Grandma Ann is sitting there telling Uncle Mike how she’s so used to helping prepare food for these events, but how, on this occasion, her 105th birthday party, they “shooed her out of the kitchen!” The nerve!!! ⠀
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We listen, and smile, and rib each other a little bit because we know she hasn’t cooked meals in several years. But we delight in giving her the chance to vocalize her passion. It never fades. What God bestows on us will go to the grave with us. And it’s my observation that Grandma Ann will go down serving. (At least, in her mind😉). ⠀
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#wellwateredwomen #soulscripts #shereadstruth #gritandvirtue #graceupongrace #savedbygrace #redeemed #jesusandcoffee #butfirstjesus #jesusgirl #christianliving #christiancommunith #faithblogger #biblejournaling #wordbeforeworld #faithingod #itiswell #faithinspired #godsgrace #forhisglory #seekhimfirst #devotional #dailydevotional #youversion #homeschoolmama #homeschoolfamily #homeschoolblogger #homeschoolchristianblogger #blogfromhome #blogforJesus
Is there someone in your life that you watch and listen to because it’s easy to see how they’re doing what they were created to do? Someone you brush shoulders with, or worship with? Someone you see only occasionally or nearly every day? Someone living propelled forward because whatever it is they are doing makes.them.come.alive!? And you feel it. Now, name them. Open your eyes to how they order their days. See who they are and awaken to the sound of their heartbeat. ⠀
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You have that! You are designed to live well, fully alive to fully live out your calling. ⠀
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If you feel so brave, name that person in the comments below (first names are fine). Then, if today you pinpoint what it is that makes you come alive, name that too. I’ll cheer you on. We were made for this. ⠀
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#wellwateredwomen #soulscripts #shereadstruth #gritandvirtue #graceupongrace #savedbygrace #redeemed #jesusandcoffee #butfirstjesus #jesusgirl #christianliving #christiancommunith #faithblogger #biblejournaling #wordbeforeworld #faithingod #itiswell #faithinspired #godsgrace #forhisglory #seekhimfirst #devotional #dailydevotional #youversion #homeschoolmama #homeschoolfamily #homeschoolblogger #homeschoolchristianblogger #blogfromhome #blogforJesus
The year was 1914. The month was September. The day was the 17th. And in a sod house in North Dakota a baby girl was born to Russian immigrants. She was named Ann.⠀
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She would grow up in a Russian farming community, the oldest of five. She would go to an English speaking country school and hang her head in shame that she didn’t understand a word of her lessons. She would also remember her parents making the decision to become Seventh-day Adventist Christians and rededicate themselves to God. She would remember the pain and anger that that caused among her mother’s family. How her own bloodline would turn their heads to the fields when their wagons passed each other on the dirt road. She would remember how you can hear the prayers of your parents when the dark came and they thought no one was listening. How you can nearly break over the cold shoulder of your own people. But she also remembers rising early on Sabbath morning to finish farm chores before the church service began. She remembers the hymns and the prayers and the preacher who preached the Word in a tent right in her families own front field. And it was at a Seventh-day Adventist college that she met the young man who would become her husband. ⠀
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Al, her beloved, committed his own life to God and became a young pastor with 8 churches in South Dakota. They lived wherever the local church put them and Ann came alive when she hosted her first church picnic. She quickly realized her passion to serve those lost and seeking at her very small kitchen table. Ann would spend the next 66 years of her marriage preparing and presenting meals to Bible study groups, foreign missionaries, immigrants, and college students alike. She was born with a hostess heart, and so, after she laid her husband to rest, she fought grief with her God-given calling. To serve.⠀
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Ann was born a servant. Not to a king or to an ambassador or even to your average multi-billionaire. She was born to serve those hungry, those grieving, those who struggled to find footing in a foreign land, those disheveled and disrupted.⠀
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Today we celebrate her 105 birthday. We who call her Sister, Mom, Aunt, Grandma, GiGi, and for some, friend.
Years ago, I prayed to become a mother. And I found Matthew 6:8 which reads, “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” And so I spent seven years asking Him if He KNEW how desperately the role of motherhood tugged at my core. What I actually, slowly, learned, was that what I really needed was to get to know my Father better. As our conversations went on He began to ask me Jeremiah 45:5, “Do you seek great things for yourself?” And I discovered that the greatest things cannot stand in the same space as my selfishness. So, when at last we became parents, it truly was one of the greatest things to be able to bring up 3 of our 4 babies. Over the years, homeschooling has also become an extension of our ‘greatest things’.
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It is still challenging, year after year, to settle my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants personality into a scheduled school day, but over and over God draws my attention to His plan, and then the homeschooling stops looking like an obstacle, and instead, like an opportunity.
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#wellwateredwomen #soulscripts #shereadstruth #gritandvirtue #graceupongrace #savedbygrace #redeemed #jesusandcoffee #butfirstjesus #jesusgirl #christianliving #christiancommunith #faithblogger #biblejournaling #wordbeforeworld #faithingod #itiswell #faithinspired #godsgrace #forhisglory #seekhimfirst #devotional #dailydevotional #youversion #homeschoolblogger #christianhomeschoolblogger #familyblogger #homeschoolchristianblogger #blogfromhome #homeschooledblogger
School began this past week. And so did the reordering of days. Alarms ting, lights pop on earlier, feet stomp down stairs in multiple sets of two, the bathroom has a line now, and coffee brews on a timer. For those of you just starting out on your first school schedule, it might feel a bit like a puzzle. But don’t worry, all puzzles can be solved with a little ingenuity and patient effort.
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Here at the old farmhouse, we gathered around the kitchen table and started our seventh year of homeschooling. The big difference for us this year, is the addition of our youngest who starts Kindergarten. It’s exciting and exhausting and I, too, feel a bit frayed. Going from teaching two grades to teaching three seems super scattered, but, I tense up and hold on, because these kids have a right to a solid education. I, too, will lay out the puzzle pieces and shuffle things around until we find the rhythm to a day we can all live with.
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For the record, I didn’t enter parenting with the intent to homeschool. It is something the Lord places on my heart almost every year. (I’ll explain what that ‘almost’ means another time). But each year, when I look deep into what it means to keep my kids with me every day. every hour. every meal. every class. every errand. every chore, well, the independent introvert in me balks a bit. But, my wise, all-knowing Father also makes me look deep into scripture to understand how to define my purpose. And because I am selfish by nature and I, deep down, want great things from this life, He helps me learn that the greatest things cannot stand in the same space as my selfishness.
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There is more to this caption, check back in Friday for the rest ❤️
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#wellwateredwomen #soulscripts #shereadstruth #gritandvirtue #graceupongrace #savedbygrace #redeemed #jesusandcoffee #butfirstjesus #jesusgirl #christianliving #christiancommunith #faithblogger #biblejournaling #wordbeforeworld #faithingod #itiswell #faithinspired #godsgrace #forhisglory #seekhimfirst #devotional #dailydevotional #youversion #homeschooling #startoftheschoolyear #homeschoolmama #homeschoolfamily #homeschoolblogger #homeschooledblogger
