My dining room is currently the location of a small but important science experiment. 

We have a GoPro and an ICE Light (this photography lighting tool that looks like a light saber) hovering over dishes containing lemon juice, apple juice, orange juice, and good old-fashioned air. 

This morning we dipped some apple slices in the various liquids (or air) and we’re waiting to see how the liquids (or lack thereof) affect the browning of the apples.

I’ve peeked in throughout the day and lemon juice is a definite front runner, but apple juice has held her own pretty well. No juice is definitely not a great choice if you’re trying to slow the browning process, so that hypothesis has been nailed down pretty tight.

It has got me thinking though: 

What’s stopping you and me from turning brown? Anything?

Ask ten people about their life in 2020, and you’ll get ten stories. But some common themes will surely emerge… words like tough, challenging, difficult, discouraging. 

Nothing magical happens when we flip the calendar to a new year – so what can we do with the control we do have to live a different story this year?

Here’s the thing, friend. You and me? 

We’re like apple slices. And every day we get out of bed, the world wants to convince us that it’s full of reasons to be mad, angry, sad and completely hopeless. 

We could go along with that. Because there seems like a lot of evidence to credit that point.

But a writing coach/mentor of mine this week pointed out something I’m still thinking about. COVID has spread from person to person, right? It’s contagious like that, so one person has it… and then they can pass it on to another person, and so on.

But lots of other things are contagious, too. The kinds of things that stop us from turning brown. Kindness can be contagious. Hope can be contagious. Watch a stadium of fans in the last thirty seconds of a tight game. Respect, gentleness, patience, perseverance… so many good things can be contagious. 

The best way for us to go out and spread the good stuff is to get absolutely smothered in it, every day.  

We dipped those apple slices, and then flipped them over to wet the other sides, tapped off the drips and sat them out for observation.

And you and I? We can get saturated in God’s goodness. 

We can soak in it. We can dive deep in the Word. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Read it aloud. Study it. Listen to it being read.

We can swim far in the ocean of prayer. Long and deep on our knees prayer. Quick and quiet under our breath throughout the day prayer. Big group prayers and all alone prayers.

We can worship, praising God for the beautiful sunrise out our window, giving thanks for the food in the pantry, singing at the top of our lungs, or just holding onto a tune in our hearts. We always need reminding: we can feed on His faithfulness.

Three hours have passed and that lemon-juice-soaked apple slice might be starting to show the faintest signs of browning. 

Sitting out in the world without preservatives will do that to us eventually.

But this is where the story departs for you and me: we can go boldly out into the world, ready to be a contagion of light – and then when we need it, wherever we are, we can come home to Jesus and get soaked again.

P.S. Just for fun… I updated my Five Step Meal Plan Guide with a month’s worth of our favorite weeknight meals in 2020. If you’re hoping to eat well at home this year, I’d love for you to grab the free updated guide by clicking below. It’ll walk you through setting up a meal plan system in five steps, and it includes 40 recipe ideas to get your wheels turning! 

And please, if it’s helpful, please share this link with a friend so they can enjoy it, too!! 

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

True story. The Hubs and I have a pretty dialed in routine. 

He makes the coffee while I start the laundry.

I fill the bowls while he pours the juice.

And apparently?

He closes the curtains to our cloffice. (Ya know, the closet/office.)

He was away for a shoot this week (the kind that involves cameras and drones, not guns) and I was deep in thought, pulling off layers of exercise clothes with nary a care.

It was only when I grasped the waistband of my yoga pants to tug them down that I happened to look up and realize – ugh, whoops – I’m changing clothes in front of an open window.

My goodness, I was grateful I still had a shirt on as I walked to the window and pulled the curtains shut.

Looks like I need to do a little bit more paying attention.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s can be pretty weird right? 

I often feel fuzzy about what day it is, or what I’m supposed to be doing. Do I have to pack up the Christmas stuff now… or can I leave it out until February?

But collectively – perhaps globally – we’re also in this period of transition. It’s not just about flipping the calendars and saying goodbye to 2020, though that’s part of it, it seems like something more. As vaccines roll out and we think maybejustmaybe there is an end in sight for this pandemic, there’s an awful lot to think about. 

What does that mean for you and me?

It could mean a lot of things. So instead of nailing down resolutions for 2021 or preparing to foist yourself back into your life pre-pandemic routine, I’d like to encourage you to just give yourself some time to pay attention.

Maybe while you’re paying attention, you can direct that attention to a few specific questions.

• What gifts can I remember with gratitude as I say goodbye to this season?
• Has living in a pandemic brought on some fresh anxiety for me?
• Are there new worries or fears that I perhaps ought to get into the habit of bringing to the cross?
• Has my pace changed in these pandemical times – and was any of that change perhaps for the better?
• How is my body feeling? How might I care for it better in the year ahead?
• Does the idea of new resolutions fill me with excitement or dread?

You see, friend, even if all of us have lived through 2020, each of us has lived a different year. We’ve had different wins and different losses. Different highs and lows, successes, and failures.

And God’s plans for you, precious you? They are different from His plans for everyone else.

So in the midst of ringing in the New Year with a bang or a quiet, peaceful hooray, consider this your permission slip to take some time to just pay attention to what your soul might need in this season of transition. 

While you’re at it, remember:

Be kind to yourself. Don’t ignore the unease or dismiss the discomfort. Our most important lessons often come out of the hardest seasons we face. So grab a notebook and a pencil if it helps, and see what you can learn by just paying attention.

Looking back can be a precious gift to our souls before moving forward. 

And maybe? You won’t undress in front of the neighborhood because you’re paying attention.

P.S. My favorite/most popular New Year’s Post from ten years ago – when we had just one little kiddo in the Collie family – will bless you, heart and soul, if you can take a moment to read it. (It’s really good news.)

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

I got out for a walk last week to clear my thoughts and think some new ones.

When I came to a sharp turn on a tree-lined street, with fallen leaves scattered everywhere, the setting sun gently smiling through the gaps in the branches, I stopped to try to snap a picture of that beautiful moment in time.

Just that morning, I’d been praying and God had reminded me of the word “Adventure” and I was thinking about whether I am still excited by what’s around the bend in the road ahead.

Adventure was this magical word I felt God whisper to my heart, fully 20 years ago, when I was just beginning to walk with Him.

Adventure was this bold invitation. I said yes to adventure again, serving Him in Mexico for the summer a couple of years later.

The adventure of following Him took me to South Africa and Zambia the next year, and to Scotland the year after that.

His adventure was calling when I packed two suitcases and moved to Edinburgh for who-knew-how-long in 2005.

Saying yes to God’s invitation to adventure has meant so many things I treasure: marrying a South African I met in Scotland, calling two foreign countries home for extended periods, giving birth on three different continents.

Somewhere along the way though, things got hard. From financial struggles and harsh experiences on the mission field to “starting over” in North Carolina and, more recently, handling a traumatic medical experience, nearly losing a child. 

Maybe you can relate?

There are times when walking with God doesn’t exactly feel like the fun adventure you signed up for.

I realized, as I looked at that big curve in the road last week, that sometimes in our life, things can hurt so much we stop believing there can be something good around the bend.

We start to think maybe things are just always gonna be hard.

That belief can really slow us down.
That belief can really make us afraid.
That belief can lead us to start saying a polite “No thanks” to the adventure invitations from our God.

2020 has been a year of hard things and a year of disappointments for so many of us. We’ve said some really hard no’s, faced a lot of really challenging choices, maybe even said some very, very painful goodbyes.

But if we believe in the goodness of God, we have to believe the truth of His promises:

• That He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. {Jer. 29:11}
• That when we pass through the waters, He’ll be with us, and when we walk through the fire, we will not be burned. {Isaiah 43:2}
• That He doesn’t withhold good things from us as we walk with and toward Him. 
  {Psalm 84:11}

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to invite you into a deeper study of this idea, an invitation to begin to reframe our perspective so that we can look forward without fear.

For today, I’d like to encourage you to whisper these words to yourself, to really hear them with your whole soul:

Yes, this year was hard. Yes, so many things hurt. But God has not changed, and neither have His promises.

Our pain is a pathway toward His purposes for us, and there is good, there is good, there is GOOD yet to come. Even when you can’t see it, you know Him and can trust: more good is always just around the bend.

P.S. If you’re in gift-giving mode, I’d love to welcome you to visit my 2020 Holiday Gift Guide. It has ideas for different ages and budgets and I hope it’ll be a helpful slice of inspiration for you! Peace and GRACE to you today, friend!!! Click the link below to see the Holiday Guide and Grab the Hassle Free Holiday Guide I created to help you plan and prepare for more peace during the holidays!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

I’m not exactly a poster child for Good Housekeeping.

So when I switched to a new laundry detergent a few weeks ago, popped open the box and couldn’t find the scooper, I assumed it was buried under the mountain of powder and did what seemed logical:

I used the scooper from the other box.

I measured out the amount I’d used of the other detergent, dumped it into the washer, and carried on with my day.

Seemed like a great idea at the time.

But then things started coming out of the wash with a light dusting of powder, like a lightly frosted rooftop on a winter’s morning.

A desirable trait in rooftops, but not so much men’s trousers.

You can probably guess what happened next?

When I finally got down far enough in that powdery mountain of detergent to find the new scoop I was in for a surprise: it was like, half the size of the other one. Just for fun I measured the amount I had been using into the new scoop and watched it spill over the sides.

Whoops.

The thing is, it got my wheels turning — maybe laundry day has the same affect on you?

Just me?

I started wondering what else I’m using the wrong measuring tools for.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what success looks like. At the end of a year, looking back at what I hoped to do, and comparing that with what I actually did — how do I measure the success of the year?

I turned my thoughts a little higher and started thinking about what God’s definition of success is. And in a moment of clarity I had this thought: 

My checkboxes aren’t nearly as important as the way I’m going about living my days. 

The positioning of my heart, the way I’m turning it toward the Lord (or not) throughout the day, maybe this is what the Lord is looking for? 

A heart that wants to beat in time with His. A posture that leans toward justice, kindness and faithfulness.

What might you be examining in yourself at the end of 2020? And just as important: how are you choosing to measure your year?

Before jumping to any conclusions and dumping the detergent in the washtub, so to speak — consider what measuring stick you’re using for assessment.

God’s measuring stick, I think, looks more like a cross with the word GRACE etched across it. It whispers:

You can walk with gentleness, kindness, and love.

You can be patient, long-suffering and a blessing.

You can live with a heart of joy and peace. 

And when you mess up?

You can fall short and keep going.  

What if God is just looking for people who will turn their hearts towards His, aiming to hear His voice, to listen and obey? What if God is just looking for people who want to faithfully show up?  

As you measure yourself (and your neighbors) these days, remember the way God’s measuring you and me:

G R A C E.

P.S. If you’re in gift-giving mode, I’d love to welcome you to visit my 2020 Holiday Gift Guide. It has ideas for different ages and budgets and I hope it’ll be a helpful slice of inspiration for you! Peace and GRACE to you today, friend!!! Click the link below to see the Holiday Guide and Grab the Hassle Free Holiday Guide I created to help you plan and prepare for more peace during the holidays!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

Dumpster Fire.

It’s a really fun, trendy phrase to use to describe 2020, right?

I used it in a poem I wrote a few months ago for a writing group. Seemed appropriate.

It’s been a very hard year for a lot of people – and not just for the obvious reasons of all things political and pandemical.

Last week one precious reader-friend sent me an email that brought me to tears, where she shared about her Mom’s cancer diagnosis.

Another friend has been dealing with the aftermath of a heartbreaking car accident.

I can’t even get into that one – suffice it to say my heart starts beating a bit faster when I think of her.

How do we start looking up when the world around us feels so… down?

Laugh if you want, but I have a new practice in my own heart I want to share with you today. 

I like to call it “Lowest Common Denominator Gratitude.”

{If you’re new around here… uh, yes, I’m a homeschool Mama.}

With LCD gratitude, I like to start out by thinking of the simplest thing I can that I can be grateful for – something big enough to still put a smile on my face – but easy enough for me to remember that I can keep coming back to it daily.

Since we had a kid in the hospital for quite a while in 2019 (and a pretty touch-and-go situation for a while there) my perspective of the challenges of 2020 has been framed in such a way that I’ve been pretty grateful to face this year – compared with last year, ya know, there has been no serious feeling that death was personally imminent.

So, my LCD Gratitude often starts with, “Today is a good day, because the six of us are still alive and no one is in the hospital.”

Your LCD Gratitude might gravitate toward your friend who just lost their job, so you might say, “Today is a good day, because I still have a job.”

“My dog is still here.”

“I have a roof over my head.” 

“I have someone to talk to on a daily basis.”

“I’m not worried about where my next meal is coming from.” 

The great thing about LCD gratitude is that it’s really easy to build on. You’re not aiming for depth or profundity. You’re not a second-century Theologian trying to pinpoint the essential gifts of Christianity, as expressed in an understanding of the Trinity.

You simply look at your life, a glass of water, a dishwasher, shoes, electricity, deodorant, or a pair of underwear and say, “Today is a good day. I have ______.”

“Today is a good day. I have deodorant.” {And your co-workers said, Amen.}

“Today is a good day. I have underwear.” {And your co-workers said, Amen.}

Will it build from there?

Probably so. You might start thinking about deep and serious things that you’re so profoundly grateful for, it brings you to tears. That’s good.

It’s also wonderful to laugh, to take to heart that “freely and lightly” thing we talked about last week.

But for now, how about joining me in just starting somewhere simple?

Take a moment to lean over today and tell someone “Today is a Good Day because of your underwear.” 

You don’t have to pick that one, but it would sure be funny.

I welcome you to bring LCD gratitude to your Thanksgiving tables this week, friends. 

Light and fun, deep and meaningful: there is space to be grateful for everything. Like Paul encouraged the Thessalonians – in all circumstances.

Today has a good reason to be a good day. And? I kinda hope maybe you’ll never see your underwear the same way again.

P.S. I mentioned last week that my friend Bethany’s Podcast When God Breaks Through launched. Now that I’ve had a chance to listen to more episodes, I want to recommend it EVEN MORE. Parents in the crowd, and anyone who wants some wise teaching, look for it on Apple Podcasts! (You can find it by clicking here!) 

P.P.S. If shopping is on your to-do list, but you’d like some fun ideas or some help getting organized, please check out my 2020 Holiday Gift Guide full of ideas to take care of your list. (click here to check it out!) Or click below to grab my Hassle-Free Holiday Guide and get organized with a plan for gifts, menus, stocking stuffers and more!!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!

Not all invitations come in foil-lined envelopes with embossed lettering. 

I’m now convinced the most important ones don’t come in envelopes at all.

If you’re not familiar with the story of our family’s journey in the fall of 2019, let me give you a three sentence summary so this will make sense:

On Sept. 1, 2019, we rushed our eight-year old son to the ER for a severe headache, which turned out to be a brain aneurism called by an AVM (a tiny tangle of vessels in his brain). The bleeding was severe, but after more than two weeks in a coma, heaps of prayer, 23 days in the Pediatric ICU and 25 more in therapy, relearning to walk, talk, and even use the bathroom, Blake came home from the hospital. A few weeks later, we gathered our recovering little walking miracle and headed back to the hospital for Gamma Radiation – a slow-working, very targeted type of radiation intended to eradicate the AVM that caused the bleed.

Last week, you may have seen me mention Blake’s MRI – this was an opportunity to see whether the Gamma Radiation was effective.

We got the results and let’s be really honest now: they weren’t what we wanted to hear.

It turns out Blake still has an AVM – that tangle of vessels is still there. And while it’s a teensy bit smaller than before, it still poses a risk which is difficult to quantify. If he has an AVM, there’s a risk that he could experience another bleed – and that? Well, it’s pretty darn terrifying.

You know what my brain likes?

Road maps. Straight paths. Clear expectations. Guidelines. Lists. Rules. Even plans.

My brain, heart and soul all wanted one thing: to hear the news that the AVM was gone, that we could put that concern behind us, and move on with our lives.

But when we got the news that wasn’t the answer to prayer we were looking for? Well, I sensed an invitation. 

“Come to me, weary one. Come to me. You’re never going to fully understand what I’m doing this side of heaven. You’re not really supposed to. Instead, I’m inviting you to learn to trust Me. I’m inviting you to learn to walk with Me.”

A few years ago, I felt God really impressing upon me a fresh understanding of the importance of considering my perspective – that perspective is often a gift, and it’s truly priceless.

So I’m turning the picture over, and looking at it from different sides, trying to see it from more than one angle.

What if this daily reminder that this day could be our last is what I need – to really live?

What if our family’s willingness to endure these circumstances with faith and trust is going to pave the way for someone else to come to know Jesus?

What if there is so much more to the unfathomable, unsearchable, wonderful depths of God, and my willingness to walk this out, trying to hold onto Jesus, will take me to new depths in the richness of understanding His goodness? 

For me, for my Hero Hubs, for Blake, for each of our children: what if the path of walking on the heights with our Savior looks like walking through the valley of the shadow of death?

I’m trusting that somehow the invitation of Jesus to come, lay our burdens on Him and find that we can walk freely and lightly – that Word will be made flesh in our lives, right here in the midst of these difficult circumstances.

I’d love to turn to you, friend, with that same whisper: even with the struggles of 2020. Even with the politics and the pandemic. Even with the fear and the frustration.

Jesus came from outside of this world, to be the Truth that sets us free from the burdens of this world. He invites us to give Him our every worry. He invites us to lay our every burden on His able shoulders.

You and I? We’re warmly invited. And while the invitation might not arrive in your mailbox with gold-stamped lettering on a lovely textured envelope, it’s the most important invitation we could ever receive, open and RSVP to.

Whatever you’re carrying this week? Can I encourage you to lay it at His feet? You’ll be in good company – I’ll be there, too.

P.S. My dear friend Bethany Kimsey is launching a podcast today! If you are a mother with kids at home, hoping to learn more about applying the Gospel to your parenting, not with band-aids and quick fixes, but with deep and enduring truth, I can’t recommend Bethany’s words highly enough. She is a mother of eight with so much wisdom. Look for When God Breaks Through by Bethany Kimsey on Apple Podcasts! (You can find it by clicking here!) I’m so looking forward to listening in!

P.P.S. The Holidays are almost here, and I’d love to help you feel less frenetic and more focused as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach! Head over to my Holiday Gift Guide Page to  grab the 2020 Hassle-Free Holiday Guide I created just for you! It will help you plan menus and events, choose gifts and make lists, NOT feel like you’re forgetting everything and enJOY the days ahead so much more! I’ve already used it sitting down with my Mom to plan Thanksgiving and man, that was a good feeling!

Some posts on my site contain affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, I receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I love it when you do that! Thank you for your love and support!