Beauty in Chaos – Page 14

Longing for Paris {Book Review}

June 28, 2015 By: Angela Parlin

Today I am thrilled to tell you about an amazing little book I just finished reading, Longing for Paris: One Woman’s Search for Joy, Beauty, and Adventure—Right Where She Is. Written by Sarah Mae, author of Desperate, this book has quickly become one of my favorite books on the shelves.

I received an advance reader’s copy, as part of her launch team, and I devoured the book in one day.

I couldn’t put it down.

The kids enjoyed a day of splashing in the blow-up deck pool, while I highlighted in excess and mastered the art of read-walking (around the house) because too much time sitting…ouch!

What did I love about this book? Much more than I can put into a book review.

First of all, Sarah Mae understands my life as a Mom. She might as well have been taking down notes from my soul.

She gets that I long for the beauty of Paris, for soaking in art and music and getting lost in stacks of books, for time with real-live grown-up friends away from the kids, for a life of adventure and all the things that bring me joy in this life. But also, that my deepest desire is to love my husband well and to be there for my children in ways that only I can, to enjoy them and encourage them to really LIVE these lives they’ve been given.

But you know that recurring struggle between what you want—and what you want to want?

The desire to love the life you’ve been given—but also the dream of turning it into something better?

Well, Sarah Mae helps us understand how to live in that tension. The one between our dreams and our reality.

Longing for Paris is a message of hope for Moms. It’s the encouragement we all need to embrace the season we’re in, while not denying the dreams God places in our hearts.

The point of the book is not really Paris.

“On the outside, I wanted Paris. But on the inside, what I was really searching for was a filling to the deepest parts of my soul. And I wanted to know what to do with Paris and my soul and my every day.” ~Sarah Mae

The point of the book is, longing for Paris (or whatever else it may be), leads us to the One who filled us with dreams and fulfills our deepest longings.

“Paris can only ever give me a glimpse of the true thing I yearn for: to be with my God in all of His splendor.” ~Sarah Mae

So, let’s see…my recommendation?

PRE-ORDER the book TODAY! Move this one to the top of your list. Share it with all your friends. Yes, it’s THAT good!

Order it here!

For the Not-So-Shiny Days

May 21, 2015 By: Angela Parlin

Some days, the sun shines, and I jump out of bed early. I slept enough hours without any interruptions, and I feel good. I start the day with the Lord and a run and then the kids come trickling out of their rooms, ready for the eggs I’ve made. Then I head upstairs for a quick shower with some great music to help me get happily ready to start the homeschool day.

Some days.

Other days, it’s much harder to see beauty–because other days look a lot more like chaos. Can you relate?

Maybe someone needed me in the night, or I stayed up late with Jimmy Fallon.

Maybe the kids leave their rooms an hour before the time we’ve set. They forget to complete their morning chores, and so the laundry piles up and the bedrooms are a mess.

Maybe I’m tired and it’s a cloudy day and I don’t have time for quiet time and I didn’t get a run and I haven’t made breakfast and I don’t feel well.

Maybe.

Do you ever think about the back-and-forth of our lives? The up-and-down? Does it frustrate you the way it frustrates me?

I can get on such a roll of seeing-the-beauty days–of good, productive mornings, of day-before preparation, of starting the day out right. But then–something changes. Often, I don’t even see it coming. A cold. A sick kid. A misunderstanding. A big disappointment. Hard work that doesn’t yield results. Whatever it might be.

Then I get on a roll of seeing more chaos than beauty.

The kids are still waiting on me, so I have to quickly figure out how to deal.

How do you deal with days that look more like chaos, with the cloudy days and your own clouded mind?

Last week, on one of the not-so-shiny days of my life, I learned that I have developed an unfortunate habit. That instead of dealing with the chaos, I try to escape.

After trudging through a rotten morning, I sent the kids off to read in their bedrooms in the afternoon. I was discouraged, and I spent a few minutes praying to the Lord about my problems, asking Him for help.

And then I moved on.

I COULD NOT WAIT to sit down on my comfy sofa to turn on Gilmore Girls, and so I fixed a glass of iced tea and resumed my position.

But as I sat there, I felt a holy conviction.

I knew it wasn’t my own voice, because my voice said–There’s nothing wrong with this!

And that’s true. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Netflix, or many other forms of escape.

But there’s a problem sometimes with the way we use them.

I felt the Spirit saying, Run to Me. Seek Me. Look to Me. And I saw my error.

I realized how often I seek the Lord—and then run off to my own fix.

My fix, which feels comforting at first, always leaves me wanting.

I saw that I was trying to escape my life rather than working through the hard parts, while looking to the Lord for His strength.

So by God’s grace, I started a new habit. I hope it will continue to be the way I deal with the not-so-shiny days.

I’ll seek the Lord, and then I’ll wait on Him alone—especially on the difficult days.

Because as Lamentations 3:25 says, The Lord is good to those who WAIT for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. (ESV)

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired. Isaiah 40:31, AMP

Jump on over to PurposefulFaith.com, where this post is featured!

Hope for the Deepest Why

March 24, 2015 By: Angela Parlin

Sometimes life pulls us away from our hope. We get busy. We’re distracted. We’re extremely forgetful. Trials and difficulties abound, and our hope gets lost in the middle.

Other times, we lose hope because we’re wading through dark seasons, through the deepest whys.

I remember one such season. We were in the middle of a move, living in an apartment until our new house was finished. We had just left the church we called home for a decade. We had to say goodbye to our dogs. And then my young, healthy friend ended up with cancer.

I remember sitting in the driver’s seat of my car. My husband called and said her fight was over.

It was the day before Valentine’s Day.

I scratched hows and whys on black and white pages, in blood red ink mixed with tears. How wide and deep was this why…

Click on over to Fearfully Made Mom, for the rest of this post. I’m guest posting there as part of Abby McDonald’s Renewal Through Christ series. Join us!

The Poem of the Air

February 24, 2015 By: Angela Parlin

“Out of the bosom of the air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken…

Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take Suddenly shape in some divine expression…

This is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded…”

~Excerpts from Snow-Flakes, Walt Whitman

They predicted a trace of snow. Then a few inches or more, then not much of anything, then maybe an inch, and right about there, we turned away.

The weather man kept changing his mind. We expected this “One-Two Punch” to amount to little. Or nothing. Besides, we “enjoyed” snow and ice all last week–which is all we North Carolinians need to close up shop and call it a winter.

But before I opened my eyes this morning, my littlest charged at my bedroom window, lifted a shade, and gasped. “Mom!!! God is awesome…you know WHY??? Guess what Mom? He made it snow!”

I moseyed on over, past the energizer bunny doing circles.

Besides his sweet face, it was my first sight of the day–a lovely dusting of snow covering the whole backyard and soft, chunky snowflakes falling from the sky.

Today was like any other day, until I watched the sky rain poetry.

Puffy flakes have fallen all day since, more than 7 grand hours of air’s soft whispers, of snow piling up line upon line.

This afternoon, I stood out on the deck in my husband’s tennis shoes and let snow fall on me like fresh, white confetti.

I wondered, why does snow appear like shreds of wonder today? Like it’s been shaken from clouds like glitter?

Usually, I count snowflakes like curses.

I blame it on my childhood up north, where I endured enough snow for a lifetime. But who am I to complain? This isn’t my world, my sun, my clouds. Maybe I need to see snowflakes like Whitman, who called them a divine expression.

Do you hear the voice of God in the poem of the air?

I’m beginning to hear more clearly.

Standing out beyond these walls, I remembered the psalm I read yesterday. It says,

Be in awe before His majesty…Give Him the honor due His name!

The voice of the Lord echoes through the skies and seas.

So powerful is His voice, so brilliant and bright.

His symphonic sound splinters the mighty forests.

He moves Zion’s mountains by the might of His voice.

Seven times, Psalm 29 repeats the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord. Known as the Psalm of Seven Thunders, it summons sons and daughters of God–along with all the hosts of heaven–to give God the glory due His name.

Whether our days usher in storms or sunshine, God’s voice echoes through the skies.

Some days white like snow, things are clear enough to see and hear it.

Pray Without Multitasking

January 15, 2015 By: Angela Parlin

We are two weeks into the new year, and I’m ready now to declare my word.

Near the end of last year, I thought it might be strength—as in living in God’s strength and not my own. I wrote it on the front page of a new journal, but it didn’t feel like “the one”.

As I studied strength, it took a backseat to prayer.

Because there’s no living in God’s strength without wholehearted, earnest prayer.

So this year my commitment is simply to Pray–in a consistent, intentional, wholehearted way.

I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but I think some prayers are easy. Many years ago, I read about practicing the presence of God, and started a habit of talking to Him throughout the day, believing He’s near.

I whisper lines of thanks or requests for help to God throughout the day. I ask Him regularly for wisdom, especially as a Mom. I keep a list of family and friends’ needs, knowing He waits for us to come to Him, and He listens.

I trust that God is able to do more than all we ask or imagine.

We have needs, and God is able to meet them. Furthermore, we are busy, so these throughout-the-day, on-the-go prayers work for us.

But other times, prayer feels hard, even unnatural. Other times, prayer requires us to put down everything else we’d like to do at the same time.

That’s the kind of prayer I struggle with. To put that more honestly–that’s the prayer I often don’t pray. The one where I close the door to my world, and enter the presence of God, with only God and nothing else.

What about you? Do you regularly slow down to be with God alone?

I don’t think it comes naturally to most of us, to make a full stop in our lives and stay with Him a while.

We tend to do everything in our power, first.

We rely on ourselves instead of relying on God.

We value self-sufficiency, and pride ourselves on independence.

Or we’re rarely alone, and when we are, we turn on something noisy, so we don’t feel alone.

In my quiet times, I love studying books of the Bible. But the hard part? Pouring out my heart to God and listening for Him through the silence. Which is to say–I like to learn about God, to get to know Him through His Word, but I struggle to just sit with Him.

Back in December, I wrote down a few goals for this year. Since then, I’ve realized my goal above all goals for 2015 is to spend time each day, praying without multitasking.

I commit to daily adore God, thank Him, confess my sins, and lay my requests before Him. And then to wait in the silence for His Holy fire to fall upon my heart.

At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart. Psalm 5:3, Passion Translation

Will you join me? If the Spirit is calling you to spend time daily, praying without multitasking, let me know and I’ll be praying for YOU. Come, Holy Fire…

Join me over at Kelly Ballarie & Friends where this post is featured today.

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Longing for Paris {Book Review}

But you know that recurring struggle between what you want—and what you want to want?

The point of the book is not really Paris.

The point of the book is, longing for Paris (or whatever else it may be), leads us to the One who filled us with dreams and fulfills our deepest longings.

Like this:

For the Not-So-Shiny Days

Some days.

Then I get on a roll of seeing more chaos than beauty.

How do you deal with days that look more like chaos, with the cloudy days and your own clouded mind?

But as I sat there, I felt a holy conviction.

But there’s a problem sometimes with the way we use them.

I realized how often I seek the Lord—and then run off to my own fix.

I’ll seek the Lord, and then I’ll wait on Him alone—especially on the difficult days.

Like this:

Hope for the Deepest Why

Like this:

The Poem of the Air

Today was like any other day, until I watched the sky rain poetry.

Do you hear the voice of God in the poem of the air?

The voice of the Lord echoes through the skies and seas.

Whether our days usher in storms or sunshine, God’s voice echoes through the skies.

Like this:

Pray Without Multitasking

Because there’s no living in God’s strength without wholehearted, earnest prayer.

But other times, prayer feels hard, even unnatural. Other times, prayer requires us to put down everything else we’d like to do at the same time.

At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart. Psalm 5:3, Passion Translation

Like this:

Compassion International

But you know that recurring struggle between what you want—and what you want to want?

The point of the book is not really Paris.

The point of the book is, longing for Paris (or whatever else it may be), leads us to the One who filled us with dreams and fulfills our deepest longings.

Share this:

Like this:

Some days.

Then I get on a roll of seeing more chaos than beauty.

How do you deal with days that look more like chaos, with the cloudy days and your own clouded mind?

But as I sat there, I felt a holy conviction.

But there’s a problem sometimes with the way we use them.

I realized how often I seek the Lord—and then run off to my own fix.

I’ll seek the Lord, and then I’ll wait on Him alone—especially on the difficult days.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Today was like any other day, until I watched the sky rain poetry.

Do you hear the voice of God in the poem of the air?

The voice of the Lord echoes through the skies and seas.

Whether our days usher in storms or sunshine, God’s voice echoes through the skies.

Share this:

Like this:

Because there’s no living in God’s strength without wholehearted, earnest prayer.

But other times, prayer feels hard, even unnatural. Other times, prayer requires us to put down everything else we’d like to do at the same time.

At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart. Psalm 5:3, Passion Translation

Share this:

Like this:

Compassion International