Simple Thoughts

I've been thinking about fifth grade Michelle a lot.   When I think about the peak of my insecure self, I think of fifth grade. I didn't feel pretty. I knew I wasn't popular. I wasn't athletic at all, so getting picked for kickball teams were always an adventure. I loved to sing, but I also knew there were others better than me. I wore glasses. I was lanky. I had plenty of zits. I didn't have a boyfriend. Quite honestly, I would have been okay being anyone but me. I remember wanting to be different, wishing I could change some of those things about me. Life was consumed with constantly comparing myself with others around me.   Fast forward... I survived junior high, thank God. I even survived high school, got a high school sweetheart, and married him before he could change his mind in college. Junior high, high school and even being in the music school in college had many moments of comparing myself and feeling insecure. Something amazin...

God often uses things in our every day lives to speak to us and teach us lessons. When I started CrossFit, He began using it to show me things. He's taught me things about humility and pride, endurance, finishing well, and more. This blog is about just one of those many things that I have learned from CrossFit about the Christian walk.   In my not-that-long CrossFit career, I have watched a few athletes come 110% right out of the gate on some marathon workouts and they burned out quickly because they did not pace themselves correctly. Because I have seen it with own eyes, I understand what a few well-intentioned individuals meant when they warned me before I had an important competitive workout. They warned "Be careful not to let your adrenaline kick in and go too hard in the beginning." My response was the same, "Don't worry. That's not my problem. My problem is I never go hard enough."   You see, I understand there is way more potential in...

  I only have one word to sum up what I have felt this election season: embarrassment.   It has been embarrassing to see Trump's rise and to see Christians' sad attempt to excuse his moral failings, arrogance, and foolish words.   I watched a news clip the other night of a Trump supporter trying to defend him when the topic was his "locker room talk." I was embarrassed.   I was slightly proud of the woman just because she stayed right on talking points.   Everything she said, I have heard or seen a thousand times.   However, hearing her say what she did and watching the news anchor's response made me cringe.   Wrong is wrong, whether or not the person is your party's pick. Last night, two weeks before Election Day, I sat and racked my brain.   Is there any Biblical example of righteous people endorsing an unrighteous leader and God being okay with it? As I asked the question, an example immediately popped into my head...

I am a big believer that the Holy Spirit will teach you in every situation of life if you allow Him to.   I've learned so much in motherhood, that I feel like a different person than when I had my first child 2 years ago.   So here I am again, learning again, in another situation.   I am 39 weeks pregnant.   I'm impatient, uncomfortable, and exhausted.   I am extremely ready for my situation to change.   I am ready for labor and the pain associated with it.   I am ready for a baby in my arms instead of inside me. And it's not that I hate being pregnant.   I love being pregnant.   But change is so close that it is too close.   Close enough to physically prepare, to mentally be ready, but it feels far away simply because it isn't happening yet. The last few days, God has really been speaking to me, or maybe I should say revealing things to me about me in the area of waiting on the Lord.   In the recent seasons ...

  I'm going to walk you through something that caught my eye the other day and the resulting Bible search that followed... My daily Bible reading was in Hebrews recently and I read this passage that I had never really paid attention to before.   Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come--In the volume of the book it is written of Me--To do Your will, O God.' " - (Hbr 10:5-7 NKJV) This caught my attention because I did not recall a recorded instance in the Gospels when Jesus said this. I knew the writer of Hebrews was discussing Jesus though.   I love blueletterbible.com.   I looked up the commentary by David Guzik on this passage and this is what I found: "This quotation is taken from the Septuagint version of Psalm 40:6-8 (the Septuag...

I heard Misty Edwards sing a chorus one time and it has stuck with me though I have never heard her record it.   "The way of God is the wilderness. It's always been the wilderness. The way of God is weakness, voluntary weakness." The wilderness and voluntary weakness - those don't exactly sound like an easy lifestyle, does it. Yet Misty is right.   It's the way God works.   God draws us to the wilderness to test us, teach us, and encounter us.   A beautiful description of this is in Song of Solomon 8:5 which says "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?" The Shulamite woman, a picture of the bride of Christ, came out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved, a picture of Jesus.   It is okay to have times of being in the wilderness.   As a matter of fact, God often draws us there for a purpose. John the Baptist was trained in the wilderness.   Jesus withdrew to the wilderness to fast. It is in the w...

Hophni and Phinehas ·       were priests ·       were corrupt ·       did not know the Lord ·       their sin was very great before the Lord ·       they abhorred the offering of the Lord ·       they laid with women who had assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting ·       did not heed the reprimand of Eli ·       per God/Samuel - made themselves vile Eli ·       very old ·       heard what his sons were doing ·       reprimanded verbally his sons ·       per man of God - kicked at God's sacrifice and offering ·       per man of God - honored his sons more than God ·       per man o...