kelly

When God Speaks…

April 1, 2008 By kelly Leave a Comment

God isn’t through talking to me about His grace. Yesterday, he laid Ephesians 2 on my heart. That was powerful and just so needed. Well, He knew how much I needed that reminder because today when I signed onto MySpace, look what verse came up on my daily Bible verse application:

Some might call that coincidence. Some might say it was random. I say it’s a God thing. He’s working on me all the time and today He gave me yet another blessed reassurance that His grace is what saves me. I am forever grateful for that beautiful grace and for the subtle and not-so-subtle reminders God gives me.

Saved by Grace

March 31, 2008 By kelly Leave a Comment

I’ve been really struggling lately. It’s a hard thing to admit, but it’s true. I have been down and just feeling completely uncomfortable in my own skin and overwhelmed at life lately. It’s not even something I can put into accurate words, but I’ve been in what I’d call “a funk” for awhile now. I realized today that I haven’t been praying this through. I haven’t gotten into prayer and given this to God. And, that hit me like a ton of bricks today when things seemed to all come down on me all at once again.

As I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, I kept having a thought to go to my Bible. I’m thinking “Okay, but let me finish these kitchen counters because they really need cleaning.” The thought just kept recurring to me over and over to go to my Bible. So, I took off my cleaning gloves and went down to the garage to get my Bible out of the van. On the way back up to the kitchen it occurs to me that I don’t know which passage to even turn to, but I know something is supposed to come to my attention. As I get ready to enter the kitchen again, I have Ephesians on my heart. Okay, so Ephesians…got it. But, where? I open the Bible to Ephesians and immediately my eyes go to Ephesians 2. This chapter is all about being made alive in Christ. Alive, truly alive. Not ever condemned to eternal death, but given the gift of salvation and life. Life, the very thing I’ve been finding stressful and hard lately. But, to see it like that – to be promised once again that life is a gift and will be eternal through faith in Jesus…wow. I needed that. I truly needed it. I also needed that blessed reassurance of being saved by God’s amazing grace. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 states this – For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. I know that God lead me to that verse. He laid it on my heart that He has saved me and it’s not because of me, but because of His graciousness. There is nothing I can do to earn the grace He so freely gives. Nothing could come close to being worthy of His outpouring. Amazing, isn’t it? And, I so needed that on my heart today. Although I have felt so broken and so down, God hasn’t seen me that way. He hasn’t seen me as unworthy of His graciousness. Instead, He is continually faithful even when I am down and don’t remember to look up.

I prayed after I read and I asked God to help me, help me and guide me. I want to give this to Him because without Him, I have no way to rise above. But, with Him and thanks to His ever-present Grace, I know I’ll be okay. Forever.

Daily Bible Reading

February 4, 2008 By kelly Leave a Comment

One of my goals for this year is to read my Bible daily. Initially, I had planned to read the Bible through in a year using a study Bible of Mickey’s. I will admit that I had a hard time with getting into it at first. Genesis is not exactly the easiest or most comforting read in the Bible, after all. I made it through Genesis and most of the way through Exodus and I’m sort of a place now where I feel like I need to do more. So, I am working on still doing daily readings, but going about them in a different way. I am reading a book called The Bathtub is Overflowing, but I feel Drained: How to Defeat Mommy Stress which is a nice Bible study for Moms. It’s not that I am feeling overwhelmed or stressed out constantly by motherhood, but how many of us moms haven’t had times when we felt like we were in a pressure cooker, right? My mom had gotten this book for me several months ago and I just picked it up to read it. I am really enjoying it. I love the real looks it gives into mothering and how it brings a calming message from the Bible for mothers. So far, so good. I’m enjoying it. I’m getting my daily Bible readings in and getting some Christian mothering advice in the process.
Win/Win!!

So, back to the “reading the Bible through” plan I mentioned above. I’d still like to do that. I really would. I am going to do my best to get back into that as well. I hope it doesn’t sound awful to say, but I do have a hard time getting through the difficult parts of the Old Testament. I keep on wanting to skip ahead to the New Testament, but I know I need to read it all for the full picture. So, I will keep reading and pray that God continues to open my heart to what He wants me to glean from His word daily.

Book Review – “The Oak Leaves” by Maureen Lang

February 4, 2008 By kelly Leave a Comment

The Oak Leaves
By Maureen Lang / Tyndale House

A beautiful young son, a devoted husband, a successful life; Talie Ingram has it all. When Talie comes across the journal of a nineteenth century ancestor, though, it seems as though the perfect life her family has lead may come to an end.

Written in the journal are tales of the family being cursed with feebleminded offspring. Talie decides to ignore the journal, burying it back to the recesses of the past. However, when her son begins showing sign of developmental delay, Talie must reexamine the legacy that she has passed onto her son, and make peace with the unborn child that she is carrying. Maureen Lang, softcover, 401 pages.

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Kelly’s Review:

I really REALLY enjoyed this book. From start to finish, I was completely taken by it and didn’t want to put it down. It’s the first in a new series and I am already anxious for the second book which is due out later this year.

The Oak Leaves is basically two stories in one book. It starts with Talie Ingram and her current family which includes her husband Luke and young son Ben. That part is set in modern day. The other part of the story comes into play when Talie finds and reads a journal that was kept by a distant grandmother in the 1850s in Ireland and England. That character is Cosima and her story involves her family, the “curse” associated with her family in Ireland, her faith and her plight to true love. In modern day, Talie and Luke are noticing trends in young Ben that concern them – he is not reaching developmental milestones on time, etc. Through reading Cosima’s journal, Talie comes to find that this happened in Cosima’s family in Ireland and was known as a curse because of those in her family that were “feeble-minded.” Talie and Luke seek to find answers and want to uncover the truth about Ben’s condition. In the meantime, they discover that Talie is pregnant again and share concerns about the future of their unborn child. They draw strength and determination from their faith (although, this book deals so beautifully with the questions they have even with faith firmly in place) and from reading Cosima’s journal. I don’t want to give away too much, so I won’t say anymore about the two plots.

Both stories were beautifully told. Both were captivating and I grew to care about the characters immediately. When I read the description of the book initially, I’ll admit that I wasn’t sure that I’d like a story that went back and forth between two time periods. However, the way Maureen Lang wrote this book, the two stories blend together beautifully. I found myself eager to find out what would happen next in both of the stories as both captivated my interest.

This book is an excellent piece of Christian fiction. It doesn’t shy away from topics like questioning God and it doesn’t sugar coat the tough issues that faced by Christians. I appreciated the raw emotion the book allowed the characters to have and how tests of faith do come along in our lives. I also appreciated how those issues were handled.

The Oak Leaves was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I’d recommend it to readers of Christian fiction. I am already anxious for the second installment of this series to be released. In the meantime, the next time I buy books I am going to look for more by Maureen Lang.

Ear Tubes…

January 8, 2008 By kelly Leave a Comment

I couldn’t think of anything more original to title this post. So, it’s just “ear tubes.” That’s because our baby girl, Mariana, is having ear tubes put in tomorrow. Last fall and winter she had a rough go of it as far as colds and ear infections, etc. She finally got some relief through spring and summer, but as soon as fall rolled back around this year her health troubles started again. The worst of this year’s bouts started around Thanksgiving. She got sick then and just could NOT shake it for a long time. It’s a long story, but the general gist is that we wound up changing pediatricians and got one that will listen to us. Her old ped was pretty insistent that her colds and such were asthma related and I insisted they were sinus related. The only time she had any relief was on antibiotics and she just can’t live on those, as we all know. Anyway. Cutting to the chase, she is getting tubes put in tomorrow to help with all the ear infections and chronic fluid she has in her ears. The surgery is “simple” as surgeries go. I’m not at all worried about that part. I’m nervous about the anesthesia. But, we will pray our way through it and continue to have nothing but hope that our girl comes through it feeling MUCH better and relieved on the other side.