Change your overwhelmedness

It has been quite a season here in the Thayer home. It's been a good season but a trying one nonetheless. Through the fall and winter, we've gone through the process of listing our house, selling it, and buying another house. It's a tall order while parenting four young kids! And we're finally here. In the homestretch. It's moving week. The box truck comes home tonight and we spend the next two evenings finishing up our packing and loading the truck and we move on Thursday. It's the week we've been waiting for and we're so excited and thankful. But friends, I'm overwhelmed. The list in my head is going something like this... you have to make lunch but wait first you need to do dishes gosh why didn't i pack the cups yet i need to pack the cups and silverware still i need to assemble another box okay now i really need to start laundry and start packing a suitcase for the kids to go to grandmas oh crud lucy drew on the wall again wheres that magic eraser oh no i totally forgot about that closet should i really throw this away what time is the cable company coming where are we going to put all the food from the fridge for 36 hours when should i go drop off that trunkload of donation items what are we going to have for dinner?

It's not my favorite mode to live in.

I texted Eric today as asked him to bring home Taco Bell for dinner. Again. (We'll stop grabbing fast food AFTER we move. For real. We really will.) And I told him I was overwhelmed and there is so much left to do and pack. He sent me this link and said, "Watch this. Change your overwhelmedness." Change your overwhelmedness. Overwhelmed is a pretty big word. It means to bury or drown beneath a huge mass. It's pretty much how I've been feeling yesterday and today but I listened to that song. And I was overwhelmed. I actually took my moment to be buried in God's great love. I let myself drown in his grace. For a moment I just sat and allowed myself to be quiet with him and reflect on his love and grace for me. And I was overwhelmed. It's hard to be drowning in these short lived fears and anxieties when you are drowning in His eternal love.

God talks a lot about what we look at. He tells us to "behold" him and what he has done. He tells us to turn our eyes on him and when we do something happens. We're overwhelmed in a different sea and it's a sea that gives us life, not destruction. God tells us to cast our anxieties on him because he cares for us and as I spent those moments with him, it was so easy to hurl those cares on him. It was easier to toss them when I was focused on HIM. In Philippians we read, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Now, I'm not about to think that my stress about moving compares to what you're going through. Maybe you're in the midst of losing a home or important relationship. Maybe your marriage is falling apart. Or your career. Maybe your health is deteriorating or the car repairs are more than you will earn in the next two weeks. Maybe right now motherhood feels like running a marathon with bricks tied around your ankles. But, dear friend, I promise that the greatness of God's love and grace is bigger. I PROMISE. I promise that his perfect peace is available to you and it will BLOW YOUR MIND. I mean, after all, it transcends all understanding. Just look at him. Look at him and who he is. He is not disappointing. Lift up your eyes, friend.

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

The Invisible Time: Finding time for God in a busy world

I love the Lord. I love him with all my heart. There's no one I want to please as much as him and certainly no one else I trust as much as him. I love to worship him, talk to him, be with him, and serve him. But sometimes, it is so hard to slow down and be still with him. I can't be the only one, right? Life is so busy and so nonstop and sometimes I get in this rut where I start thinking about my time with God as another chore; another commitment on my calendar. I'll still fill my calendar with things I'm doing to serve him but end up skipping out on my alone time with him so I can plan another event, organize another meeting, or dream of another ministry. I'll make time to talk to the brokenhearted, encourage the hopeless, and lead the lost but I find myself too busy and frazzled to sit and be quiet with the One whom I love. And it doesn't work.

When I get in those cycles, I find myself burning out really quickly. I start getting snippy with my husband and angry with my kids. I begin to look at my ministry opportunities as drudge work and not the privilege I had been asking God to give me and I find myself looking at people as chores, not gifts from God. It's really awful, actually.

This weekend my area was hit really hard with a windstorm and we found ourself without power. It was very unpleasant. As a kid I thought a power outage was the best! We would light candles and cuddle around the wood burning stove while we pretended we lived in the 'olden days' and wished our whole town would turn off the power and water for an 'olden days weekend.' We failed to understand why all the grownups didn't agree. Well, this time, I was the adult. And it was NOT the same. We woke up to the clocks out. Bummer. Oh rats, we can't charge the phones. Bummer. Wait. NO COFFEE????? Serious bummer. And the list went on. The house started getting colder, I couldn't take a shower, I couldn't wash the laundry or run the dishwasher, I couldn't pop on a TV show to entertain the kids while we packed to get out of town. Wait, I can't even put a youtube video on the laptop? No WiFi?? What about the quarter cow in the freezer? How can I even make breakfast? I'm telling you. It was seriously not fun. And all I could think of was how good I have it on a regular basis. I take it for granted.

I find myself the same way with God. I LOVE my quiet time with my heavenly Father. I am encouraged, refined, uplifted, and coached by my perfect and holy God and it is incredible. He speaks to me and gives me clarity, he blesses me with peace and rids me of my fears. When I'm with God on a regular basis, the ministry set before me flows out of me with love and grace. It's such a wonderful way to be and to live. But at some point, I find myself starting to take it for granted. I forget or end up too busy for a couple days and then start only finding brief moments for my precious time with Him. If I let that pattern continue, I start to see the effects of being disconnected to my power source. When I'm plugged in to him, it's easy to forget what I am without that connection.

The hard part is that these days, we often mark our success by how packed our calendars are. We've started to think that our value is based on how much we can possibly do and not so much on whose we are. I've found myself caught in that trap more than I'd like to admit but God's been teaching me a lot about that. I think what really shines through a Christian is that time with God; the invisible time. No one sees you doing it, it doesn't take up calendar space, and you aren't 'accomplishing' anything. It's invisible but the power that comes from it is remarkable. It's the power to walk in grace when in our flesh we'd lash out. It's the power to look at another person beyond their circumstance, appearance, or social standing. It's the power to do more, love more, and be more than we ever could have on our own. It might be the invisible time but the effects are seen in incredible ways. Like my electricity, no one can see my relationship with God but like my living room lamp, I am illuminated by it.

War and Marriage: A series for wives Part 3

This week we're diving into the first part of the armor of God which is the belt of truth. For those who haven't been with us so far, we're talking about the spiritual battle taking place over our marriages and I highly suggest checking out Parts 1 (Here) and 2 (Here).

We'll start off by looking at the belt that this scripture is referring to. Roman soldiers wore a belt as sort of the 'anchor' for their armor. The belt was used to hold up their long robes so they could run and fight and was most likely the first piece of armor they would have put on. Also, they wore the belt even when not in battle. The belt had a spot for them to keep their sword and metal strips in the front to protect their... uh... manhood. (Hence the phrase "gird your loins with the belt of truth".) So the belt was a really important piece and like I mentioned, kind of a staple for them.

In marriage, truth is vital. We know it's important to be honest with our spouse but we're going to be talking about more than that. We're going to be looking at GOD'S truth for our marriages. It's simple but without it, we don't stand a chance. I know it can be really hard to filter the lies of the enemy in marriage so let's break down some of the ways we can put on the truth as wives.

The first thing is to realize that truth and facts are different. Facts are subject to change. Truth is not. For example, I can be sick today but tomorrow I can be well. The fact is that I'm sick today. That fact might not be the same tomorrow. The TRUTH is that God is healer. That will be the same tomorrow. I can't change that. It's constant and unchanging and unaffected by the facts. The fact might be that you have been a nagging or rude wife. The TRUTH is that God created you for good works which he set out before you. Here's the tricky part though... the enemy will use those facts to tell lies. The facts are neutral and the enemy will always use them to bend your mind HIS way. If the fact is that you've been a nagging, rude wife, the enemy will tell you that you're worthless, that you can't change, that it's your husband's fault you act that way, that it's the kids fault, that you're justified in it, that you're undesirable because of it, that your husband won't want you because of it, that your marriage won't be better because of it... You get the picture. It's all doom and gloom. It's all hopeless. It's all negative.

When you have that SAME fact that you've been nagging and rude and look at it through the TRUTH of God, it starts to look a whole lot different. God says, I have cast your sins as far as the east is from the west, go and sin no more, I have made you new, I make beauty from ashes, I can speak life into dry bones, marriage is from me, I am your healer, you can hope in me, trust in me, you are clothed in my righteousness, you are forgiven. It's all hopeful. It's all loving. It's all good.

When you don't know if you're believing the truth or a lie, just start looking at the fingerprints. The fingerprints of the enemy are doom, gloom, and destruction. The fingerprints of God are love, forgiveness, and hope. The enemy will lie about you and your value and also about your husband and his value. It's a messy thing when we start listening to him. When we do, we start believing his lies and speaking them out. The Bible talks a lot about the power of the tongue (the tongue has the POWER of life and death). When we start speaking the death stuff with our powerful tongue, it's not such a great situation. But when we start speaking out the TRUTH with that powerful tongue, it's amazing what can happen. The truth empowers both us and our husbands. It gives us hope and helps us remember we were created for more than what the enemy has been telling us. It reminds us that our value is based on God, not on what we do, and that allows us to live in freedom, not in bondage.

I want to encourage you to explore the lies you have been believing about your marriage. Have you been believing that your husband's pornography addiction means you are unattractive and worthless? LIE. Have you been believing that your sharp tongue or lazy tendencies can't be helped? LIE. Do you believe that you married the wrong person? LIE. Do you believe that your problems are too big for God to help? LIES! Take some quiet time in your prayer time and ask God to search your heart and reveal to you what lies you have been believing. I want you to write them down and counter them with the truth of what GOD says about each of those things. Not facts, just truth. Incorporate that into your prayer time every day and see what starts to happen as those mental strongholds start to crumble. "Take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5.

So belt up, ladies! Put on the first piece of your armor every morning and wear it all day long. You got this.

We're so in love.