pursuing LOVE...and JOY...and WHOLEHEARTEDNESS!

This is my favorite flower this week and it grows in my backyard, near the garage. I have been waiting and eagerly watching for these flowers to bloom. And, let me tell you, they have been more than worth the wait. The outer color is the most amazing and vibrant pink and the inside is soft, pastel pink and white. They smell absolutely incredible! Literally, I stood outside, in the rain, in work clothes, holding my purse, and kept smelling them repeatedly. They smelled that fantastic! There are several other flowers new to our yard this week. I actually don't know for sure what any of them are called, but I love looking at them. I love driving up to the garage and seeing beautiful flowers growing by my house and thinking, wow, that was not there before. And, wow, I live here! It's like an extended game of surprise as we wait to see everything that previous owner's of our house have planted. I am very thankful to them, whoever they are, because our yard is a delightf...

(Still Counting Gifts:) Fluffy baby geese by the river (#1087). It's like a testimony that spring is really here every time I see them. There are several families who hang out together and I love when I come across them. The babies are learning how to swim, eat grass and cross the bike path. The babies are so cute that I wish I could pick them up and snuggle them. Of course, I don't do this because the adult geese are so scary. They are literally watching for people like to me to get too close so that they can hiss and charge. This is so terrifying that I risk having wet feet and run through the grass across the path from them in order to be sure that I will not be attacked. Even today, when I finally mustered up the courage to stop and take a picture, I stood as far away as I possibly could, while still getting the picture. The view outside of my office windows is becoming amazing (#1088). (And, they are beautifully clear because David McDonald and Norweg...

There's a phrase that I keep praying, over and over again. God is my peace. Breathe in. Breathe out. God is my peace . It came when I was feeling out of control of our finances, again. I was looking at the amounts in each of our accounts, thinking through all of our anticipated expenses for this month, and feeling a strong sense of fear. I was thinking back on when we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace  class and how hard I have tried to use these principles so that we can have peace in our finances. I was feeling frustrated with God for not blessing my use of these principles and giving me financial peace when I heard Him say, "Jody, I want to be your peace." It stopped me in the middle of my frantic thought. I felt God's invitation and His strong affection for me. I felt understood in my strong desire, need even, to feel peace in my finances. I felt His tender response and strong desire to answer my strong request. I remembered that God has always been fai...

The past 3 months have felt crazy. And during all these months of crazy, busy activity in my life, desire has been stirring in the background of my heart. I read things that other people write and feel myself come alive. I talk with people and hear things that God is speaking and want to write them down and share. I listen to music, sing to the Lord and long to create something that will help other people to connect with God in worship. It has been over two months since I touched our piano. Or any piano, for that matter. This is also my first blog post in almost 3 months. Crazy months, yes. But, 3 months all the same. I feel sad about these things. And scared to start again. What if I have lost everything that I had developed? But even fear of the possible frustration of starting again has not been able to change my desire. My desire has only been stirring and growing all this time. My desire is to resume creating. With piano. With words. This is week 9 of my training for t...