Ryman Project

Below is a video of a family and their journey with newborn baby.   My prayer is it will encourage you to never give-up when dreams are shattered. 

Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

My Lighthouse

MY LIGHTHOUSE

In my wrestling and in my doubts,
In my failures You won’t walk out.
Your great love will lead me through.
You are my peace in the troubled sea.
You are my peace in the troubled sea.

In the silence, You won’t let go,
In my questions, Your truth will hold .
Your great love will lead me through.
You are my peace in the troubled sea.
You are my peace in the troubled sea.

My Lighthouse, my Lighthouse!
Shining in the darkness, I will follow You.
My Lighthouse, my Lighthouse!
I will trust the promise, You will carry me safe to shore. 
Safe to shore.
Safe to shore.
Safe to shore.

I won’t fear what tomorrow brings.
With each morning I’ll rise and sing.
My God’s love will lead me through.
You are the peace in my troubled sea.
You are the peace in my troubled sea.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from my family to yours!!!

I have a list of resolutions that I seem to start every year off with.  They are the exact same every year........ Lose 30 pounds (maybe this will be my year), get more organized (I feel like that's hopeless), and read the Bible through this year.  However, this year is different.  I'm starting off this year differently without this list and I am going to focus on one thing.

Be Intentional

I want to be intentional.  I want to use every chance to share my faith and story.  I want to love my family deeply.  I want to go out of my way to make people feel loved , important and included.  I want to pray with and for total strangers.  I want to live my life to the fullest and leave a mark on others life.

So here is my "list":

I'm going to try harder with my family to make them feel important and loved.

I'm going to call, text and write my friends more often to let them know how much they mean to me. 

I'm going to go out of my way to do things for people.

I'm going to go out of my way to invite people to things and to make people feel welcome. 

I'm going to share Jesus and my story every chance I get.

I'm not just going to read my Bible - I'm going to study it, savor it, memorize it. 

and 

I'm hoping I can be intentional with all that I do.  

Praying 2014 is the best year yet for you!

- Amy

2013

Well - it's the end of another year. 

And I feel the need for an End of Year Post.

So here are some of my TOPS for 2013:

My Top Moments of the Year: (and this is hard to narrow down - I've had so many wonderful moments in 2013)

- memories with our Bethany babies, adoptive families, birth families, and the staff at Bethany
- trips with Jody and celebration of 20 years of marriage and realizing again that he is my best friend and the love of my life
- positive outcome after a very scary health issue with Jody
- vacations
- being involved with Aroma church
- every single moment with my 2 precious daughters. No way I could pick top moments with them - every day has been amazing experiencing life with them both. 

My Top Songs for the Year

I love music - it inspires me and speaks to me.  I like to listen to pop music and even a little country some but I mostly listen to worship music. 


- Oceans by Hillsong  
- One thing Remains by Kristian Stanfill   
- Great Are You Lord  by All Sons and Daughters  
- Brokenness Aside by All Sons and Daughters 
- Waiting Here For You by Christy Nockels

Top Things I've learned This Year:

- Age is just a number.  Be thankful for every year, every month, every breath you are given. 

- Life is Short. This life is just a VAPOR.  I've been to many funerals in the last year.  Make your life count.  Every moment.  Don't wait for things to happen to experience joy.  We only get one chance. 

- All that matters to me is my faith.  All that matters to me is knowing Jesus and making His name known.  As Rick Warren said  - "I fear more the disapproval of God than I do the disapproval of men".  I have a passion for people to know Him.  I want to be faithful.   

- No one has a perfect life.  Everyone has things behind closed doors that you don't know about.  Be kind. Be encouraging. Speak words of blessings. Be understanding.  Forgive easily. Don't hold grudges. Life is too short for that. 

- The What Ifs of Worry are a disease that can eat you alive. I have struggled with so much anxiety in the last few years worrying about things.  God is in Control.  


2013 was a year full of so many wonderful things.  I'm praying I will be more intentional with 2014 and treasure each moment!  

it's ok to receive

Here’s a confession: I ain’t great at receiving. No, ma’am. This southern girl knows how to nod her head, keep her needs hidden, and just carry on with what has to be done.

Maybe you can relate?

I’m learning to open my hands and heart more as the years go by so God and others can pour into my life. But it’s still a lesson God has to bring me back to again and again. It’s simply hard for me to believe that it’s okay to receive.

Yet a story from Scripture recently changed my perspective. Peter and John are going to the temple. Along the way they pass a beggar. The man wants money but what he really needs is healing. Peter says these words to him: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you” {Acts 3:6}. Then in the name of Jesus Peter lifts this man to his feet to begin a new life full of all he has never known before–running, skipping, jumping, dangling his toes into water on a hot summer day.

The words that grip me in this story come from Peter: “What I have I give you.”

It’s simple, friends, we can’t give what we don’t have.

Yet at one point, Peter resisted receiving too. At the last supper when Jesus tried to wash his feet, Peter protested.

Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

John 13:6-8

Peter relents even if he doesn’t yet understand. I wonder if perhaps that day as he looked at the crippled feet of a beggar the scene from the Last Supper flashed through his mind again. I wonder if he finally connected the dots–that receiving from Jesus is what gives us the power to give to others.

When we’re weary, we often think what we need to do is just try harder. But maybe the opposite is true. Maybe what we need most is to sit down and let Jesus wash our feet. That feels uncomfortable. Like Peter, we squirm in false humility and declare that this isn’t the way things are supposed to be. But Jesus still gently insists. Because he knows that it’s not really about us–it’s about the greater work of his Kingdom. He’s showing us how to love by loving us.

What do you need to receive from Jesus today?

Let him wash your feet, your wounds, the weariness from your heart.

I’ll keep learning to do the same right along with you.

Let’s believe.

Let’s receive.

Let’s give our Savior the joy of loving on us.

And then pass it on.

home

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.” — King Solomon

“You git what you git and you don’t throw a fit.” — Southern Saying

As I drive my thoughts zip down a two lane road in my mind as well. In one lane, I’m thanking God for answered prayers and desires granted. In the other lane, I’m feeling frustrated that my day-to-day reality doesn’t always line up with the magnificent vision I have in mind. I long to see a sign from God that one day those two lanes will merge. When will that finally happen?

It seems God has an answer for me. Um, heaven.

Oh, right. I should have seen that one coming.

We live in a paradox, friends. We are not Home yet. And on the journey to where we’re going, what we can dream up and what actually unfolds in our lives are never going to align perfectly. Never. I’m not saying that to be a stinker. I’m saying it to save us from one of the biggest dream killers: unrealistic expectations.

If we demand that our perfect vision be fulfilled then we will never be satisfied.

Not with our dreams.

Not with our marriage.

Not with our family.

Not with our church.

Not with ourselves.

“So why bother dreaming?” you might ask. It’s simply this: “Where there is no vision the people perish” {Proverbs 29:18 KJV}. In other words, our dreams and desires pull us toward life. They draw us toward Home. They keep us looking to God for his best in our lives. That’s a good and beautiful thing.

It’s only when we turn our desires into demands that we get into trouble.

What can we do to avoid that? First, we can accept that we will live between those two lanes all of our lives here on earth: the ideal and the real, the eternal and the everyday. Then we intentionally thank God for what’s less than perfect. And at the same time we keep pressing toward the vision he’s placed in our hearts.

We live in the paradox.

We release our expectations and yet we continue to look to the future with expectation.

One mile, one day, one dream at a time.

Yes, all the way Home.

10
Ways to be a Happier Mom

1. Life is not an emergency. 

Life’s a gift. 
Just. Slow. Down. 

2. Now is not a forever grace but amazing grace. 

3. Sometimes the slowest way is the fastest way to joy. 

Make time today, even a moment, to read Scripture and memorize it. 

4. Laughter is the cheapest, holiest medicine. 

Preschoolers laugh 300 times a day. Aim for double that. Tickle someone, (yourself!), if necessary.

5. Motherhood is a hallowed place because children aren’t commonplace. 

6. Homemaking is about making a home, not about making perfection. 

7. A pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over. 

A minute dawdled here, a minute scrolling here — they can add up to your life.  Write down your intentions for the day and prayerfully live the intentions and spend your life well by paying attention to the moments — which pays thanks to God.

A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted, small moments missed.

8. Believe it: I have all I need for today.  

The needs of our day are great but our God is greater and we call Him Providence because we believe: He is the One who always provides. 

9. Slow. Children at play. 

10. Love is patient. 

Parenting’s this gentle way of bending over in humility to help the scraped child up because we intimately know it takes a lifetime to learn how to walk with Him.

Patience. Love always begins with patience and patience is a willingness to suffer.

Bonus: 

The art of really celebrating life isn’t about getting it right — but about receivingGrace. 

The sinners and the sick, the broken, the discouraged, the wounded and burdened — we are the ones who get to celebrate grace!

Regardless of the mess of your life, if Christ is Lord of your life, than we are the celebrants out dancing in a wild rain of grace — because when it’s all done and finished, all is well andChrist already said it was finished.