Category: faith

faith · motherhood · reflections

The Sweetest Moments of Forgiveness

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

My kids break the rules a lot. Whether it’s one more episode of Netflix after they’ve been told to turn it off, or only brushing their teeth with water instead of toothpaste, or just plain going out of their way to aggravate one another, there’s always someone doing something wrong.

It doesn’t help that I’m not all that great an enforcer. Follow through has never been my strongest trait.

So sometimes there’s a lot of yelling and a lot of crying and a lot of frustration. Sometimes there’s me holding them to an unattainable standard that I haven’t even really spelled out for them, so it’s unfair to punish for something they didn’t really get was wrong in the first place.

That’s my middle child’s favorite excuse.

“But you didn’t say don’t eat ice cream in the living room. You just said eat a snack!”

Well I didn’t realize I had to remind you for the 1000th time that the living room isn’t where we eat snacks! Sound familiar?

I tell you honestly, this journey through motherhood has taught me more about God’s love than the twenty-four years prior I spent in a sanctuary. I get that love now without having it spelled out in a sermon–how His love is unconditional and passionate and fiery and jealous and merciful.  Because until I have walked through the fires of sleep deprivation and chore charts and please, please can someone pick up the crayons off the floor, I didn’t get it.  I didn’t get how much He must love me.

And how exasperated He deserves to be with me.

Because I keep trying to live and raise my kids and govern my life under the letter of the law. Rules are good, sure. Rules give parameters and guidelines and function to society and classrooms and homes. But following rules, checking off boxes, getting a sticker reward–that does nothing to forgive my soul for it’s ugly tendencies toward sins like coveting or anger or pride.
As Easter approaches, I’ve been trying to really, truly grasp the weight and glory of the cross. I’ve been trying to see it through the film of my own life, to better understand this faith I hold to be true but sometimes cannot put into words. Then a pastor friend uttered these words at Friday’s MOPS devotion:
We have to sit under the weight of God’s curse before we can truly grasp the meaning of the cross.
And I thought about my kids. 
So often we put our children under the weight of law and of course, when that law is broken there are consequences. And if you’re anything like me, you’re doling out those consequences with a pretty short fuse and a whole lot of irritation.
But God’s law doesn’t work like that. Instead, with Him, we have to commit the sin before we know the sweetness of forgiveness.

We have to break in order to mend.

Once, I really, really lost it with my middle daughter. She had pushed me beyond my limits and I slammed out the door in a fury to cool off before I could deal with her anymore. I was mad, and I just knew, I was going to have to go back in there and issue a punishment fitting to her crime and also, explain again, that I was sorry I had gotten so angry. I was so tired of being the one to ask for and offer forgiveness that seemed to mean nothing to her.

But she came to me first. Out the door in a sobbing heap, she crawled into my lap, grasping at my neck and saying, “I’m sorry, mommy, I’m sorry.”

And my anger just melted. I think that’s what God does for us. His anger has just melted away because through Christ, we can come to Him, we can climb in His lap and beg forgiveness and He can give it wholly.

Until I sat under the weight of motherhood, under the weight of a love so great I would give my life for any of my children, I didn’t really understand the depth of unconditional forgiveness. 

I didn’t really grasp the meaning of the cross.

Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly demonstrates His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners Christ [the Messiah, the Anointed One] died for us. 

Romans 5:7-8 (Amplified)
faith · one word 365 · reflections

On Reveling in Contentment

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

I chose content for my word this year. It was like praying for patience.

Suddenly, as soon as I made that declaration, nothing was good enough.  I couldn’t stretch the groceries, I couldn’t make that old outfit work, I couldn’t wait to put our house up for sale, I couldn’t enjoy writing or reading or my birthday.

Because it was all about I.  Me. My search and my quest and my journey alone.  Except, I can’t ever find contentment in myself by myself.

I’m hopelessly flawed. I bet you are too. I can be incredibly selfish with my time and my resources and my heart, and I’m pretty sure when we’re being honest, you get what I’m saying.

Sometimes I just want what I want.

I want to go to the grocery store and buy whatever I want to eat that week especially meat because that’s what we limit the most.

I want to buy a new house with a basement and new kitchen cabinets and a deck that’s accessed from somewhere other than the master bedroom.

I want new Toms for summer and cute tops that hide my muffin top and I don’t want to figure out how to make the same pair of capris work for the fifth year in a row.

I want everyone to focus on just me and my needs and my desires and I desperately want to hole up at the library or a coffee shop for hours and hours and just write so I can get a handle on the blog and the article submissions and the maybe novel.

But contentment never comes when I focus on myself all the time.

I started a Bible study with Hello Mornings a few weeks ago. It’s called Taking Refuge: The Story of Ruth. It’s about seeking Jesus as our only refuge, our only source, our only contentment that never wavers under the pressures of life.

The Word is squeezing my heart and stirring my soul and constantly challenging me to dig a little deeper.  For the first time in a study, I’m using multiple translations and the word of God is singing over me in a way it never has before. I owe that to my pastor’s wife who is teaching a ladies’ study at church and she has encouraged us to use versions I’ve never tried before.  The Amplified Bible is like the main course of Bible study–so much clarification and meat.  The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language has been like dessert–a sweet touch to words that I had let grow stale in my own life.

Over the past few days, I have begun to notice a new feeling.  For the first time in a while, I feel full. I feel secure.  I feel content.

I’ve been handing over tasks to the Lord that I’ve always tried to do myself, and He’s blessed me in return.

I realized this when I went to the grocery store a couple days ago with a list that was small, but somehow, I had planned a week’s worth of meals that included meat and snacks and dinner for a friend who had her fifth sweet baby girl last week. I bought a whole boneless pork loin (that was the big sale item) and had half cut into pork chops. We grilled for the first time this season, and I’ve got the rest in the freezer for next week’s Sunday dinner, and then I had to laugh when I saw this week’s fellowship supper at church: pork tenderloin.

See with God, it never rains, it pours. I gave Him something small when I handed over that grocery budget, and He gave me back something much bigger than myself and my petty concerns.

He gave me contentment in Him. And that’s way more filling than any meal.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, so if you click on something and it takes you to Amazon and you make a purchase, I get a teensy bit to help cover my domain costs.

faith · giveaways · linkups · motherhood

What You Can Give (and get) From Your Kitchen Table {Falling in Love with the World Next Door: Part 2}

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

My baby boy is spooning oatmeal into his face faster than I can say hot-hot! He’s sitting at our kitchen table that my husband helped me sand and my children helped me paint and he’s just eating instant oatmeal out of the pack.  It’s not even the good homemade baked kind my kids are liking lately with blueberries.

It’s just instant oatmeal that I made in five minutes because I have an electric stove and a microwave and a refrigerator that is always full even when I say it’s empty.

My kitchen is nothing spectacular and it’s not getting featured on HGTV anytime soon unless it’s on a remodel show because usually all I ever see is what’s wrong. Like, how my cabinets are unfinished inside and need new doors and that my super-deep cast iron sink could use a new finish.

And if I had $16,000 to put toward a new kitchen, you can bet it would be something spectacular.  I’m dreaming of gas stoves and soapstone counters and pull out storage in brand new cabinets and one of those really big fridges you can put trays in and an entrance straight from the kitchen to the deck so people don’t have to trek through my bedroom anymore when we’re having a barbecue.

But in Maubane, South Africa $16,000 can buy a kitchen for dozens of families and the orphans they’re raising. It can buy a roof instead of a tent and a stove instead of a fire pit in the ground.

It can buy a place for a community to gather.

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It can buy a place where we can help save the future for the motherless and fatherless who are coming to know the one true Father and Creator of all.

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Now, that’s a pretty spectacular kitchen.

Today won’t you sit at your kitchen table and join the online community who is helping make this crazy dream come true? I’m part of a team that’s writing alongside blogger Lisa Jo Baker, who champions moms to believe they can do great things at their own kitchen tables.

But this is more than a project to her.  It’s a lifeline because Maubane, South Africa is her hometown, her kitchen table, her community. It’s where her father is raising another family of rescued orphans and where he doctors during the week and preaches on Sundays.

This isn’t a random group of people. These are people who are connected to those of us who read Lisa Jo’s words and believe them because they are a part of her story.

So, when you bow your hands with your children in prayer, when you wipe the spilled milk and the stickiness off that table, when you set it with everyday china or Solo cups, give thanks for the table you have.  And maybe consider giving this gift to another mom who’s a lot like you.

A mom who wants to teach her children gratitude for the hard times and the good times. A mom who wants to teach her kids how to trust in the love of people because we trust a great big God to bring us together.

Sometime we’ll dance in Heaven about how God was glorified in the building of this community.

Or maybe before then, we’ll dance in Maubane, together, in the kitchen while we peel potatoes and slice oranges and give thanks.

There are so many fabulous ways and rewards for giving to this project today (or any day between now and Mother’s Day). You can click here to visit Lisa Jo and read all the details, but here’s a quick set of links:

Pure Charity: Give right here directly to the fund and watch it grow!

Buy a Vintage Dictionary Necklace from Krafty Kash and $12 goes directly to the fund. (Mother’s Day, hint! hint!)

Donate $40 and Money Saving Mom will pre-order you Lisa Jo’s book, Surprised by Motherhood, to be released on April 1, 2014 (April Fool’s Day, of course!).  She’ll also send you her own great read Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. 

If music is your love language, click here to order this beautiful album and learn to sing Jesus Loves Me all over again while supporting the building of this community center.

Finally, if you just pre-order Lisa Jo’s book right here, a portion of her proceeds goes directly back to this community because she knows motherhood is never short on surprises or encouragement. 

AND if you leave me a comment telling me that you donated and why you’re choosing to support this community, I’ll randomly select someone to get a sweet little package in the mail. It’s nothing big, but sometimes you just need a new dishtowel, yes? https://www.purecharity.com/widget?aff=jwgo5&slug=community-kitchen-and-welcome-center&utm_source=9jpa6&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=community-kitchen-and-welcome-center

birthdays · faith · giveaways

Birthday Wishes with 163 Design Company

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment
I wore it like a talisman all those long days and nights that went by impossibly quick slow that last week of last year into the first days of a new beginning.
Jennifer, who was my roommate at Allume, and shares more than just a corner of this big internet with me, offered them up as gifts to us when we first spilled our luggage and our hearts onto beds in that hotel room in Greenville back in October.
It is well with my soul.
It takes courage to offer up those words.  It takes courage to make a little piece of yourself and hope others love it and buy it so you can pay the bills but share it so you can know it means something.
The first time I choked on those words I was a senior in high school sitting in a church pew of First Baptist holding a hymnal with shaking hands and mourning the death of a girl I used to run the side streets of town with for cross country practice, a girl I’d known for as long as I could remember, a girl who should have gone on to live a longer life than just nineteen short years.  It wasn’t well with my soul then.
But I grew up and I opened my heart more to faith and I saw the peace that passes understanding on so many whose souls were well.
And I want that.  A well soul.  
I’m 34 years old today and it’s taken me this long to learn and become well with the idea that I am not well. I am broken and scarred and flawed and made in the image of God. And everyday I get to choose to live in grace and forgiveness and joy so that all will be well–
or I get to choose not.
And let me tell you those days of choosing not, those days of choosing despair and self-deprecation and dilemma over delight, those days will eat through your soul and leave you with nothing.

So, everyday I’m trying and somedays, I wear my necklace because I need that little tangible reminder that 

IT. IS. WELL. WITH. MY. SOUL.
Since it’s my birthday, Jen is letting me give one of these beauties away to you!  And since she’s super kind, she’s offering up another one as well, so today’s giveaway will have two winners, which is perfect because she and I share hotel rooms and mom fears and coffee love and husbands who are recovered from perimyocarditis (how crazy is that?!?) and first names (yep, mine’s Jennifer) AND February birthdays. I tell you, no one but God could have crafted together a bonding like ours.
If the It Is Well piece doesn’t speak to you like it does me, perhaps you’d like this one?
 
It reminds me so much of Jennifer because she does seek to Glorify God in all she does whether it’s handcrafting these beautiful wooden necklaces (read about the process here) or designing prints and art to bring a little nautical joy to your home or blogging about ending the slavery of women.
If you’d love to win one of these, here’s the super fun widget from Rafflecopter.  Enter as many times as you want and give me a birthday gift? Share this post even if you’re not interested in winning. Thanks so much!
And if you are yourself or know an expectant mother, send them over here to enter the giveaway for a free newborn session to honor my own baby girl’s birthday. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js

faith · Friday Five · motherhood

Fall In Love with the World Next Door

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

I could tell you how I know what love looks like.  How it’s his hands in soapy dishwater when the cracks on my dry hands just can’t do that again.  How it’s rocking the baby boy we never dreamed we’d have back to sleep at 5:30 a.m. so I can write one more paragraph on the novel that he really believes I’ll finish. How it’s planning a garden to grow tomatoes and peppers so I can make tomato sauce for Friday night pizzas and it’s tending that garden with the same care he tends our marriage–even when things are a little wilty and the rains are just too much.

But this isn’t a love story about us today. It’s a love story about how he smiled when I told him I’d given my skinny jean money to fund clean laundry in Africa, and how he nodded when I said I want to help them build a garden.  It’s about how he’s letting me fall in love with halfway around the world because I’ve discovered that really, deep down, all moms look the same.

I lead MOPS every other Friday so how fitting that today is Valentine’s Friday and I’m talking about loving moms. We meet in the spacious, well-lit, fully equipped fellowship hall of my church, and we share breakfast and potty training and sleep deprivation in the way that only mothers of young children can.  We learn from and love on each other with fierce passion for our kids, our homes, our Jesus and so many moms tell me later it’s the best part of their week–this building of community with other mothers.

No comparison, just community.  It’s been a mantra of mine for months now, whether I’m welcoming new moms or writing for Five Minute Friday.  Because if we really want to get down to the nitty gritty, our comparisons amongst ourselves will only tear us down and diminish all the worth we could be putting into building community.

So  today, I’d like to invite you to be a part of just that–this physical building of community for moms in Maubane, South Africa.  Moms who are just like the mothers who fill that hall with me on Fridays; moms who are raising their own toddlers and maybe someone else’s; moms who scrub their laundry with clean water now because we believed that’s every mother’s right; moms who would love to tend a garden, cook in a kitchen, fellowship with other moms, send their children to a school, and have playdates on an actual playground.

Moms who deserve to be shown more love than any Valentine’s Day card could ever contain. Moms who by Mother’s Day, God willing, will know that love is more than a date on a calendar and every mom matters. I serve in MOPS because I believe better moms make a better world; I write here because I believe every mom needs to hear that motherhood is hard but grace is unlimited; I read Lisa Jo because she believes motherhood should come with a superhero cape and an open invitation to sit at the table of Christ.

And Christ’s table is long and wide and full of that good measure that’s been pressed down, shaken together, and poured out on us to give to others. It looks like vegetables ripened by the African sun, like clean water pouring out a new faucet, like slides and swings, and sharpened pencils in new classrooms.

It looks like love.

In October, my community of writing mamas funded the clean water project for this community by raising $5000 in less than twelve hours because there’s no limits on the love of Jesus and should be no limits on access to clean water.

Today I’m asking my community of readers, you moms and grandmothers and aunts and friends, you husbands and fathers and supporters of moms, to come alongside us and help raise thirty times that amount by Mother’s Day: $150,000 to build a community center for the families of Maubane, South Africa.

It’s a crazy big amount, but we have a crazy big God who loves with crazy big love and we get to be a part of that love by sharing it with others. 

So, for Valentine’s Day 2014, instead of giving heart shaped candy, let’s grow tomatoes the size of our hearts in a garden for a world that’s really just next door.

Linking up with Lisa Jo and everyone else who believes #scaredisthenewbrave for today’s flash mob love and garden edition of Five Minute (or longer) Friday.

https://www.purecharity.com/widget?aff=9jpa6&slug=veggies4africa&utm_source=9jpa6&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=veggies4africa