We Will Win

We will win! This is the rally cry of the Flower Mound High School football team.  This year, they are being led by a new coach who is developing a mindset of victory.  Following several years of heavy defeats and losing seasons, even Matthew had begun to lose his love for the sport.  When Coach Basil arrived on the scene things began to shift.

Matthew went from "I'm not sure it's worth it," to shouts of "we will win."

I've thought a lot about how that happened.

Coach showed up rather quiet and observant in the initial days.  He spent some time getting to know them and began to develop his team and his strategy.  He addressed their mindset first.  They felt like losers.  He began to declare they were winners.  Then he set about conditioning their body for endurance.  He aligned them as a team in positions of strength.  He made them push themselves beyond their prior limits and then he surrounded them with words of courage and shouts of victory.

At first, when Matthew shared the rally cry, he kind of shrugged his shoulders.  He thought the rally cry was a little optimistic.  He's a leader - so he shouted "we will win" among the loudest - demonstrating his willingness to try.  Slowly, day by day and practice by practice, he began to believe.

This week Matthew came to my Equip class called #squareup. (Even if you didn't get to attend, you can watch by clicking here.)  I wanted him to share about his perspective on how to fight cancer and what square up meant to him on the football field.  He began to share his story and experience of coming up against an enemy, preparing himself for battle and finally engaging face to face - hit to hit.

As he shared, I could hear the prophetic bent to his voice.  He was talking about football, but I was hearing a war cry. (Here's a clip from Matthew's comments.)

We will win!

We will win!

We will win!

The ultimate outcome of this war in which we live has already been won.  Christ has done a finished work on the cross.  He has disarmed darkness, taken back the keys to death and hell and seated Himself at the right hand of the Father.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  I John 5:4-5

Therefore, we can square up with this victory.  We can come into alignment with His plans, purpose and strategies for our lives.  We can be resolute in the declaration of our faith and we can rest in His presence while He wars for us.

We can have a mindset of victory.

We must.

The Jaguars won the season opener by a whopping score of 65-14.  I have to admit it's a lot more fun to win than to lose.  But this week, they faced a different level of opponent.  They fought hard but came away with a loss of 16-23.

Just like our spiritual war, it seems some days the enemy gets the upper hand.  Just as we stretch out and take a breath, it seems we stumble or fall.  What seemed within our reach slips between our fingers.

This is when we find out what we really believe.

This is when we become a real warriors.

This is when we firm up our own mindset of victory.

Whether you enjoyed the throes of victory or faced a set back of your own this week, you can fight on with confidence because #wewin.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:57

Coping with Change

This weekend Matthew and I took a road trip to the University of Arkansas.  Our timing was perfect for enjoying the fall foliage.  Growing up in Arkansas, I saw a lot of beautiful falls, but having lived in Texas for over 30 years, I think I forgot how beautiful the change of season really is.

As we walked the campus and paused to snap pictures of the most glorious trees, my heart clenched a bit.  I felt the shift in season that was happening all around me. He will soon leave the nest.  He has big plans to study international business and make something of his life.  He's colors are changing. He's shedding his childhood, and I am getting a glimpse of the man he is becoming. 

Maybe you can relate. All of us experience the shifting of our seasons and the sensation of letting go. Change is important and even life-giving, yet it comes with its own struggles – some anxiety, some sadness and even some bittersweet pain.

So here are my best tips for coping with change.  I had to practice them most diligently this weekend.

• Embrace your Feelings
  I just watched a documentary on the rotation of the earth. Our beautiful blue ball is incredibly miraculous and consistent. The changing of our seasons are ordained by the rotation of our planet and are inevitable. Yet, I want to tightly close my eyes and pretend that I am standing still. I am weary with transition and I long for a moment of reprieve. Yet when I open my eyes, I am surrounded by glory. Everywhere I look are answers to my prayers. I just didn't know the answers would come with pangs of pain, moments of both joy and sadness so significant, that I would weep and dance at the same time. For surely, what was will not be again. So embrace the moment. Squeeze the life right out of it. Let your heart feel.
  

• Anticipate the Future
  As my children were growing up I would often say, "This is the best age yet." (I still feel this way. Parenting adult children is challenging, but so incredibly rewarding.) I simply enjoyed each stage of the journey with them, and even when they were small, I dreamed about what they would one day be or do. Pastor Jimmy Evans taught me that parenting is a marathon season and that you will not know the fruitfulness of it for about 25 years. I'm now entering into the season where I can begin to really see the fruit of my labor and I feel the anticipation of the next "best age, yet." A sense of anticipation has a natural way of giving hope and helping our hearts to lean into what is yet to be.

There is so much revelation in the signs all around us, if we are brave enough to note them.  Stop, look, ponder.  Refuse to live a distracted, busy or even fearful life. Rather, allow the shift in season bring you a sense of purpose, destiny and lots of hope.

More Pics:  God was really showing off!

God, my God, how great you are,beautifully, gloriously robed, dressed up in sunshine,and all heaven stretched out for your tent.

You built your palace on the ocean deeps,made a chariot out of clouds and took off on wind-wings.

You commandeered winds as messengers, and appointed fire and flame as ambassadors. Psalm 104:1-3

The Blessing of a Provider

I’m honored to be part of Jen Weaver's blog tour for her book club– be sure to join us on Facebook to discuss today’s post about Chapter 5, The Blessing of a Provider. If you haven't followed the tour so far, no worries! Order on Amazon now and you can catch up quickly.

It's been a long time since I sat in an economics class and studied the basics of supply and demand, but it hasn't been very long since I felt its effect in my own home. Supply and demand are pretty basic concepts.  The more you want something, the more you are willing to pay for it.

For years, my husband has wanted to own some land.  Not just any land, but land spacious enough and varied enough that he and our children to explore, hunt and fish. He's planning ahead for a place where he can share his love for the outdoors with our grandchildren.

I have not been very interested in owning some hunting property.  It wasn't that I didn't want him to have land, I just wanted him to provide some other things first that I perceived as more important.

Over the past year or so, I've begun to ponder the kind of legacy I hope to leave.  I want to leave behind something great and sustainable - a legacy of faith, family and love.  I'm suddenly obsessed with the preciousness of the time we have together and hoping we are building something real and transferable for those we love.

For the first time I can see Mark's desire for land from his perspective.  He too hopes to leave a legacy - a real and tangible one complete with trees, ponds and wild animals. All along, he's wanted to provide for us the answer to my dreams, but I thought it was only an answer to his dreams.

Suddenly our supply and demand are beginning to correlate.

I'm finally understanding God wants to provide for my desire through my husband's heart.

In Chapter 5 of A Wife's Secret to Happiness, Jen really challenged me to consider how God cares for me through my husband's hands.

We complain because we have not received what we feel entitled to.  So we seek it out ourselves, for our pleasure.  In pride, we align with our own agendas and put ourselves in direct opposition with the blessings of God.

How about you?  Have you ever rejected the greatness of your husband because it didn't come in the package, plans or dreams you desired?  Maybe you focused on what you perceived as lack, rather than on what God gave as provision.

Whether you are a young bride or a seasoned wife of many years, I hope you'll spend some time opening your heart to an expanded perspective.  Jen even offers a Wifestyle Quiz to personalize the themes of this chapter and help give us insight into our own hearts.  She helps us evaluate if we are a wife of demand or a wife of supply.

Let's talk:

• How's the "supply and demand" in your marriage? In what ways can you transition from a demand wife to a supply wife?

• Are you open to advocating for your husband's dreams rather than competing with him for your own? Talk with God about your needs and ask him to provide you with what he wants for your life.

• How is God using your spouse as a source of blessing and protection?

PS - Mark and I will celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary on June 25th!  Here's to a lifetime of love and a legacy to come!