Though I believe everyone can struggle with these things to some degree, it seems that women are more susceptible to: busyness masked as closeness w/ God, and the lies of the enemy. Typing this as I’m battling the nth cold/sickness of the season, I understand that I am fragile and weak. Satan loves to kick me when I’m down, shoveling in lies upon lies between my coughs and sniffles. In light of all of this, I decided to come up with some commitments to be spiritually/physically/mentally/emotionally healthy.

1) Spending time in solitude for 1 hour before going to sleep (at a set time), spending that time in reflection/journaling/prayer.
2) Memorizing at least one verse from that day’s BRP.

³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

   ⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but only one thing is needed.Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

To my fellow Marthas- let’s not lose ourselves in the worry and upset of many things. Let’s lose ourselves in the intimacy of our Savior! When Jesus beckons us to come and rest, it’s not a friendly suggestion. It is an imperative choice we need to make, especially in light of the crazy, chaotic, frantic world that we live in. Here we go!

A friend and I set out on campus one day to tell women they were beautiful and ask them, “what makes you beautiful?”.  It was a great chance to see how people are made so differently and wonderfully.  Check it out!

What is beautiful about you?

Daily Prayers for My Husband
Adapted from The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian

Monday
Help me to be patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled
Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace, healing and forgiveness
Make me my husband’s helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support
Help me create a peaceful, restful, safe home for him
Help me to accept him the way he is and not try to change him
I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands
Lord, I lay all my expectations at Your cross

Tuesday
Show me what unconditional love really is
Bring unity between us so we can be in agreement about everything
Make us a team
Help me to overlook his faults
Where love has died, create new love between us
Help me to support and respect him
Give me new appreciation, compassion, acceptance and love for him
Reveal to me his wants and needs

Wednesday
Bless my husband at work with favor, success and prosperity
Help him to balance time at work and time with family
Let him work for You and not man’s approval
Show him anything he should be doing differently
Open doors of opportunity for him and develop his skills
Help my husband to handle money wisely and honor You with it
Keep him sexually pure in mind and body
Take away anyone or anything that would inspire temptation to infidelity

Thursday
Deliver him from adultery, pornography, drugs, alcohol, gambling, and perversion
May he thirst for Your Word and Your truth
Keep him from impure, evil, negative, or sinful thoughts
Help him know Your love, wisdom and wise counsel
Make him a godly leader who makes wise choices
Keep him healthy and strong

Friday
Protect him from all danger
Give him wisdom and discretion
Remind him to always turn to You and trust in You for all things
Give him endurance to run the race and not give up
Teach him to cast his burdens on You and wait for  You
Make him a man of integrity
Give him a teachable spirit that is quick to confess his mistakes

Saturday
Let there never be any reason for bad things to be said of him
Deliver him from his enemies
Let him bear good fruit
May his priorities be in perfect order
Be Lord and Ruler over his heart
Give him godly male friends to openly share his heart with
Make him forgiving, loving his enemies
Give him the joy of the Lord in his life

Sunday
Teach him the skills to be a good father
Fill him with love, peace, joy, gratitude, and serenity
Strengthen our marriage and help our love to grow
Redeem him from negative emotions: depression, anger, fear, etc.
Fill him with Your Spirit and the fruits of Your Spirit
Guard his tongue and fill him with Your love
Convict him of sin, bring him to repentance and humility
Give him a heart that follows You in all he does

• Does God really care enough for me?
• Do I want to go back to that place of hurt that I’ve spent all these years running away from?
• Is it really necessary? I’ve already figured out how to “manage” with this pain.
• Is it even possible to heal my problems?

I thought about my life and all the areas I’ve experienced freedom and healing, and then all the areas in my life that still need to be addressed. I suddenly felt so overwhelmed by the sheer weight of it all and remembered Christ’s command in Matthew 11:  ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

God heals. What is your testimony of healing?  What is your prayer FOR healing?

Do you believe that there’s power in the name of Jesus?

We pray for blessings We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

** ‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

When friends betray us When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

A few months back when I first got my braces a lot of people asked me why got ‘em. In their opinion they didn’t see anything wrong. I think what they really mean is it wasn’t THAT bad. My teeth weren’t so bad that every time I opened my mouth to speak or laugh that it was unbearable to look at. But once I began to explain that well I used to suck my thumb when I was little and so my two front teeth are not aligned with the rest of my teeth, and how it’s so obvious when I look at pictures of myself, then they say okay okay I get the point.

The connection that I’m trying to make here is that sometimes we treat our sins and others’ sins that way too. Yes, I see that something is not quite right, but we shrug it off or even intentionally categorize it as “not a big deal”, meaning we can live with it. (But how can we live with it, if Christ died for it ?? ) We think :

Everyone else struggles with it too, or even worse !
I’ve tried and tried to conquer this area but I have just accepted it as part of who I am.
How can I point this out to others when I’m just the same?

Most Christians would publicly agree that “they are bad” (which is why they first accepted the Gospel) but also silently applaud themselves in not being “that bad” (and now the Gospel doesn’t apply to them anymore). Let’s not settle for “not that bad”. As I’m keenly aware of my physical imperfections, I hope I can be just as aware of the imperfections in my heart and seek perfection. And by Perfection I mean Jesus Christ, seeking repentance and forgiveness from Him. (oh, so we do need the Gospel again …)

Doctors are great. Doctors are great until they make you step on a scale and tell you how much weight you’ve gained since the previous year (even though you haven’t grown taller).  I know I should be above this, but I can’t help but try to wear my lightest clothes for my annual weigh-in.  And why is it that they insist that you keep your shoes ON when you step on the scale?  HELLO! Those are extra unnecessary pounds that will forever be written on my record.

It’s funny, but I think many of us would be quicker to share our GPA, annual household income, or the number of white hairs we’ve found on our head, than to disclose our true weight. (insert collective *shudder*). Outwardly we’re really nonchalant about it.  But when we go to friend’s homes and find a scale in their bathroom, do we not stare at it and secretly dare ourselves to find out what judgment day holds for us?  Will it be a win for all woman-kind, or a meteoric loss?  When we return to the dinner table, will we take on dessert as our just reward, or will we politely decline the soda/wine for the non-caloric water? …Or is that just me?

I’ve discovered over time that most women struggle with weight/body image. I think many of us have come to the same conclusion. If we all know this, then why does our culture promote this weird, “being concerned about your weight is sooo passé” mentality?  I’m kind of shocked when I hear girls brag about being able to eat anything and everything without gaining a pound (when I know that they personally struggle with body image a lot).  Or when girls welcome less-than-edifying jokes from guys about being “beasts” or “manly” because they would rather be disparaged by guys than be rejected by them. (As a side note for our male-subscribers: please don’t do that. Words hurt and women will never show it on the outside. Please think of your future daughters and how you’d want them to be treated.  Please treat women as the cherished daughters of God that they are.)

Sisters, we’re all broken.  Broken by wounds of the past, wounds of insecurity, and the lies that bombard us day and night.  What would a godly sisterhood look like if we tried to mend each other’s wounds and promote a culture of safety and healing?  Instead of bragging about how much we can eat and still fit into those tiny pants, what if we boasted about our insecurities and our effort to find worth in Christ?  Instead of hiding our insecurities about our fluctuating body weight, what if tried to remain steadfast in the light of Christ and our sisterhood of believers?  As God’s cherished daughters, let’s live as those who ARE cherished.

“…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61:3

Coming out of those few days, we headed into our One Desire Fast. Oddly enough, God laid a lot of burdens about my family on my heart, which led to some very long, hard, yet rewarding conversations with my mom that week. I grew up having to get used to not having her around a lot. She was always working to provide for our family, coming home for a late dinner, often without sufficient energy to spend time with us due to her failing health.  It wasn’t until college that I started building a relationship with her over the phone (text messages will never replace a good old fashioned phone call!) Even over time and distance, I realized that she had always been my advocate, my friend, and someone who was able to show me grace in the midst of all of my rebellion and waywardness during my teenage years.

(a picture w/ my parents from my college graduation)

This past week was no different. I felt so ashamed as I painfully delivered yet another confession of my failure in an area of my life that God has been trying to correct. I didn’t want to tell her because I didn’t want to disappoint her, but I realized that it was not honoring to them to try and deal with this situation on my own. I feared the wrath that I thought was sure to come, but was instead met with a humbling response of rebuke, grace, and love. The main thing she wanted to know was why I hadn’t told her sooner. She didn’t hide her disappointment in the poor decisions that I had made, but she was also unwavering in her commitment to helping me in my situation. Her sacrifice to make up for my mistake was a tearful reminder of the gospel message. While they aren’t perfect, I’m thankful for my godly parents. I am finally understanding the truth and wisdom in this:

Ephesians 6:1-3 — 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.2 “Honor your father and mother”–which is the first commandment with a promise–3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

Perhaps you don’t have godly parents or maybe grieve over a broken family. May I encourage you to remember that you are rich in Christ through the spiritual family of believers? Has God placed anyone within your church community that plays the role of a spiritual mother, father, sister, or brother to you? Indeed, I’m more thankful that my parents are my spiritual family more so than that they are my earthly ones!

Coming back full circle, I think the way that this missionary couple ministered to us specifically in a “parental” manner really made this passage come alive for me:

1 Timothy 5:1-2 — 1 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

I’m praying for more inter-generational relationships to be built within our church community. I believe that we can be a powerful demonstration and vehicle of redemption of what it truly means to be a family- the way that God meant for it to be.

When I lived in the United States, I used to associate weather with what activities I can do outside for the day (take a trip to the park, go for a run, etc). Since I’ve moved to Indonesia, I have made a new association with weather. LAUNDRY. When it’s a sunny day, I instantly think about how many loads I need to wash and whether I have enough drying rack space to dry all my laundry for the day. When it’s a rainy day, I gloomily think about my laundry that is piling up and then anticipate the next day’s weather.

When I hang my laundry, I often think about my friend who had lived overseas for a number of years. About a month before coming to Indonesia, I was telling her about my woes about not having a clothes dryer in Indonesia, but she assured me that she learned to love drying her laundry without a dryer for the following reasons: it’s green; it saves money; and it makes clothes last longer.  I gawked at her as I thought about the crunchy towels and the stiff clothes I’d have to put on my children. I dreaded the time it was going to take to hang every article of wet clothing as opposed to just throwing everything in the dryer. However, as I have gotten accustomed to life here, I realize that my friend was right and I was just being a narrow-minded drama queen. Actually, hanging laundry is now strangely quite soothing to me. Each morning as I’m hanging my laundry, I have about ten minutes of alone time (even if I’m not completely alone as my son runs around), when I can enjoy the morning air, hang laundry, say hello to neighbors and, most importantly, thank God for teaching me that what I knew as the best way of life was not necessarily the best.  And then I wonder: what are some other habits or perceptions I have that need to be changed for the better?  I’ll keep thinking…gotta go hang some laundry!