Shelly A. Faust

A Life Well-Loved

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Matthew 22, 37-39

I doubt at the end of my days I’ll wish I had earned more college credit hours, worked at a more prestigious job, accumulated more friends on social media or garnered greater reputation and respect. No, I’m certain I’ll ponder the time spent loving and regret the moments wasted holding onto things that prevented me from doing so.

I bet I’ll wish I had said I’m sorry more and let go more quickly of the need to be right or prove my point. I’ll probably wish I had remembered more often that this life is about so much more than me.

I’ll wish I had recognized the greatness of even the little moments shared with others. Because these moments come and then just as quickly go. A child is born and suddenly you’re watching him graduate. A daughter takes her first step and soon she’s standing before you a beautiful young woman. A parent holds you when you’re hurting and one day you’re hurting to hold them just once more.

Like sand running through my fingers at the beach, these moments cannot be stopped or contained. They cannot be bottled up or frozen in time or put on a shelf for another day. I can’t make them last but I can use them to leave a lasting impression, a legacy of loving, an imprint on tomorrow.

I can choose to forgive.

I can choose to love.

I can choose to offer grace.

I can choose to lay down pride and live humility.

I can and I hope I will.

I hope you will, too.

I hope we’ll both cherish these moments we have today and love like tomorrow may not come.

Because for some, it won’t.

And one day, it won’t for me.

But when we’ve given all we have and loved like Jesus loves and forgiven like we’ve been forgiven, today will have been enough.

At the end of my life, maybe I’ll wish I had more money or a larger inheritance to pass on to my family, but I bet mostly I’ll wish I could leave them more love. Remind them to be extravagant and generous and exuberant in these moments with their spouse and children and friends and strangers.

Because the love of Christ we’ve received is so generous and the gift of salvation is so extravagant. When our lives are lived loving Him and loving others, we offer Him in our living.

If we’ve done this, if we’ve loved well, when that day comes and we find ourselves perched on the edge of eternity, we’ll not be weighed down with regret but soar in the memories of a life well-loved.

And this love we will have left behind will continue pouring into the lives of others.

Even until we meet again.

Because we will meet again.

Father, You are good. You are love and mercy and grace. You are holy and wonderful and there is none like You. Help me to love like You love. To be generous in mercy and extravagant with grace. Let every part of my life – all of it – be a reflection of You. Let not my heart be weighed down when marriage is hard or parenting feels heavy or friendship feels broken. Remind me to love anyway. Give me the courage to forgive quickly. Help me – in the midst of all that today brings – to keep my eyes on eternity. Remind me to lay down my life every morning, to bow my heart and will and emotions in surrender to You, Jesus. Remind me that this life is about so much more than me. Give me wisdom to invest wisely with Kingdom-currency into these moments that carry the potential of a great eternal return. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Scriptures:

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” ~ Matthew 22:37-39

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ~ John 3:16

I Just Need to Say This

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I know I’ve been quiet here. I do that sometimes when I’m having some feelings I’m not quite ready to share or sure if I should even share them at all. But today, I’m diving in.

I hope that’s okay?

And if you need to dive in here, too, I would love to have the company. You know, sit across this cyber table with a friend and feel these feelings together? Maybe say a lot of “me, toos” and “I know, girl” and grab a sugar-free mocha or Coke Zero?

I would really like that.

Because I cried today.

I’m sure my tears joined a pool of other mamas as you all sent your kiddos back to school, too. But it’s been a whole year since Logan has been to public school since I home-schooled last year. And I guess that’s part of the reason for these feelings. I’m not quite sure what to do with them.

Part of me feels like I failed. And I totally did in many areas. And the other part of me is high-fiving myself saying Woo-hoo, you survived a whole year of home-school and you’re still here to blog about it (because some days I wasn’t quite sure I would – like the day my ten year old locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out).

And then I feel sad again and then guilty and then I remind myself of all the reasons why I don’t have to carry guilt or feel sadness and that helps a little. And then I wonder Did I make the wrong decision? and Well what in the world do I do now? and How do I do that? and I think to myself That just doesn’t seem possible. Can you see how this conversation is going? This is why I totally needed my girlfriends. I love my hubby but he does not always love this kind of conversation. Like never.

So I mopped and did laundry and made beds and cleaned out the refrigerator and now I’m going to start on the flower beds around the front porch. You know how it goes. We busy ourselves to avoid feeling sometimes. I hate it when I do that (except my house gets really clean and I do love that).

That’s why I decided to take a break and spill here. And then just hit publish without even editing.

Real life, messy, unedited conversations are good for the soul.

Real life messy unedited conversations

So I thought maybe I would use all these feelings to do some digging and uncover more than just the issues with this home school thing. I think there’s a lot more. Like this whole new season I’m entering (this whole new season I’m being dragged into).

Anyone else have a hard time with change? With moving out of your comfortable places and into uncertain, unfamiliar territory? Or having some doubts and anxieties about what was and now what will be?

See how obvious it is that this is about so much more than home school?

I thought so.

Maybe we can continue this talk over this next month and get some things handled together?

I promise not to ramble so much and for sure I’ll do some editing.

I even did a little organizing and made my first editorial calendar this weekend (thanks to Suzie Eller and Compel Training). I picked a theme for September (actually the theme picked me and in a minute you’ll see it and nod your head, I’m sure) and I’ll write about it twice a week. I even sent some of you a questionnaire and survey form and you were so kind to respond so thank you for that. I was amazed at how similar our answers were. We are all very much alike and that’s comforting to me.

More proof that us girls need to stick together (or at least have an occasional coffee date and feel all these feelings together).

Our theme for September will be A New Season – hashtag #anewseason (look at me getting all fancy with a coordinating hashtag). Some of our conversations will look like this:

  • How to Recognize When an Old Season Ends and a New Season Begins
  • How to Move Forward When You Feel Like a Failure (ahem, hello home-school, ETC)
  • Birthing a New Season: The Pain of Transition
  • Overcoming Fear and Anxiety in a New Season
  • Breaking Up With Comfortable
  • The “Perfect” Enemy: Letting Go of Perfection
  • When Friends Don’t Go With You Into a New Season
  • Five Things That Keep You Stuck in a Old Season
  • How to Help Others Succeed in Their New Season

Some of those titles may change a little, but you get the general idea, right?

I’m also working on some things for a women’s conference I’ll be speaking at in Canada the last weekend of September so we may chat about that, too. Or maybe I’ll send out another survey or questionaire. Let me know if you’d be interested in brainstorming some ideas with me and I’ll add your email to my list.

Also, if you haven’t signed up to receive my blog post updates in your email and you want to, you can do that at the top right hand corner of this page.

One last thing.

I’m extending a giveaway I started on Periscope this weekend (because zero people entered and well, I need someone to enter so that I can have a drawing). If you leave a comment here or on Facebook or sign up for my email list or share on social media (be sure to let me know you did so I don’t miss it), you’ll be entered once for each for a chance to win these amazing, heir-loom quality, probably-should-get-insurance-because-they’re-so-valuable -reminder to pray and pause – rocks (aka Logan brought these to me from the river behind my house and I whipped out my paintbrushes and got busy and they cost $0.00 but they are cute).

FullSizeRender (2)

If you read all the way to the bottom of this very long, rambling post, thank you for hanging in there. :)

Now, let’s chat:

Did you send your kiddos off to school today or recently? Home-school, public school, private school?

Are you clinging to an old season or wrestling with a new season?

 

A Gift of Immeasurable Value

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The sun peeked through my bedroom windows this morning and delivered a gift of immeasurable value.

You got it, too.

Did you recognize it? Did you open it carefully and appraise it properly?

This gift we received today is the gift of time. We received it yesterday and – if God so chooses – we’ll receive it tomorrow. But each time we receive it, it’s colored and flavored with different opportunities and different consequences.

And this one, this twenty-four hour gift that rests in our hands this very moment, can never be duplicated or used again.

It is a gift of immeasurable value.

And how we choose to use it is one of the most important decisions we can make.

We can choose to waste it. We can decide to undervalue it. We can give it away. We can even disregard it.

But what if we cherished it?

What if we stood in awe and wonder at the possibilities?

What if we understood the responsibilities?

What if we considered the opportunities and decided to choose wisely how we spent this gift?

There is a daily battle for our mind and heart. A battle to steal our time, distract us from assignments, and keep us from God’s presence. A battle for our focus and attention. A battle to render us ineffective for Kingdom purposes. A battle to disengage us from the calling God has placed on our lives.

A familiar quote from Corrie ten Boom says, “If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy.”

His efforts have not gone without success in my life. But I am determined to wage war against busyness and distractions and the setting up of idols above the One true and living God.

Because every morning we are faced with the choice to give ourselves away to something. And when we choose something over Him, that’s what we’re doing right? Setting up idols?

We are increasingly becoming a people connected to social media and internet and smart phones and goal setting but disconnected from the purposes and heart of God.

We have become a people intimate with the things of this world but we have been called to be a people intimate with Christ.

We try to satisfy and fill our hearts with people and jobs and entertainment and activities and stuff. Our lives are full but we feel empty. We feel lonely and incomplete and nothing is ever enough and something is always missing.

Without Christ at the very center and front and rear of everything we do, something will always be missing.

Without Christ at the Center

Loving our own agenda or anything else more than we love God’s presence numbs our hearts to His quiet invitation of fellowship. We miss seeing Him because our eyes are set on worthless things. We miss hearing Him because we are distracted by a million other voices. We miss intimacy because our heart is divided.

But there is hope.

We, a generation and a people who have left our first love, can turn away from all that has kept us fully from God and return to the place we were created for. The place we are whole, fulfilled, complete. Our place IN CHRIST.

We can take this gift of time and command our space. We can value every moment and insert eternity into our days when we start and finish and abide in His presence.

We must.

Because a people of purpose and prayer and presence are a people of power. And a people who walk in nearness and intimacy with Christ can shake the earth – God can shake the earth through us if we will only draw near.

If we bow our lives in surrender and open our hearts as a holy habitation He will move in power through us.

And we need Him to move in power.

Prayer:

May our deepest dependence and desire, Jesus, be for You and You alone. Help us to reorder our days and remember our first love. Quiet our frantic souls and cause us to rest in Your presence. Meet us there with a passionate encounter and transform us. Come and move in this place. Amen.

Prayer - busyness

I Am Enough

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I am enough (small file)

I’m embarrassed to say that when I hear the word enough, the first thoughts I think are most often negative. My mind is auto-programmed to all my natural limitations and those set for me by others and the world we live in. You know, like I can’t speak in front of people because my speech isn’t polished enough. Or I won’t get that job because I’m not smart enough or I don’t have enough formal education. Or even at the end of the pay period when there’s not enough money left in the checking account ($0.84 to be exact, ahem) so you have to run to the bank to deposit cash or make a transfer from savings.  Or I don’t have enough time or enough resources or enough scriptures memorized to do what God is calling me to do.

Yes, my mind relates the word enough to deficiency and limitation. That’s why it’s so important to replace my carnal thinking with spiritual truths.

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”

(Romans 8:6).

God’s Word sets us free from limitation.

I Am Enough - Jesus bridges the gap

Jesus bridges the gap between my inadequacy and God’s sufficiency. 

Between my imperfection and God’s perfection. Between my lack and God’s abundance.

Because of Jesus, I AM ENOUGH.

I don’t have to have perfect vocabulary or a Master’s degree in communication before He can use my mouth to speak.

“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name; make known among the nations what He has done.” (Psalm 105:1)
“My lips shall utter praise,
For You teach me Your statutes.
My tongue shall speak of Your word,
For all Your commandments are righteousness.”
(Psalm 119:172)
“My heart is overflowing with a good theme;
I recite my composition concerning the King’
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”
(Psalm 45:1)

When I feel weak and don’t have enough words or enough strength to pray, God says the Spirit Himself helps me.

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26)

When we walk as wise women and understand the importance of using wisdom in our finances and being a good steward over our resources (seek first), no matter what our check books says, God says He will provide.

“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothes you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:30-33)

When the wind picks up and the waves grow large and my heart is unsettled, I can rest in the truth that God is a very present help in my time of trouble.

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And the mountains be carried in to the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.
(Psalm 46:1-3)

No matter what today brings, God is enough.

No matter how I feel, because of Jesus, I AM ENOUGH.

Do you struggle with feelings of inadequacy? Has this affected your obedience to do what God is calling you to do?

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Today, I’m joining Suzie Eller and a host of other women as we all learn to #livefree. You can read more about ENOUGH here —> #livefree Thursday: Together We Are Enough.

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