to live in.) Deuce came to visit again, which made my heart so happy! We went on a belated Valentine's Day date, since we were with Ryan's mom ON Valentine's Day. And the rest of our month was spent making as many memories as we could with Ryan's mom. 

Month 76. 

This was the month our lives changed forever again - when we said goodbye to the first of our parents. Ryan's mom went home to Heaven just a few days into this month, and though we were profoundly relieved for her that she no longer had to suffer as she had been, we were also so very sad for this loss in our lives. God granted one of Ryan's biggest prayers: he was able to be with his mom and holding her hand as she passed away. He took such tender care of her over those final months, and I was so proud of him for his tenacity in an exhausting time. Other than speaking at a retreat at the end of the month (which was a dear, sweet time for both of us) everything about this month revolved around Nita's final days, her funeral, and the beginning of this stage of our grief journey. 

Month 77. 

Toward the beginning of this month, we started helping Ryan's dad and step-mom work on their house so they could put it on the market. They'd moved and needed to update their old home. We did a lot of painting and other projects throughout that month! But the biggest news of the month was Ryan's 40th birthday and the cruise we took to celebrate! We spent a week in the (sometimes stormy) Caribbean, which was far prettier than Indiana was that month. We were on the Carnival Sunshine and when the boat wasn't tossing in the storm, we had a lot of fun! We actually spent Easter on board the ship, and our ports were Aruba, Curacao, and the Dominican Republic. (You remember the waterfalls...) Ryan loved his birthday cruise! 

Month 78. 

Miss Braeya became a teenager this month, and we also welcomed a new small-group-sized couch into our home. (We still love it!) We hosted our first Mommapalooza without Ryan's mom - which also turned out to be our last Mommapalooza. It was a good six-year run of a tradition! We celebrated my 41st birthday, worked on some landscaping around the house, and our biggest moment of the month was serving together at our church for a women's event. I'd recently joined a newly formed women's ministry team at church, and they had a huge spring event and asked me to be the speaker. Ryan came to serve, too, and it was such a pivotal evening for us!

Month 79.

We started something new this month - and began the plans to have the sunroom put on the back of our house in Kokomo! We also planted the Miss Juanita - a tree we got with a gift card from our small group. (We still miss that tree!) We spent many more hours with Ryan's dad and step-mom, continuing to work on the house they needed to sell, and we served as co-narrators in the patriotic program at our church. But our favorite memory from that month was our quick trip to St. Joseph, Michigan, where we went to meet our favorite Bible study author, Erica Wiggenhorn. While we were there, we spent some time on Silver Beach, hiked a park, and decided St. Joseph could be our home away from home. (And I may or may not still peruse real estate there on a regular basis.)

Month 80.

We went back to tradition this month and watched fireworks over the lake again. Our friends Frog and Jenna came to visit and their kids asked if our house was a hotel, so with about two hours' notice, I turned it into one! (Complete with a check-in desk and everything!) We went to the fair a couple of times, visited DeKalb County (complete with a tour of Sechler's Pickles and an old car museum! Our big news of the month, though, was taking down a privacy fence around our back deck and prepping for the next step of the sun porch to come in! Teamwork!!

So there we have it! Ten months that weren't the easiest, but they did draw us so close together and close to the Lord!