Hope Archives - Page 5 of 7

October 1, 2012 by Karin Leave a Comment

31 days of God’s promises (#1)

#1 ~ PEACE

Have you ever made a promise?

Have you ever broken a promise?

Have you ever wished you had kept your promise?

Have you ever wondered why you made that promise?

Have you ever met anyone who keeps all promises?

Same here.

I have heard the words…

God’s promises

… too many times to count.

I know a few of them. My kids ask me what they are. I don’t have the answer. I want to know the answer.

I know God has made many promises to us.

I know God never breaks a promise.

I know God will always keep His promises.

I don’t know what they are.

I want to know. My little ones want to know.

I am going to spend the next 31 days looking for them…

PROMISE #1 ~ God promises peace to his people. (a comfort to this warrior’s wife)

Psalm 85:7-9

Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—but let them not turn to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

September 25, 2012 by Karin Leave a Comment

Through the eyes of a child

I open my eyes. This new day cracked through the sky to reveal the glorious sunlight. I hear my mother, my father… they are speaking to someone outside these mud walls. I hear my mother… joyous tears. My father… with a voice… different. I have not heard this sound from him before. Hope?

I hear the animals. We have two. The bleating goats… a milk provision. My brother and sister like to walk with them. I hear the stirring of the land. This land of ours used again and again, by my father and his friends… in hopes that it will yield… something… anything to give us a meal. I hear the gathering of my friends. It is time to walk for the gathering of our water.

The night is done. I am relieved. I am afraid in the night. The darkness smothers our two room hut. The sounds of the night here pierce my skin and frighten me. I pray for morning. I pray for the sun. This morning… different. I hear the voices. I sense… this change. Joy?

I smell the waste. Our village has no good place for waste. The smell of it rises with the sun. The heat burns the odors into the air. I have always known this smell. I wish I could wash it clean. My mother runs to wake me. I smell the salt of the tears on her cheeks.

Wake up

Wake up

She whispers in my ear. I smell her warmth… the dirt driven deep into skin by years of labor. Working to keep us alive… fed… sheltered… clothed. We can not pay for school. I wish I could read. I have heard of others… a few… who have this chance. I have heard them speak of Jesus. I want to know this Jesus that they speak of.

someone has come!

someone sees us!

someone sees you!

They have come to tell my parents of a sponsor. Someone has seen me. Someone has chosen me. Someone has brought a new sound of hope to our life. Someone has brought a smell of joy to this home. Someone has seen us.

I follow my mother. To see this visitor. I see. I see the smile. The joy in my parents. I feel a hope. I have not known this hope before. I look into the eyes of our visitor. I see love. I see compassion.

C atch the ones who have fallen aside, unnoticed, alone, forgotten, afraid, hopeless

O ffer a hand, a heart, a hope

M ove the despair from the eyes… replace it with joy

P repare a new heart for a new faith… a new birth into a great Kingdom… the only Kingdom

A ccept the prompting from Him… a nudge… a beckoning to open hands… fully

S ee the person… the child… behind the suffering

S hare the love of Christ

I gnore the lies that it will not make a difference… every. one. matters. every. single. one.

O ffer a chance to learn… to leave the poverty behind

N urture a desperate soul… in desperate need… of love.

(photo credit – Compassion International)

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

September 11, 2012 by Karin Leave a Comment

Dear God… (a love letter)

Dear God,

This suddenly makes You so much more real to me. Writing a letter, putting words on paper… I only do that with the people I love, the ones I can touch. Writing this letter makes me realize with a jolt… that You are so very real. I spend so much time thinking about You, speaking to You (mostly in my mind… though I am learning to speak out loud. Speaking out loud just makes You more real to me. I’m not one to talk out loud to no one, after all). I spend time talking with my kids, my husband, my friends, my parents… about You. I have written about You so many times. I wonder why I have never written to You? I read what You have written to me. I suppose You might enjoy a letter, too. Real words about real love.

The words come a bit more slowly this way. Funny how I am laboring to say just the right thing… hoping I will somehow impress You, make You love me more, see me for who I am. The words I write… I want them to show You how well I can put words together, but I suddenly gather that You care more about how well I can put Your words together. What have You told me in Your letters to me? So many lessons, so much Fatherly advice, direction, instruction. Love. That’s it. The message in all of Your letters. Love. You want me to love You, and You show me how… by loving me. You are doing a much better job than I am. Then there’s the other part… loving others… more than myself. You, better job, again. I really want to be more like You.

You have lovingly taken me along my path in life and picked me up when I failed ~ even when I didn’t know I was failing. You pointed me in the right direction, again, gave me a pat on my back… words of encouragement… and Your love. You gave me a most incredible husband, and are showing me how to get through the messy selfishness in marriage. You gave me six kids! That’s a lot of kids. I never dreamed…

You gave me a desire to love my six pack of kids so much that I would place You directly in their sights. This was all a bit foreign to me, but You nudged me along and whispered words of encouragement when I doubted. You have touched me.

One night, while I was up too late… You opened my eyes. You opened my eyes to small faces on a screen… after I had tucked my six small faces into their warm beds. You opened my eyes to the need behind the young eyes. A need I had pushed into the background of my mind ~ assuming someone out there would take care of them. Somebody out there had to notice. Suddenly I started to cry like I hadn’t cried in quite a while. I realized I was the someone out there who needed to notice…

Their names are Elie and Myrlande. They live in Haiti. My kids were so excited when we printed out their pictures from the Compassion sponsor page that they went running to Daddy, as he walked in the door at the end of the day. Two more kids! I couldn’t believe the joy we felt. It was surreal. Like we had just reached out across the waters… and touched them.

We pray for them every day. The greatest thing is… my little ones pray for them before I can even get the words out. We have prayed for them especially now after Hurricane Isaac swept across Haiti.

Letters. Writing letters. I write to people I love, the ones I can touch. How odd that I haven’t written to You before. You are touching every part of my life, of my husband’s life, my children’s lives… Elie and Myrlande’s lives. That’s it! It’s how You want me to touch their lives! You touch us as we touch each other… with love. A love greater than that for ourselves. The words are beginning to come more easily now…

You want us to love with more than words… more than speech. You want us to love with action… with truth.

Thank you, God, for letting me come to You. For blessing me. For blessing my husband and my children. Thank You for using us to bless.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

Thank you for Your words… thank you for loving us with your Word.

All my love,

1 John 3:18

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

September 7, 2012 by Karin 2 Comments

Faith in the Fray

So you are walking along with God. Things are going well… you are excited, inspired… you feel really close to Him… sense His presence.

You are on the mountain top. It seems as though nothing could change ~ like you’ll never stop feeling this way. You think you understand which way is up and which way is down. You understand ~ and it feels good.

It’s like this in relationships. Everything is moving along pretty smoothly… everything, or at least most things, seem to make sense.

Then. You slip. No longer on the mountain top… you are holding onto the edge of the cliff… with all your might… wondering

what happened?

I don’t understand.

I love this place on the mountain top. It’s an exhilarating place… a place you know you belong… and you never want to leave.

But, we do leave it. We slip… and fall… and sometimes tumble further down than we think we would go. We lose the fire, the thrill… we become complacent, or frustrated, or discouraged… and we wonder

why?

What do you do when your life… when your faith… when your walk… is in the fray? The fray ~ defined, it means a threadbare spot, as on fabric, or a noisy quarrel, fight or brawl. Any of these definitions could apply.

What do you do when your life… when your faith is in the threadbare spot… or in the midst of the quarrel… the middle of the brawl?

You want to rise above the fray… get back to the mountain top… how do you dig your fingers into the crag and pull yourself up to the top?

I’ve been thinking about this, in the midst of mama temper… the little irritations with wanting to get things done, but having to jump hurdles to get the finish line. I’ve muttered a few cuss words under my breath… and sadly, some over my breath.

I’ve been thinking about this, in the midst of relationships… that just aren’t going the way they should… the way I understand to be right… all the messy humanness getting in the way.

The longer I walk with Him, the more discomfort I feel… when I mess up… the big ones, pretty easy to figure out… but, even the little ones. The mess-ups don’t sit well. They don’t sit at all. They stand up… stare me in the face, and say…

nope, try again.

So, what do we do when we are stuck in the fray… and we want so badly to rise above… rise above the fray?

Tell Him. Tell Him you are stuck. Tell Him you want up and out of this place. Tell Him you are sorry… and mean it. The most amazing thing happens. He forgives. Every. Time. Amazing. Nowhere on earth do we get a clean slate like we do with Him. I don’t know why… but, He says we do. I believe Him.
Tell a Christ-loving friend. You know the kind. The one who will tell you when you are wrong… when you are right… and will remind you that you will not always be at the top of the mountain. The friend who will help pull… or push you back up there. If you don’t have this kind of friend, ask Him for one. He will provide. He’s got your back.
Just keep going. Keep climbing. Keep moving… forward. Keep focused on the right One… without worrying about why it doesn’t all make sense right now. We don’t have the bird’s-eye view… the God’s eye view. I tell my kids… just keep swimming… just keep swimming. (Dory had it right).

Keep walking in faith, even when we don’t understand why…

Understanding only this…

Faith, and life, above the fray… that is the place to stay.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

31 days of God’s promises (#1)

Through the eyes of a child

Dear God… (a love letter)

Faith in the Fray

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