Trading Tea for Elephants

(photo credit) "What is faith?"  I posed the question to the three little faces staring back at me. My youngest points to her sister sitting next to her and giggles. And my heart remembers walking that path behind our home with two little boys walking next to me. The two boys I had just sent off to middle school that morning. As we made our daily walk down to the stream to throw rocks, we discussed this same question. That was the day we decided together that this little girl we were waiting for would be named Faith. And now here I was staring into the eyes of my daily reminder.  Faith knows the answer to this question. She has heard the story thousands of times. "It is believing in something that you can't see with your eyes." Yes baby. We knew God would help us find you and bring you home. You were a promise long before we saw your face.  There is another part to that verse, though. The verse that God wrote on our hearts that day in Septembe

(photo credit) My dreams were crashing all around me. I began to wonder if I just needed to accept that I wasn't the kind of person God could use in the way my heart desired. What had started as whispers of doubt were now in max volume on repeat in my heart. My failures seemed insurmountable. My emotions raw. My soul weary. The mountain called to me. I started my ascent running. Pushing myself physically has always been my outlet. In the movement my wild thoughts pour out to my Heavenly Father. The path becomes steeper now and I find myself jumping over fallen logs. My running feet slow to a walk as the dirt floor turns into solid rock. The way has become too difficult to climb so I find a ledge where I can rest. Rest. "Come to Me all who are weary and I will give you rest". The view is breathtaking. The beauty of His creation begins to speak life to the deepest parts of my soul. I recently learned a practice called "Palms up/Palms down". The idea is