Grace 'n Grounds

Encouragement Grounded in His Truth

Hello, I’m January

Inspiration and thoughts on God and faith, written by a simple human, navigating life through the messy and sometimes chaotic.

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  • One simple word of gratitude

    “Just wanted to let you know I am grateful for you and all you do for us! I love you!”

    This was the text I sent after being challenged at the beginning of a company wide meeting to send a message to someone to let them know we were grateful for them.

    It wasn’t hard to figure out to whom to send the text. And even though it wasn’t hard, I knew in my heart I would receive the following response: “Everything OK?”

    It was an indication that while I profess to be kind and loving, I may not necessarily show gratitude as much as I should. Because this response was a humbling sign that sending messages of this nature may actually be out of my character.

    We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 1 Thessalonians 1:2

    Always. Never ceasing. To thank God for those who I have been blessed to have in my life.

    I admit. I don’t always do this.

    However, the Word tells us over and over to give praise. To offer Him thanksgiving for all He has done, but it seems easier to complain. To point out the things people have not done. To have a pity party when we don’t feel appreciated. Instead of setting a precedent and offering thanks and encouragement.

    God desires thanksgiving in all things. In all circumstances. Instead, many times when we call on Him, we are spouting off a list of requests, and things we need. We don’t begin most of the time with a simple “Thanks!”

    Thanks for our blessings. For all we have been given. Thanks for being present during the hard stuff, and the good stuff, too. Thanks for pouring out love, and when needed-guidance, direction, and protection.

    Do we do this to people as well? Provide a list of wants, needs, and demands? Expecting they will always assist? Always help? Always come through? Without any appreciation for what they have done?

    The response to my text was quite humbling, and it was a reminder that I have much work to do to continue to spread kindness and love in all the places I may be.

    So, who needs your message of thanks today? Who needs to hear how grateful you are for all you have done for them? Who in your life needs to feel appreciated and feel your love? Stop right now. Send a message. And simply say “thanks!”

  • Dear Weary Mama…

     

    Dear Weary Mama,

    I know the kind of day you have had. Today was one of those “nice” days. One of those days when the chill of winter was finally gone from the air. There was not a cloud in the sky. The sun was shining, and the temperature just right. After a season of long, wet, cold nights, you want nothing better than to enjoy all this day has to offer.

    I know what you do next. You seize the day. Plan an outing for your kids. A long nature walk. A trip to the park. Maybe a stroll through the neighborhood, and a pit stop at the local pond. You and your family need to slow down a bit. Enjoy this day. You think of how great this day will be.

    Until it isn’t, Mama. Until it causes your kids to moan and groan. Complain about a walk being too long. The park too boring, and the beach spot by the pond…just too sandy!

    And you, dear Mama. You become a little emotional.

    So you lose it. Because all your best laid plans failed. You feel useless. Unappreciated. Disrespected. You know you need a walk, and some fresh air; but who is going to go with you? Who is making sure you are OK?

    So you lose it.

    And after…you instantly feel guilty. I know you feel like you failed, because maybe in your disappointment you yelled. You feel alone, dear Mama, because you worry that you are the only one who ever feels this way. That you must be the only one whose kids don’t see beyond their own needs, desires, and likes.

    As a mother comforts her child, so I’ll comfort you. Isaiah 66:13

    I know you feel like no one sees you. Notices the 30 times this week you have emptied and reloaded the dishwasher. Driven to pick a friend up. Made a donut trip. Picked up another stray wrapper or sock. Mopped slime and glitter from the floor. Cooked a meal no one wanted to eat, and then cleaned it up, too.

    Maybe you were silent, but you really wanted to scream. Maybe you did scream, Mama. Yelled a time, or two, or three.

    I bet you feel unnoticed. Unappreciated. Used. Like you will never measure up to that Proverbs 31 woman. The one whose children rise up and call her blessed.

    Dear weary one-you are blessed. God sees you.

    He has given you this holy calling. This all important, and yes…all encompassing task of raising tiny humans.

    Who think they know better. Who at times you don’t really like. Who at other times you wonder whose family tree they sprouted from, because they don’t resemble you in spirit at all.

    God sees you, Mama.

    He sees you. He loves you. He calls you blessed.

    He sees you in your times of happy, and your times of despair. He sees you when you feel like a parenting success, and even when you are a parenting fail.

    Dear weary Mama…He sees you.

  • ,

    Fear not

    I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

    “I’m not sending the kids up, since you are asleep.”

    This is what my husband had declared to me as he got the kids off to school. Part of the morning routine he has handled for several years.

    This morning I was not getting up and getting ready to head to my own school. An on-line threat kept area schools closed. I was home for the day.

    Now, letting me sleep in was a kind gesture. But I was up. I wasn’t going back to sleep, and as I lay there I had this thought for the very first time: “No. I have to get up and hug them, and tell them I love them. What if they don’t come home?”

    For the first time, I feared that. That I would be at home. My kids would be at school. And I would not be able to reach them, keep them safe, or even get them home. And, my kids are Caucasian. Not even the intended “target.”

    Fear.

    For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

    Terror. Fear. Being scared. Anxious. These things come from the enemy. Constant worry and panic is an attack from the devil to keep our eyes away from the one who can conquer evil. It’s Satan’s tactic to keep us crippled so we can’t act. So we can’t move our hands and feet to show up where love needs to be seen. To show it. To give it.

    You know what else comes from Satan? Let’s be honest: Hate. The kind that thinks it’s OK to instill fear in a group of people, simply because they don’t look, think, see things the same way we do.

    Let’s call it what it is: Evil. Sin.

    Nothing of this kind of act is born of love.

    I can sit here in fear. Fear for my children. Fear for those that aren’t mine that I love and care for deeply.

    Or I can do something to make sure that fear and terror, caused by the enemy does not take residence in my heart.

    I choose to love and teach my kids to love all the same. If it makes us a target. So be it.

    I choose to teach my children that hate language of any kind is not accepted. Not in our house. Not at school. Not in their community.

    I choose to teach my kids to stand up and speak out against those who use unkindness and hate speech to intimidate and create fear in others. To call out the bully. The mean people. Let them know it’s not OK. It’s not just the “way they are.” Because we are called to be better.

    I choose to teach my kids to love the outcast. To eat with the lonely. To love the unloveable. To break bread with everyone, even those that are far different. Because that’s how we learn from each other. That’s how we grow. That’s how we ensure that people are not feared.

    I may be just one little white woman. I may not be able to change an entire world with my love. Or my kindness.

    But I can be a living example for my white children. So they know hatred and bigotry of any kind is not accepted. That we will not fear the message of love that comes from Christ. That we will love, honor, respect, and walk with people from all walks of life.

    Even if we don’t look like them.

    Even if we don’t talk like them.

    Even if we don’t believe like them.

    We will not fear love.

  • ,

    Father, forgive them…even the bullies

    “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

    I have spent a number of weeks both at home and in my “day job,” trying to teach compassion and kindness. Encouraging children to not point out differences as if they are an abomination. But learning to love and accept the differences we all have.

    Many times I have failed. Thinking the bigger bully. The one with the loudest voice wins. At times I have been deeply discouraged. Feeling as if my effort to teach kindness and love is falling on deaf ears.

    I have not been immune to bullies myself. Yes even adults are bullied. Even kindness warriors are treated unkindly. And in our home we have experienced what happens when a friendship goes sour, and a young girl becomes a target.

    So despite the hatred, we seek to infuse our world with kindness. A love for all. To demonstrate and model these in the hopes that it will create a more kind, and less cruel world.

    Love and kindness are both the way of Jesus.

    But, so is prayer for those who are anything but kind.

    “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27

    But Jesus took the call to prayer even further. He didn’t just pray for those who were outcasts, or deemed unacceptable by society; he lived among them. And he was criticized and questioned each time he stood up or dwelled among the least of these.

    While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law saw him eating with the sinners, they asked the disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.” Mark 2:15-17

    And it is what we should do. Call the sinners. Spend time healing the sick. Many times we focus on the victims, as we should. But what if we did something different…and prayed for that bully? Or the person we don’t like? The person who is mean and rude to us day after day?

    Jesus was clear when he called us to minister to the “least of these” in Matthew 25:40. He was clear that we are to feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger. Stand up for the oppressed. Visit the prisoner. Love the unloveable.

    Even the most unloveable bully.

    This kind of love may make you an outcast. It may scare some folks who don’t embrace different. Praying for the bully is radically different. But we are called to be all these things. Because we are called to be like Jesus, and call the sinners.

    So, next time you find yourself lamenting about the harsh words of another person. The actions of a bully. Or the cruel and hateful world. Speak the following in prayer instead:

    Lord, I pray that you give them a new heart and put a new spirit in them. Lord remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

    Remember to pray for the least of these. Encourage the least of these. Build up that bully. Sit amongst those who are not like you. Who may make you cringe, or hurt you. Because you may be the only one who is praying for them. The only one who is praying for their heart to be changed.

    And because it’s what Jesus would have done: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” 

     

  • The still, small voice

    Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 1 Kings 19:11-12

    That still, small voice.

    That’s what Elijah heard. God’s whispering as he prayed for help.

    So often we get discouraged, believing that we can’t hear God speaking, or that he isn’t providing direction. When really we are just listening for the wrong voice.

    We are listening for His voice in the wind, the earthquakes, and the fire. Anticipating that the voice will be a loud, booming one.

    But it’s still. It’s small.

    Or we are so distracted by all the “noise” around us, that when he does speak-we miss it. Because we are distracted by things that get us so unfocused. We are running around super busy and super stressed. We miss the still and small stuff.

    And we may even miss a still and small voice.

    Get away from the noise. Get rid of the distractions. Spend some alone time with God.

    Then maybe you will be still enough to actually hear His small voice. His gentle whisper.

About Me

I am January! Wife, mother, meemaw, pastor, and mental health provider who makes it through the day with my coffee, my journal, and my God; and I am also on some days a hot mess. A simple human, navigating life through the messy and sometimes chaotic.

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