Are you an optimist or a pessimist? I happily see life through a hopeful lens. My glass is almost always half full, and I even tend to see the bright side in many undesirable situations. But facing the soon-to-be empty nest challenged my bright side philosophy and threatened to override its influence.
The empty nest represents one of many life transitions. You may be looking forward to the empty nest, or it might be so far removed from your life that you can’t imagine its impact. You may be facing a different life transition that is hard such as an unexpected health diagnosis, a surprise financial crisis, the loss of a dear friend, or an undesired divorce. These are all changes from one stage of life to another. One day we wake up to our normal life and then overnight the pages of life turn and with them comes a new chapter. In the new chapter, we find ourselves struggling to believe that our future will be as bright as our past.
How can we as Christians find hope when what we see in front of us looks hopeless?
Tuesday started like I expected: an abbreviated quiet time, the kids off to school, and me out the door to my uncle's house. Because they moved him up, I hoped to run a few Christmas errands after his four-hour infusion appointment. But life took a hard right turn. Instead of shopping, wrapping, and cooking, I sat bewildered by his side for days, waiting. But also utterly aware of the sacred opportunity God entrusted to those he loved.
More than ever, God teaches how to love Him with open hands. Open to what He gives without clinging to what we want. Learning to let go of expectations and plans and trust where He leads.
I love people with stories. I enjoy hearing the journey of how a person gets from point A to point B. I love overcomers and underdogs, and I'm a perpetual sucker for stories that start in the valley and end on a mountaintop.
It was 4 am as I stood trembling in front of the bathroom mirror and whispered “my life is not going to be the same!”. I had just taken a pregnancy test and to my dismay it was showing positive. A flood of worries came crashing into my head as I felt an overwhelm of emotions. How will this affect each of us in the family? Is my body ready for this journey? How will my teenage sons react to the news? How did this even happen?! I spent the next three hours with a million thoughts a minute racing through my mind.
What do you do when situations you thought were very much under your control and caution get overridden?
Recently, I found myself in a completely incomprehensible situation. It was so beyond anything I could imagine that my natural tendency to “rise to the occasion” just shut down. I felt shell-shocked, and I had no idea what to do.
Two of my longest and closest friends were experiencing life-altering events within days of each other. One friend’s daughter was getting married. The other friend’s son had just died unexpectedly on a normal day in a tragic car accident. The funeral for my friend’s son fell on the same day as the wedding for my other friend’s daughter.
A couple of years ago, I received a request to participate in a redemption story for a young woman. She had been caught in the boys’ bathroom at her high school performing a sexual act. It got recorded and another student posted it on social media where it spread very quickly. One of my friends reached out to a few of us with an opportunity to speak truth and life into this young woman. She had obviously messed up, but having her mistake preserved and shared with hundreds of her peers would profoundly impact her life for years to come. This was an opportunity for us to put our faith into action and speak love into her life.
I was all in. What a lovely suggestion! The only problem was, I had no idea what to say.
Many years ago, when my children were very small, our family hosted Thanksgiving dinner. I spent weeks preparing, crafting the menu, shopping for needs, cleaning our home, and setting the China. The morning of Thanksgiving, we carefully balanced entertaining our children with keeping our house clean and perfectly timing the turkey for our guests. We graciously hosted an elderly couple far from family or friends who would have otherwise spent Thanksgiving alone. As I served the gentleman a generous slice of apple pie with ice cream, he turned and asked. “Is this homemade?”
Just like the Thanksgiving turkey is stuffed with dressing, the holidays are filled with expectations.
It's that time of year when comfort food becomes, well, comforting. I live in Illinois, where the temperatures can change at the drop of a hat this time of year. We might need a sweater and jacket in the morning,
As a mom, I am quickly approaching the empty nest stage. I have 4 incredible children whom I was given the blessing of watching grow from helpless little ones into the grown, thriving young men and women that they are today. My heart treasures the moments when we can all be together, but the times when I get to have one-on-one time with them is something I try to store up in my heart as much as I possibly can. You see, the one-on-one moments with my children are when life can be shared, conversations can be had, worries and dreams can be talked about, and, at times, prayers can be spoken. Lately, as I think back on some of these moments, I begin to understand a little deeper the love that God has for me.
I’m excited to share that, after a very long, humbling, and intimidating process, my book, “The Next Yes: Saying Yes to God and Finding Life in Unexpected Places,” will be released on November 19, 2024.
If you struggle to balance the demands of your responsibilities with a desire to be used by God to make a meaningful impact on the people you love, then this book is for you!