A Prayer for Anabelle

I love my baby girl. She has brought me so much joy & has given me a brand new perspective on life. I love being the one to greet her in the morning & the last to kiss her goodnight. I love how she "spins" towards objects because she hasn't gotten the concept of crawling just yet. I love our walks to Walmart and the little parks in the neighborhood. Ahhh...and my favorite part of the day, seeing the excitement on her face when "dada" comes home from work and graces her with his kisses.

Saturday morning Justin & I were reading Ephesians and my mind went off track big time! the phrase "the ways of this world " gave me a good scare. What will Anabelle's generation will look like. What will the ways of her world look like. Are we setting her generation up for failure? Before I go into deep depression thinking about it, I'm reminded that she has a heavenly father who loves her more than we do. Our role as parents is to do everything we can to lead her to Him. Justin won't be able to keep the boys away forever (although he will try!). I can't convince her that what she sees in the media isn't the "prize". We can't strap her to a carseat every Sunday morning & bring her to church. We can't choose Jesus for her. THat tells me there's an urgency to start now.. to pray for our little girl.

God, Anabelle is YOURS. "All the days ordained for her were written in your book before one of them came to be". I am believing that Anabelle will choose YOU! That she will live this life with eternity with You in mind. That she will have a burden to make Your name known. Ahh...I have a long list of prayers for Anabelle. But more than anything, I just want her to love You. In your powerful name Jesus!

Inspired by M.R.

I am committing to blogging at least twice a week! Reading a friend's blogs (shout out to M.R.) has inspired me capture the goodness of the Lord in words. I forget too easily. One more thing about MR before I move on. People who "hunger and thirst" to understand the Bible are few and far between. To some it's a strange, confusing, way to big book. But to people like her, it is the GOd of the universe's love letter, designed to help her discover the secrets hidden in God's heart. In this life & the next. If you sat down with her for ten minutes, you'd be inspired like I am to dig deeper. (so glad we cross paths MR)


Two years ago I moved to Michigan and joined my best friend in a chuch plant adventure. Never imagined it would be so lifechanging. No wonder Jesus loves the church. It's filled with people who are desperate for hope, love, and purpose. People who's poop stinks. Imagine that. I never understood why the church is criticized for being flawed. People in need = imperfection. It's the perfect equation because there is only room for one PERFECT, HOLY GOD. This past week, I've been thinking about the people at JRoad. Each person's story that I've had the priviledge of knowing are full of wounds and losses. That's probably why Jesus' presence is so evident inside our building every Sunday. Through our individual trials he is accomplishing what the bible says:

... Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless...

Jesus loves you and even through your pain he is making you, your marriage/singleness, your family & friends "holy & blameless". The process hurts but let's stay faithful together!