God can use the tears of our pain to water seeds of great purpose.

 As I’ve walked through the unexpected pain of my husband’s sudden death and becoming a widow and single mom, these stories of purpose from pain encourage me.

 Not because the purpose justifies the pain or alleviates it. God never expects us to gloss over deep loss or circumstances that shatter our world. God calls us to lament and grieve, even as we grieve with hope.

During that season of wandering, God taught us a valuable lesson. Home isn’t just a physical place. It’s the people who share life with you. We realized that if we rooted our identity in a place, it could all be taken away in an instant. What mattered most was each other. Moving so frequently opened our spiritual eyes to the truth that our ultimate home isn’t here on earth either—we’re just passing through until we get to heaven. Until then, no matter where we lived, it was the love and connection between us that made it a home. And that’s what God wants us to value—people over things, relationships over possessions. Most importantly, He wants to reside there.

Have you ever felt like your prayers were echoing in an empty room, waiting for an answer that just doesn’t seem to come? I’ve been there, many times. Waiting on God can be one of the hardest things we do as believers, especially when the prayers we’re lifting up are deeply personal and tied to our hearts’ deepest desires. They can bring days of grief, pain and sorrow. Anyone else learning to be patient? Me too.

God is still writing your story. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much of life is in the messy middle and mundane. How amazing it is though when we embrace that this is where the Lord often does the most profound work in us, if we let Him.

What if we viewed our purpose on this earth through the perspective that it’s not about “our goals and desires” but that God wants to do His work through us to advance His kingdom on this earth? What if we believed that we are so uniquely created by Him and there’s something only we can do and be to let His love shine through to the places and spaces we find ourselves in?

As my summer sabbatical comes to a close, what I’ve continued to come back to is the Lord is my refuge and my safest place. He holds all the knowledge of who I am: the best of me and the worst of me. Yet, He still chooses to faithfully guide me in His grace and pull me through the valleys with His mercy.

When we go through struggles whether physical or mental in life, they usually change us in some way. It is normal for us to want to return to life as we knew it before. However, ignoring the change and failing to sit taking inventory of our current season could make us frustrated. We become so busy trying to recoup what we think we lost that we lose sight of what God made new.

All seven I Am sayings of Jesus are recorded in the Gospel of John. We’re studying them this month at She Lives Fearless and discussing on the podcast ways to apply them personally and practically. We’re also making a Free reading guide available for download here on our website. Join us as we focus our attention and hearts to prepare for Easter, amidst all that’s happening in March!

The more we discover about who He is, the more we will discover who we truly are. In Jesus we find clear statements of Truth that declare His identity and shape ours.

For our faith to grow we have to cultivate it in prayer, scripture, worship, study, and community. When we do this, our lives become fertile ground for a life we can live and flourish in every season through the strength of God. Knowing who he is settles the questions. Knowing who he is shows us who we are, and in that settled identity we persevere and live fearless as we journey through the plans of God.

Are things moving forward as you hoped they would so far this year? Are there areas that feel like a dead end?

Most of the time we live in the tension of the in-between moments of life in at least one given area. Things don’t always go as planned. We pray and wait for the breakthroughs we so desperately want or need. The waiting is where hope dies if we don’t lean in and let the Lord cultivate faith - believing for what we haven’t seen yet.

Is there something you are going through right now that is keeping you from experiencing His peace within your soul? What is keeping you from laying it down and surrendering it over to Jesus? You only stand to lose your burden and gain His peace.

I felt like I was herding cats. The hands of my kids (ages two, four, and seven) were moving faster than I could manage. My husband was at home in bed resting, and there I was at my parents’ house trying to make Christmas cookies with my children. I wanted to teach them how you carefully place each cookie cutter near the edge to get the most out of the dough. Instead, cookie cutters were haphazardly smooshed wherever their hearts desired. I was frantically jumping in as cut pieces of dough were carelessly picked up and thrown onto the cookie sheet. Stars were misshaped. Hearts were squished. Gingerbread men were losing their heads. I was about to lose my mind.

Mary was young girl at the time the angel visited her to give her the news that she was chosen to be the mother of The Savior. There is nothing written that indicates she was leading a life that anyone would consider remarkable. She wasn’t a queen or of noble lineage. It seems as if she was a “regular” girl preparing for a rather “regular” life with her husband to be, Joseph. However, God saw something more and chose to use her in mighty way. Her life story became part of the story of Jesus.

As Christians, we want our lives to reflect the Good News and great joy the Bible promises but sometimes I wonder if we are actually experiencing it. Many of us have grown weary—physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. We are weary from the demands, the worries, the expectations, and the fears that exist in our world today. We feel impatient and dissatisfied with our present reality and we long for relief.

Here’s the deal though: Although we may not be making the mistake of wrongly positioning the characters in our manger scenes, what about our actual lives? While we know Jesus should be at the center, what if we’re moving the pieces around to the point where—while Jesus is still in the scene—He’s no longer where He should be? 

My favorite Christmas recipe is one I’ve never actually made myself. Rather, it’s one my mom makes for me every year (which might contribute to what makes it’s so tasty☺). Crisp cookies on the outside with a buttery frosting in the middle, it literally produces an “MMMMM…” out of my mouth after every first bite. 

There is a popular song called Mary Did You Know. Truth is Mary did not know all that was ahead or how it would come to pass. Her human understanding couldn’t fathom, yet her surrender and submission were part of God’s plan to bring about our salvation.

The Christmas Story proclaims a message of hope, assuring us that God fulfills His promises and shows us through the lives of Mary, Elizabeth, and the Shepherds that He works through ordinary people to do extraordinary things.