Winged Song

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run; and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

I was gifted with the opportunity to attend many New Church camps when I was younger. At these camps I learned a lot of songs about the Lord, and one of these songs had this quote woven into it. The song still sings inside my chest like steady drumming. It has kept my footsteps strong and my heart hopeful.

This quote’s beautiful description of the joys that can accompany waiting on the Lord, really brings this prayer to life for me. It helps me step into the Lord’s sense of time, and the trust that life requires. It helps me remember that the Lord is the Master of time and that He provides everything I need. It loosens the impatience I sometimes get with the pace of my life; from getting out the door on time, to having a partner to share this life with, and even the sometimes comforting thought that I get to go to heaven some day and take a long nap.

When I become too set in my schedule and stress about timing, I become miserable and anxious. I cannot imagine how everything is going to get done and no one or nothing is going to be seriously hurt, or left out. But it works out. Somehow I look back and can’t believe I made it through. I get the actual feeling that the Lord has just carried me to this new point, and that everything is alright. And it’s always going to be alright. I savor these moments, because inevitably I will cycle back into the hard workings of life, and get caught up in the lengthy to-do list that burdens my multitasking mind.
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Finding My Way of Sharing the New Church

I’m no evangelist. I tend to be quiet and introverted, and am usually too busy following my kids around to have much of a deep conversation – especially with people I don’t already know well. But that’s also why chasing my kids around suits me well. 🙂

Don’t get me wrong – I have plenty of big opinions when you get me one-on-one. And I can be plenty stubborn and pushy about what is right, and why I am the one who is right. And I care about and think about things deeply. But, because of my personality, that just doesn’t come out in my usual conversations.


Being raised in a ministers’ family (with a very outgoing, ready-to-talk-and-get-into-deep-things-quickly kind of mom) and now married to a minister, I have often struggled with feeling like I was the lame part of the pair in terms of sharing the Word. It’s not that I don’t think I’m doing good work: being a stay-at-home mom and fully immersed in the life of my kids is exactly what I want to do, and I feel useful doing it. But, if so many of my family member have poured their lives into sharing and spreading the Word, where is my role in that? It’s a question I’ve thought about frequently. Since I’m not comfortable pushing into other people’s business and (even if I wanted it) I don’t have a venue for public speaking like my husband (or a conversation that lasts more than 5 minutes for that matter) I don’t really share my experiences, thoughts, or feelings about the Lord and the Word. Continue reading Finding My Way of Sharing the New Church

Not Just Decoration: Ramblings on Defining “Womanhood”

When my eldest son was three he started asking an indecent number of “why?” and “what is it?” questions about the world. Coming up with answers was sometimes challenging; no one can draw attention to the folly and illogical nature of the adult world like a child. And so it was that we began distinguishing those things that had a clear purpose (the “why” questions we answered) from those things that were “just decoration” (ones we couldn’t quite figure out the point of).

I am afraid that modern Western society has subconsciously relegated the female figure to “just decoration”; it appears set on divorcing the appearance of my body from its point– it’s use. And I believe this has had a tragic effect on society’s definition of “womanhood.”
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We Must Fail To Succeed

We each fill many roles. There can be a lot of pressure to “get it right” in every aspect of life. The pressure can build to succeed in any role – student, wife, mother, co-worker, sister, friend, daughter. Sometimes it builds up in many places simultaneously and can be crippling. But, so long as we continue looking to the Lord and striving towards the long term goal of growing in love towards a heavenly life, “failure” is a useful necessity. For our Easter Sunday church service at New Church Westville that was the point of the sermon, which you can listen to here. In some ways even Jesus had to “fail” to accomplish His long term success. When we focus on moving forward and following the Lord failure helps us to grow in ways we never could otherwise and ultimately reach our heavenly goal.

“The fact that those who are being reformed are brought into a state of not knowing any truth, that is, into a state of desolation, insomuch that they experience grief and despair, and that at this point for the first time they receive comfort and help from the Lord, is something that is not known at the present day for the reason that few are being reformed. Those who are such that they are able to be reformed are brought into this state, if not during this life then in the next…. Continue reading We Must Fail To Succeed