A couple of weeks ago I watched out the laundry room window to soak in something that truly made my heart so happy.  I was watching Dave and our 3-year-old grandson Lewis plant the garden.  They were digging and planting and chatting like a couple old farmers.  I loved watching them enjoy the dirt, sunshine and each other. It doesn’t really matter if the harvest is great because the planting was awesome.  Lewis had a lot of questions and Dave had a lot of answers, but “Will we have lots of corn?”  was a question Dave couldn’t truthfully answer.  He could hopefully answer but a lot of factors that Dave and Lewis have no control over come in to play as we wait. 

Whether we’re talking about growing vegetables or growing in discipleship, truth, trust and unwavering faith are things that require depth.  In our walk with Jesus, we crave those moments when we “feel” him.  We love those warm, sweet “He’s got me in His arms” moments but true discipleship is so much bigger and deeper and more meaningful.  Those cuddly feelings don’t last forever and if they are all we’re in this for we will wither and be scorched by the trials of life so we have to dig deeper.

My first year as an elementary teacher I had a mentor who told me that some lessons were meant to be a mile wide and an inch deep but the important lessons…the ones the kids would need for a lifetime needed to be a mile deep and an inch wide.  Those are the lessons that carry us through the trials and temptations and noises of the world. Love, surrender, humility; these are the things that need to take root deeply in our daily prayer and our daily living.  Allowing these things to take deep root requires daily focus.  When we find ourselves fretting about the past or stewing about the future, we aren’t allowing the Father to root us firmly in the space where we are and where He is; the present.
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I have recently been reading a lot about an amazing saint named St. Francis de Sales who truly lived a life of wisdom and prayer.  I was thinking of him as I watched Dave and Lewis working in the dirt and realized the whole wonderful afternoon would have been ruined if the two of them had been worried and fretful about the harvest instead of enjoying the beginning.  Today is a good day to ask the Father to help us be firmly and deeply rooted in Him as we think about some wise words from St. Francis de Sales who said, “Let us think only of spending the present day well.  Then, when tomorrow shall have come, it will be called today and then, we will think about it.
 
A Seed To Plant:  What things cause you to dwell in the past or drift to the future? Make a list of those things and then slowly and prayerfully sit with the words of St. Francis asking God to help you let go of those things and help you root deeply in the present.
 
Blessings on your day!
 

There are a lot of things I’d like to do.  I want to see Niagara Falls, go to Hawaii and sit on a sunny beach.  There are even more things I don’t want to do like visit a reptile farm, run a race and climb a mountain; all three of those things sound equally as awful to me!  I know for a fact that I don’t have what it takes to do any of those three things…especially climb a mountain.  As I get older, I have discovered that there used to be more things on the “I don’t want to” list but sometimes life just gives you no choice.  For instance, I always said I’d never design and build a house or rent a car in an unfamiliar state, but I have done both in the last couple of years because it’s just how it had to be.

It's funny that when it came to doing those things I didn’t want to do, help came along at the right time and the task was way better than I had imagined. I heard a man recently whose life goal was to climb Mt. Everest and I listened with fascination as he shared all the planning and prepping, he’d been doing for the last couple of years to prepare.  After listening to his long list, I easily came to the conclusion that I indeed was not a mountain climbing kind of girl.  When asked if he was worried about the danger, he explained all about the role of a Sherpa.  He explained that a Sherpa was an expert climber and guide.  Sherpas are from mountain areas, and they are used to the climate, the climb, navigation, and terrain.  He felt assured that a Sherpa would make the adventure successful. 
I thought about this guy and his adventure for the next several weeks and decided some days I could really use a Sherpa of my own.  Sometimes staying on the path to sainthood is rough going!  There are many times I could use the expert direction of someone who was familiar with the route to heaven and could help me avoid the dangers and pitfalls of the journey.  I daydreamed about how much easier holiness would be if there was a Sherpa directing me, protecting me and teaching me every step of the way.  But then I realized I do have a Sherpa…actually I have several of them in fact, and so do you.  Now, they aren’t the kind of Sherpa who will carry our things, set up our camp and walk ten steps ahead of us at all times but they are there to guide us nonetheless.  I decided to make a list of all my Sherpas and here’s what I came up with.

The Saints are like our Sherpa.  They lived a life that honored and followed God just like we’re trying to.  They didn’t always take the right path or the most direct route, but their example of service and devotion serves as a guiding light for us.  Mama Mary is absolutely our Sherpa…she has only one mission and that is to lead us to her Son. Regular people can also be our Sherpa.  There are people filled with wisdom and strength and faith.  There are people who are suffering with grace and trust.  There are people who are teachers and leaders who share their ideas and insights with us.  When I really think about it, sometimes God chooses a little person to be a Sherpa.  Kids can be wise and cut right through to the heart of things.  The thing is, we can have as many Sherpas as we want but if we don’t listen to them, trust their wisdom and follow where they lead, we’re not going to end up reaching our destination.  A Mountain Sherpa is constantly checking, observing, adjusting and has enormous respect for God’s might and creation.  I certainly can’t climb a mountain even with the help of the most spectacular Sherpa ever but tuning in to the wisdom and direction of the Sherpas God has put in my life is something I can do with a little trust and surrender.  I think I’ll begin with some wise words from a Sherpa that crossed my path recently and said, “If you can’t see God in ALL things, you can’t see God in ANYTHING.”
 
 
A Seed To Plant:  Where are some places in your life you could use a little direction from a Sherpa? Take that to prayer and pick one to follow!
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Blessings on your day!

When I was young, I wore leg braces that had cables and hinges on the inside and outside of my legs.  They ran from the bottom of my shoes up to my waist, and they were connected to special corrective shoes.  Needless to say, I hated them for so many reasons, one being the shoes were just so ugly.  Any time I wanted to throw a pity party when someone in my class got fancy new shoes my mom would remind me that shiny shoes were not going to help me walk properly then she’d wink and let me know that I would outgrow pretty shoes, but I’d never be sorry I could walk better.  It was a choice even on the days it didn’t feel like it! To this day, I always notice people’s shoes and if I wasn’t so tight with my money, I’d probably own a dozen pairs!

Those braces were a great teacher.  They taught me about humility and patience and gratitude. They also taught me that we need to think carefully about how we see things.  Michigan spring is such a crazy season.  The past couple of days it was sunny, gorgeous and in the 70’s but today it’s rainy, cold and in the 50’s. It would be so easy to grumble about the yucky weather today, completely forgetting about the beautiful days we just enjoyed.  We can be such pouty babies when things don’t line up with our wishes can’t we!  I was trotting through the grocery store feeling completely annoyed this afternoon because my shoes got wet in the parking lot and I was soggy and chilly when all of the sudden I rounded the corner and saw a lady with leg braces and a guide dog.  My mind went back many decades to my braces, and I ducked into a quiet aisle to have a chat with myself.  As I thought about my soggy feet all I could feel was overwhelming gratitude for feet that could easily tromp through the puddles.  After I said a prayer of thanks and got ready to take off again, I realized I had ducked into the coffee aisle, and I couldn’t help but smile and thank Him again for one of my favorite things…COFFEE!  And just because He’s so fancy, my favorite kind was on sale. Rain and coffee were the perfect example of what I like and what I don't like smushed together to make me pay attention.

I spent the next five aisles thinking about all the times I rumble in my head when things aren’t just how I like it and then I remembered the remedy!  Fr. Ruotolo is famous for a prayer called the Surrender Novena and it is comprised of one simple line repeated ten times.  O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.  I pray that simple prayer on repeat and when I forget to be grateful or I try to manage things that are not mine to manage, it draws me to peace and truth.  When the prayer is said with love and trust the outcome is powerful.  It serves as a great reminder that life comes with things we love and things we don’t; things we’d choose and things we’d like to take a hard pass on.  If someone tries to give us something, we do a quick evaluation and run through questions like; do I like it, do I need it, do I want it, is it valuable?  But when we offer something to the Father, he gladly takes it all.  When we surrender to Him, and offer Him our very self, he doesn’t just pick the good parts or the pretty parts or the put together parts…He wants ALL of us…every single part of our life.  He wants our bad days, our distractions, pain, sadness, frustration, disappointment, rotten sleep, quick temper, half-hearted attempts, doubts, fears, impatience and pridefulness.  He’s not like us…he doesn’t just want the sunny warm lovely days; he wants our storms and puddles. I guess you could say he wants our yucky rain drops as much as our wonderful, comforting coffee pots.

In case you’re wondering why He would ever want us to surrender all our mess and offer it as a gift to Him, the answer is easy and definitely worth remembering…He wants it so he can replace it with something so much better…His peace and His love and His joy!  Doesn’t seem like a fair trade but then again fair is a human concept.  With God it’s all about helping us navigate and surrender the junk so we can experience his mighty, perfect love.

A Seed To Plant:  Write that simple surrender prayer down and put it several places so you remember to say it often and soak up the peace as He walks with you through the sunshine and the puddles.

Blessings on your day!
 
 
 

​This verse made me remember a plastic suit of armor the boys had when they were little.  One of the boys would wear the armor and the other would wear the Detroit Lions shoulder pads and football uniform and pretend to slay all the bad guys in the county.  They were invincible in those get ups.  They felt strong and brave and confident as they rode their bikes up and down the lane defending the land.  It didn’t matter to them that it was just cheap plastic, what they wore convinced them of something.

That memory and this verse made me think about what our wardrobe says about us.  It seems like a simple thing, get up, get dressed and go on with your day but when you think about it WHAT we put on can send a message.  We identify police officers, doctors and nurses by the clothes they wear and we automatically assume they will be helpful because of the way they are dressed.  We will approach a total stranger in a store to ask for help based on a simple plastic name tag pinned to their shirt.  We have the potential to trust, mistrust; judge and misjudge people every day based on what they wear.  Does that seem crazy to anybody else?

I guess the big questions are what does God’s armor look like and how often do I wear it?  Then it hit me, it’s not really about fabric at all.  The clothes we wear may reflect something about our style, profession or personality but they don’t necessarily tell the whole story.  I think the armor of God is something we put on from the inside. It can be pretty easy to look at someone’s clothes and assume a thing or two about them that may or may not be correct but the armor of God is unmistakable. Putting it on is intentional, never just a quick grab and go outfit.  The boys always needed my help putting on those get ups they used to wear and so it is with Gods armor; we need him to assist us.  If we intentionally ask God to protect us and defend us we have to be willing to let him.  Wearing his armor means we are protected and safe, but silly humans that we are, we think it means we are now prepared to charge into the world and defeat all the evils much like two little boys I remember in my back yard.  God is the defender and we are the defended; the armor of God doesn’t give us a job it gives us peace.  

God’s armor is not heavy or clumsy; it’s powerful and designed to fit perfectly.  I realized that if I woke up each morning and asked God to dress me in his armor, I would be more confident and peaceful and content.  I realized I wouldn’t have to worry about harm or evil because nothing is stronger than God.  It doesn’t mean nothing bad will happen, it means God will protect me no matter what the circumstance.  If I puddled my way through each day without worry or distraction about all the things that might happen or could happen or shouldn’t happen I would have so much more time for great things!  I would have more time to pray, more time to help and WAY more time to love.  I think I’ll ask God to help me put on that armor right now and leave the defending to him while I get busy with trusting bigger and loving harder…talk about dress for success!

A Seed To Plant:  Stop right now and ask God to suit you in his armor and then give him a list of all the things you’d like to be defended from.  All that’s left is to trust and be protected.​

Blessings on your day!

Would everyone who ever had a mother look into their eyes and say, “Just do it… because I said so!”, please stand up.  If you are a reader who follows directions, you’re probably now reading this post standing up!  Somewhere early in mamma school the women in my mother’s generation learned how to say that phrase with such authority and strength it was simply a conversation stopper!  When my mom launched that phrase from her lips it was a done deal…mamma said do it…case closed!  Lucky for me, my mother passed on the talent.  As I fast forward lots of years, I have said those same words to my own children at the end of a debate I had to come out the winner of.  It’s like the motherhood trump card…do it because I said so!

 Why is it so powerful…why does it work…why do we say it?  I think the first thing that makes it so powerful is that it’s biblical…if Mary, the mother of Jesus could use the line successfully all mother (and fathers) should be encouraged to use it too! I think it works because it’s simple and I think we say it because we love our children, and we know what’s best for them.  Mary’s words had a deeper meaning; they were an invitation to the servers to be a part of something amazing that was about to happen.  Mamma Mary knew great things were about to begin with her son…she knew best that night, so she used those powerful words and the servants at that wedding did what they were instructed because Jesus’ mother “said so!”

Those words from John’s Gospel have a strong tie to our lives even today.  We are the servers…we are those called to be Christ’s hands and feet on earth.  We are called to live and spread the Gospel message so Mary’s words are as relevant to us today as they were to the servers in Cana the night Jesus performed his first miracle.  Our mothers told us to “do what they said” because they knew there was more to the situation than we could see.  Mary knew that too.  Mary knows that still.  Whenever we hear the words in this Gospel message, we should be reminded to “do whatever He tells us”.  That really is our job…to do whatever He tells us.  He has every last detail about our life sealed in His heart why wouldn’t we listen and obey?  We are a stubborn people.  Lucky for us, Mary reminds us through this verse to do whatever Jesus tells us, and even luckier for us, because of God’s great love and wisdom, we are invited back again and again to try to do it the right way…the way He tells us.
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A Seed To Plant:   Before you go to bed tonight, recall a situation where you didn’t “Do whatever He said”. Think about the outcome of that situation and prayerfully sleep on it.  Tomorrow morning pick one tricky or difficult area in your life and specifically ask God to help “do whatever He tells you”.

Blessings on your day!