It seems that every time I hear the song “All This Time” by Britt Nicole, I feel God speak to my heart through the lyrics. This song hit the airwaves about the time that I moved back to Cincinnati and has taken my jumbled thoughts and put them into words. I especially love the chorus and the declaration that “It’s been You and I, You’ve been walking with me all this time.” With so much transition in our lives right now, I have felt a special connection with this song as I have again been reminded that the only constant in my life is my relationship with God, “who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). I have been reflecting a lot recently on how God has been oh, so faithful in my life “all this time” and so when this song comes on the radio, I turn it up and sing it like a prayer.

Thank You, Lord, for how closely You’ve walked me “all this time.”

All This Time
by Britt Nicole

I remember the moment
I remember the pain
I was only a girl
But I grew up that day
Tears were falling
I know You saw me

Hiding there in my bedroom
So alone
I was doing my best
Trying to be strong
No one to turn to
That’s when I met You

All this time
From the first tear cry
To today’s sunrise
And every single moment between
You were there
You were always there
It was You and I
You’ve been walking with me all this time

Ever since that day
it’s been clear to me
That no matter what comes
You will never leave
I know You’re for me
And You’re restoring

Every heartache and failure
Every broken dream
You’re the God who sees
The God who rescued me
This is my story
This is my story

I hear these people asking me
How do I know what I believe?
Well I’m not the same me
And I saw the proof I need
I felt Love I felt Your grace
You stole my heart that day

You’ve been walkin with me all this time

All this time
From the first tear cry
To today’s sunrise
And every single moment between
You were there
You were always there
It was You and I
You’ve been walking with me all this time

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I have been so inspired by many of my friends’  facebook posts each day that I decided to dedicate a post each week in November to this reason as well. Gratefulness goes right along with what God has been teaching me recently — spending time being thankful instead of complaining. So here is Thankful Thursday #1

I am thankful to be an aunt to three incredibly sweet, beautiful nieces and one cute, new nephew!

It was a joy to have Abby and Lauren be our flower girls at our wedding. (Pictured is the Wedding Rehearsal – notice their cute shirts!)

I loved going to American Girl at the AG cafe in Chicago with Abby.

I love how grown-up Abby is getting and her thoughtful, creative mind.

I also enjoyed eating lunch with Lauren at the  American Girl Cafe too.

I love that these girls indulge me in girlie activities like painting nails.

I love how Lauren has such a spunk and zeal for life.

I love how the girls enjoy playing so imaginatively like hair salon!

We love watching these girls grow up and wish we lived closer.

I loved going to a dairy farm with the girls and watching their excitement in the little things.

One of my all-time favorite moments: being at the hospital when Annie was born 3 weeks early!

I loved holding this sleeping baby in the sunflower field just weeks after she was born.

I am so thankful I was able to celebrate Annie at her first birthday party.

I was so happy when Annie (and her parents) came to Chicago last summer. I had missed her since I didn’t see her while going through chemo.

I loved having time to read to Annie while visiting  and only wish I could do so more often!

I love how Annie calls me “Aunt Shewll.”

I love her fiery, sweet personality!

I was so grateful to meet James a couple of weeks after he was born.

I could look at this cute face all day!

Thank you, Abby, Lauren, Annie, and James for allowing me to be your aunt! I love you to pieces!

I recently bought (Music Inspired By) The Story CD and have loved listening to songs written from the perspective of many central Bible characters. I highly recommend it. One of my favorite songs is the “Who But You” written from the perspective of Abraham and Sarah. This particular story is quite special to me as I have deeply resonated with Romans 4:18-22:

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,  being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

My favorite part is that Abraham was “fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised”; He didn’t know how God would act but he rested confidently in the fact that God certainly could do a miracle if He chose. Oh, for that kind of faith to believe Him!

Who But You?
sung by Mark Hall and Meghan Garrett from Casting Crowns
written by Nichole Nordeman

Too little too late
His time has come and gone
Is that what they say when I walk by?
I’ve got a little more grey
My steps are slow and long
And the promise You’ve made fades in the moonlight
I see a star
You see the Milky Way
I see one man counting sand
But You see generations

Who, but You, would ever choose
To dream Your dream in me?
Tell me who, but You, would dare me to
Believe what I can’t see
Who, but You?

You’d think by now
It wouldn’t bother me
The hush from the crowd when I walk by
And you’d think somehow
I ‘d let my heart believe
It’s time to let go of lullabies
I see a star
You see a galaxy
There’s just one hope
Just one way
These arms will not stay empty

Chorus

So call me crazy
Call me a fool
You alone can do the things You promised to
You are Yahweh
I’m just a man
I’m counting tiny grains of sand
Placing every promise in Your hand
Great and Mighty God, I believe. I believe You.
Keeper of the stars, I believe. I believe You.

Forgive me for being a stranger.

I have wanted to sit down and write for a while now but life has been very full. As you may remember from my last post, I taught a Youth Writing Camp for 3 weeks. It was wonderfully fun and I had a fabulous group of students…however, it was pretty tiring! Then my husband and I left for a much-needed vacation the day that my camp ended. We spent my birthday in San Francisco and then visited Sonoma and Carmel. Upon arriving home after two in the morning on Saturday, we found our basement carpet soaked from the record-breaking rainstorm in Chicago. We spent Sunday ripping out carpet and trying to air out as much of our things as possible. This morning I left the house in disarray because I had a job training for a position I just accepted as a Reading Specialist in an inner city after-school program.

Soooo….all of that to say, I haven’t abandoned writing but just haven’t had much mental capacity to write a meaningful, thoughtful post. I was formulating some thoughts in my head on vacation and I look forward to putting them to paper very soon. Until then, I thought I’d leave you with a verse that has encouraged me recently:

“But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” Psalm 86:15

Isn’t it refreshing to remember that when life feels a bit crazy, God’s character is consistent? I have been repeating this verse over and over to myself and reminding myself of who God is in the midst of the chaos of life. I pray you can too!

Jared and I have been looking forward to posting this first entry for over six months. The dream of developing our blogs has infiltrated much of our conversations over dinner, in the car, and on walks.  It is exciting that the launch day is finally here.

We decided to write our first entry together because our big picture goal for our blogs is identical.  Though we are not wired the same and our writing styles reflect such differences, we desire to empower guys and girls to experience the meaningful life God has designed for them:

John 10:10 – Jesus said…“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

I Timothy 6:17 – Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.  Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real.

Our Styles

This initial post will be one of the few times we write together for several reasons.  First, we believe different challenges and the manifestations of those challenges in guys’ and girls’ lives are unique.  As a result, we feel it is important to have separate forums in order to most effectively address these issues in a way that maximizes your ability to relate to our insights.

Second, we have different personalities which are evident in our writing.  I (Michelle) am a feeler and relational to the core, while Jared is more logical and a problem-solver.  We decided creating separate blogs would enable each of us to most effectively express ourselves and our thoughts.

Finally, on a lighter note, we also decided to not frequently write together to ensure our marriage remains strong and thriving.  We had a good laugh when we read a quote from former President Jimmy Carter discussing the process of co-authoring a book with his wife, Rosalynn.  He explained that writing together resulted in some of their most heated arguments as a married couple.  Sparks have definitely flown between us when we’ve edited each other’s work, and we bet you can relate if you have ever done a home renovation project with someone close to you.  Ah, such sweet bonding time.

What You Can Expect

Our blog entries will not be focused on updating you on “the lives and times of Michelle and Jared.”  Such posts would only positively impact your life if you were having trouble sleeping!  Although we will definitely weave relevant situations from our past and present circumstances into our entries, the focus of our posts will be to present Biblical insights to encourage you to do the following:

see yourself and your circumstances through God’s lens

place your faith in God rather than earthly pursuits

recognize and replace your misconceptions regarding God’s character

grow authentically in your relationship with God

engage with God genuinely

apply your authentic faith in God to amplify fulfillment in your life

We realize our focus on faith will elicit a broad range of responses from our readers.  As I (Jared) reflected on how to address these varied reactions in this first post, the thought occurred to me that our views on faith in God can be similar to our views on purchasing an iPhone.

Please bear with me as I explain this analogy for a couple reasons.  Not only is it wholly insufficient on several levels, I also happen to be the polar opposite of tech savvy.  In fact, I am like the guy who bought the latest Mac last week and just texted his buddy this morning proclaiming, “Dude, this thing is sweet! I figured out how to play solitaire on here!” Sheer genius, I know.

When many of us consider faith in God or purchasing an iPhone, we may have one or more of the following thoughts:

I am just not interested

It costs too much

It seems too complex; I don’t have time to figure it out

I don’t need it; it doesn’t offer me anything I can’t get elsewhere

It seems trendy, so I better get it

I have to have it; I want to learn all about it

No matter which category you most identify with, there are benefits to not accepting complacency in your faith. For example, if you fall in the latter two categories, you may claim to have faith but may not be experiencing the power and peace available through a genuine relationship with God.  This is analogous to owning a fully-loaded iPhone with its seemingly thousands of valuable applications, but only using it to give someone a call.  There is so much capability and possibility within our reach, but so much of it remains under utilized.  Among our blogs’ goals is to explain how to increase our faith in God and apply it in a life-altering way.

Regardless of where you are, we believe you can benefit from engaging with our blogs if you are willing to consider faith in God with an open mind and honestly evaluate yourself and your life.

Your End of the Bargain

We are empathetic to the fact that your life is likely already full of many activities and obligations, just like ours.  As a result, we will only be posting approximately once a week so you can engage with our blogs on your terms.  When you do find some free moments, we encourage you to spend time wrestling with the perspectives presented and reflecting on both your positive and negative responses. Any feedback you want to share is more than welcome.

If you would like to consistently follow our blogs you can subscribe at the top right of this web page.  There is no cost to subscribe, but we are hopeful among the benefits you receive will be discovering how to live the fulfilling life you desire.  We are excited to process and grow with you in the coming days as we share the insights we believe God is teaching us.  Thanks for stopping by and we look forward to sharing our next posts with you soon.