The One Thing We Must Always Return To

July 13, 2017 By: Angela Parlin

I was out-of-my-mind frustrated.

He had spewed mean words to his younger siblings too many times that day. We had talked. And talked. And prayed. Well, I had prayed. There’s no telling if he prayed along. This battle had been brewing a while, and I was over it.

So I sent him to his room, thinking I needed a few minutes to cool down before I could deal with his most recent outburst {in a calm manner}.

Unfortunately, I didn’t leave it there. I followed him, giving him an ugly earful of my own thoughts and feelings about the situation he created and the ways he was ruining my day.

I dealt with his outbursts by having an outburst of my own. And then I left his room with a sigh and that rotten feeling.

This is not the way I plan to, hope to, want to parent. But it’s the way I sometimes do.

As I walked down the hallway…keep reading this post at PurposefulFaith.com!

The Women We Want Our Daughters To Be

April 11, 2017 By: Angela Parlin

“Mommy, can I read something for all of us?”

From the backseat on the way home from school, my daughter couldn’t wait to share something from a book she’d checked out at the library.

“Okay, I need everyone to close their books and phones and listen.”

All the boys groaned. Isn’t it annoying when little sisters act like moms?

She read a verse to us from a little red devotional book. Then in her 9-year-old strong voice, she walked us through the explanation and application.

Later, she and I were heading across town for an errand. Again, she opened up her devotional and asked me if she could read to me.

Tears dripped down my cheeks as I listened. Because I remembered in that moment, there are a million ways I hope she grows past me. A million things I’ve said, which I hope she will not repeat. So many useless pursuits she’s watched me chase after.

Even so, she’s caught my passion for the Word of God.

She’s speaking it now, in her own beautiful voice.

She’s imitating my simple car devotion habit, even though I’m scattered and inconsistent.

On the way to or from school, and on other trips across town, I often share with my kids something from my own Bible study. Or I ask them to listen to a chapter through the Bible app, and then give them a chance to tell what stands out to them.

I want them to do more than listen to the Word of God. I want them to learn to put it in their own words, and to understand that God is speaking to them through it.

More than anything, I want my kids to see God in His Word.

I want them to let His Word teach them about Him. I hope they will all fall deeply in love with the Lord, and continue in that love.

///////////

A while ago, I copied this line by author, Brene’ Brown, into my journal–

“We have to be the women we want our daughters to be.”

I spent some time with that one, thinking through ways I both succeed and fail at living it. It’s hard, right? Because we’re human, and we’re working with strengths and weaknesses. Nobody gets it all right.

So my little girl’s passion reminded me that though I’m sometimes inconsistent and impatient and preoccupied rather than present, (and all the other things I could list about myself)–I am also remaining in the True Vine, and He’s remaining in me.

Jesus is bearing fruit beyond what I immediately see.

He promises that in Him, we will bear much fruit. In Him. With Him. Through Him.

Our efforts matter, but it’s not so much about our strengths and weaknesses. Jesus can do far more than we even imagine. He will take our efforts and turn them into much fruit.

So yes, be a woman worth imitating. Just know you’ll never exactly make it.

Then look forward with hope, to see what Jesus will make out of it all.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

On Fear & Misplaced Faith

January 19, 2017 By: Angela Parlin

“Mom, could you let that car drive past us?”

Staring out the backseat window, my daughter noticed a van in the next lane. I wondered why she cared about which cars shared the road with us. Questioning her further, I learned my 8-year-old daughter was afraid of dark vans.

When I was her age, I had the same irrational fear.

For me, it started with a Crime Stoppers commercial. I accidentally saw a piece on the news one night, about a store robbery and a couple of men pulling away in a big, black van. I couldn’t forget it. It changed my life, but not in any good ways.

Fear consumed my thoughts and ruined activities I previously enjoyed.

When a black van drove down our quiet, country road, I imagined a man would jump out and stuff me into the back. Or take my Mom away. Some days, it kept me from playing outside. I thought about it often, always measuring how far I was getting from my parents.

They tried coaching me through this fear and praying with me, after noticing changes in my behavior. But mostly, I didn’t speak my fears aloud. I kept them on the inside. Maybe this was the reason the enemy had a hold on me through fears, at such a young age.

When my fear of dark vans went away, other fears arrived, one after another.

The temptation to ponder my worries, cares, and fears rather than give them to the Lord has always been a great struggle for me.

1 Peter 5:7 (AKJV) says, “Casting all your care on Him, for He cares for you.” I would cast my cares on the Lord, but then reel them back in, holding them tightly in my own hands.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be a believer in Jesus Christ, who can say with certainty, “I trust God for everything.” I’d rather not own this struggle with fears. But trust is an action verb, and sometimes, I do not trust.

Sometimes I hold my most precious possessions back from God, as if I have any control over them.

I’m still learning to trust the Lord completely, with my life’s most important pieces (or people).

Speaking of what’s most important in our lives, what are your greatest fears? Your answer will show you what you fail to entrust to the Lord.

Through seasons of life, our fears may shift. When I had babies of my own, and when they were no longer “safe” and warm inside me, my fears not only shifted. They metastasized. Maybe you can relate?

One of the greatest lessons I’ve been learning is the same truth I repeat to my own children night after night—

God is good, and we can trust Him.

We live in a scary world, and we hear of scary things happening to people around us all the time. In this world, where bad news abounds, we must battle for trust in God over fear.

I just finished Kelly Balarie’s new book, Fear Fighting: Awakening Courage to Overcome Your Fears, and this quote from page 53 wouldn’t let me go:

“Do you fear God—living life in awe, in anticipation, and in adventure? Not fearing Him in a way where you get all shaky and nervous and defensive, but in a way where God moves into position number one. In a way where He gets to stand above everything else you fear.”

When we give in to fear, it’s a lot like putting our faith in something other than God. Instead, may we trust in the all-powerful, cares-for-us, praise-worthy God Almighty.

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in You.

In God,

whose word I praise—

in God I trust

and am not afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

Psalm 56:3-4, NIV

Order your copy of Fear Fighting today!

Life is a Puzzle, But We’re Missing the Full View

September 1, 2016 By: Angela Parlin

Some nights, my little girl stops me from heading out of her bedroom after I’ve tucked her in.

Before I move on to the next kid’s room, she needs me to help her sort through scary questions, unfathomable for a just-turned-9 year-old. Matters of life and death and everything in-between.

It’s a gift to talk deep with her, because I get to point her to the HOPE I know, again and again.

I get to help her see where Jesus resides within the gains and the losses of this world.

But it also tears my heart out. She’s seen enough now to know it’s not all going to be okay. Not in the way we would like it to be.

She’s seen the broken way of things here. She’s walked through loss and several near-losses with us. She’s wiped tears and cut out pink heart-shaped cards, adding stickers and cursive I love you’s. She’s served up comfort in mugs of hot tea with a side of dark chocolate & almonds.

She knows things I wish she didn’t know.

It’s a terrible world, one with ISIS and earthquakes and anger and leaving and loss. It’s a world where we sometimes shake our heads and cry and say I don’t know. I don’t understand.

Recently a friend of ours lost his sister suddenly. She was younger than me.

She’d had a hard run, and when he stood to speak at her funeral, he said, It seemed like she could never really catch a break in life.

He shared what he has left of her, his memories. He talked about how she loved to put together 5,000-piece puzzles, and laughed that there was one currently spread across a table at Mom and Dad’s house–missing that one piece like always. Then he asked a question, and it left a lasting picture in my mind…

Click here to read the rest of this post at PurposefulFaith.com.

When You Wax & Wane

May 19, 2016 By: Angela Parlin

From her bedroom window, the full moon glows.

Rays bounce to the north, south, east, and west, painting a cross of light over a pitch dark sky. Supermoon circles large in the center of a bright, shining, old, rugged cross.

I sit on the corner of her bed, watch my sleeping beauty breathe, and I stare at the moon.

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” –Martin Luther

Tonight, God wrote the gospel on the moon, and I needed it more than I knew.

Many days, I gulp down living water early.

But then I run through days, where the gospel feels lost on me.

Some days start on a high note, but tangle up in chaos before we reach the middle. Some days, I have to convince myself to try get on top of it all. Instead, I feel irritated. I can’t stop moving, but I’m only running in circles.

When I finally sit down for a few minutes without little people asking for more pieces of me, I ask God really mature and selfless questions.

Why won’t they ever leave me alone?

It’s not what I really want, other than the opportunity to pause and re-center.

The night of the supermoon, it hit me.

The way of the moon is to wax and wane, and the light can all but disappear sometimes.

My light can all but disappear, in the jumble of kids and school and endless meals and the house with its dirt and projects and always so many things to do.

My light disappears in the way I react to their childishness and stubbornness and rips and smudges and everywhere messes.

I want to remain in Jesus, to be a light that shines His love day in and day out, even when it’s only for my little crew.

I also want to be left alone sometimes.

I want to stay on schedule.

I want my house all put together.

I want to complete things when I start them.

And since none of these are entirely possible, some days my light goes out. Or at least grows dim.

How is it so hard to remain in Him, when I do take the time to begin in Him?

The night I saw Him cross the moon, my heart welled up with this visible shot of gospel, in the middle of my own frustrations and failures.

His cross was brighter.

His love was stronger.

His work outlasted my own.

Once my eyes were fixed on Jesus again, I could see it all more clearly.

There is so much beauty in and around and through the chaos of our days.

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone. This doesn’t diminish the importance of the Bible. Nothing compares to opening the pages of His Word and hearing from the Lord.

But God surrounded us with all this beauty, His own glory. It fixes our minds on Him again, and maybe there’s always more to see.

So when you look up at the sky today or the stars tonight, or when the wind blows through your backyard trees, I hope you will remember.

I hope you will look and see Jesus above the roar of your life’s chaos, and you will continue in Him. And you will remain in Him.

Read this post also at PurposefulFaith.com.

The One Thing We Must Always Return To

I was out-of-my-mind frustrated.

Like this:

The Women We Want Our Daughters To Be

“Mommy, can I read something for all of us?”

Even so, she’s caught my passion for the Word of God.

More than anything, I want my kids to see God in His Word.

Jesus is bearing fruit beyond what I immediately see.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Like this:

On Fear & Misplaced Faith

“Mom, could you let that car drive past us?”

When I was her age, I had the same irrational fear.

The temptation to ponder my worries, cares, and fears rather than give them to the Lord has always been a great struggle for me.

Sometimes I hold my most precious possessions back from God, as if I have any control over them.

God is good, and we can trust Him.

in God I trust

Like this:

Life is a Puzzle, But We’re Missing the Full View

I get to help her see where Jesus resides within the gains and the losses of this world.

She knows things I wish she didn’t know.

Like this:

When You Wax & Wane

From her bedroom window, the full moon glows.

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” –Martin Luther

But then I run through days, where the gospel feels lost on me.

The way of the moon is to wax and wane, and the light can all but disappear sometimes.

How is it so hard to remain in Him, when I do take the time to begin in Him?

There is so much beauty in and around and through the chaos of our days.

Like this:

Compassion International

I was out-of-my-mind frustrated.

Share this:

Like this:

“Mommy, can I read something for all of us?”

Even so, she’s caught my passion for the Word of God.

More than anything, I want my kids to see God in His Word.

Jesus is bearing fruit beyond what I immediately see.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Share this:

Like this:

“Mom, could you let that car drive past us?”

When I was her age, I had the same irrational fear.

The temptation to ponder my worries, cares, and fears rather than give them to the Lord has always been a great struggle for me.

Sometimes I hold my most precious possessions back from God, as if I have any control over them.

God is good, and we can trust Him.

in God I trust

Share this:

Like this:

I get to help her see where Jesus resides within the gains and the losses of this world.

She knows things I wish she didn’t know.

Share this:

Like this:

From her bedroom window, the full moon glows.

“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” –Martin Luther

But then I run through days, where the gospel feels lost on me.

The way of the moon is to wax and wane, and the light can all but disappear sometimes.

How is it so hard to remain in Him, when I do take the time to begin in Him?

There is so much beauty in and around and through the chaos of our days.

Share this:

Like this:

Compassion International