Anchored

Can I please get some peace?! Peace of mind, peace in spirit, peace in my job, marriage, schedule, peace and quiet… I’ve been on a hunt for peace and have discovered its secret, and no it’s not a lobotomy- even though I thought that was my only option for a while!

How often do you pause in your day? How often do you assess priorities in your life? How often do you pray?

The Hunt

Sometimes my mind feels like a flipbook, a constant flow of info, data, and planning all streaming together, but my flip book is either missing pages or the steady flow of flipping is being interrupted and remains unfinished.  That’s kind of a weird analogy – because I am in no way admitting to being a few pages short of a full book, but maybe some would argue that.  What I’m trying to say is that my brain is in fast forward, overactive, learning, growing, developing, and changing mode – non-stop!!  It’s beautiful and chaotic at the same time.

I can see the blessings in the constant growth, I love to learn and grow, especially when it’s guided by God.  However, the constant full-throttle brain makes me feel a loss of peace – it often feels out of control.

So, in my growth where do I find peace?  That was my question and Isaiah 26:3 contained my answer.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you! ~ Isaiah 26:3

The reason I wasn’t feeling peace in my life was a lack of trust and a lack of focus, or at least proper focus!

It’s easy to get caught up in the title wave or raising a family, growing personally, and loving your spouse to feel a lack of peace.  Our focus can go from looking up to looking in and for me to see my lack – lack of ability, lack of purpose, lack of energy… I can lose focus on where my trust should be – where my focus should remain – especially in the biggest title waves that can come our way.

Peace and Praise Produce Endurance. ~Wendy Pope (Wait and See)

Prayer Warrior

In my last blog entry, I talked about the importance of doing life with others and how I was having a hard time connecting with others, since then my husband and I joined a life group and have met some amazing people.  One woman, in particular, has been such a joy to my soul.  We’ve begun having tea regularly and sharing our dreams, struggles, passions… It’s so great to have someone to do life with and to help fuel the light the Holy Spirit has lit inside of us.

During our time together we discovered that we both have a similar passion for Women and girls.  If you haven’t read the “read this first” section of this blog – I encourage you to take a look at why I began this platform and  – it’s very similar to what my life group friend stands for.

We briefly kicking around the idea of starting a ‘business’ to work with moms, female athletes, and teenage/young adult females.   All with the vision of equipping women with what they need to fuel their bodies with proper nutrition, fuel their minds with God’s word to anchor themselves in faith, and help equip them to impact the world around them with the confidence, boldness, and love required to further Christ’s kingdom.

What a great theory behind what we desire to do in the lives of women, young and old, however, we realize this is not something that can be accomplished on our own.  There sure isn’t a whole lot of peace as self-doubt and feelings of being ill-equipped creep in.

Peace to do something bigger than ourselves comes from God, and even then it doesn’t mean there are sunshine and rainbows at every turn.  So we’ve committed to be prayer warrior for the month of December and to let the Spirit guide our hearts and minds as we consider if and how we would move forward.  (Speaking of Spirit Guiding – Check out this song – ‘Spirit Lead Me’)

The more praying I do the more peace I feel.  I don’t have an answer for what direction life is going to take me, but a peace that comes from knowing that I don’t have to have all the answers.  With each prayer, the Spirit reveals more and more truths, more and more courage that fuel my trust in him.  I don’t need to have everything in place to be equipped for the good work that God is calling me to – I need to rest in the peace of knowing – with each prayer and with each step of trust – he will lay out the next step the next equipping required to do HIS work.

Don’t worry about anything, instead pray about evertyhing. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which will exceed anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. -Phillipians 4:6-7

Big life changes require a big God.  I refuse to move forward in life without being a prayer warrior first.  Peace comes from knowing how big our God is and trusting Him with everything.  It’s not easy – but I promise, the more you pray, the more the Spirit will Lead.