A Humbling Moment

This week I was reading about hypocrisy. It’s funny to me how God gives us opportunities to practice what we learn about.

This morning when I saw Matt’s shoes (top pic) in the bathroom I grew frustrated…until I turned around and saw my shoes behind the door (bottom pic)😊. Isn’t it interesting how we don’t get upset with ourselves like we do with others? It was a humbling moment that I owned and shared with Matt.

This moment was a reminder to me to be sure I am seeing myself clearly before I consider judging or getting frustrated with others.

Have you ever found yourself frustrated with someone to realize you are doing the same thing too?

If so, I invite you to join me today to…

pause. breathe. pray.

May we seek God first to help us see ourselves more clearly and stop being quick to judge others. This process is humbling and refining yet worth it, especially for our relationships.

With love and hope,
Shawn

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? - Matthew 7:3

How to Meet the Winds of Life

Recently I was walking with Georgia on a windy day. We hadn’t even made it down the driveway when the wind picked up a little bit. Georgia immediately stopped walking and put her head down. After a few moments she looked up at me and I encouraged her to keep moving. She eventually continued walking, with her tail wagging away.

This moment of Georgia fearing the wind made me consider how when the “winds” of life come my way, how they can cause me to pause. And honestly, I can put my head down like Georgia and get stuck from forward progress.

Can you relate?

If so, I invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

When the winds of life come, may we honor the fact that they may stop us in our tracks and make us feel stuck. As challenging as it may be at times, may we choose to look to God asking for Him to help and equip us for the windy walk ahead. Then, trusting His strength is greater than the winds, may we take one step of faith forward at a time, just like Georgia did.

With love and hope,
Shawn

Do not fear for I am with you do not be afraid for I am your God,

I will strengthen you and help you - Isaiah 41:10

Emmanuel - God is With Us

This morning I was reflecting on eight years ago today when I had a partial maxillectomy so that the doctors could take the cancerous tumor out. To process this day I wrote something I pray will encourage you with whatever you are going through.

I remember getting ready and looking in the mirror scared not knowing what would I look like or sound like and if my kids would ever be comfortable looking at me or listening to me ever again. In that moment, God was with me.

As I took a video saying goodbye to my kids, just in case, tears rolled down my face. God was with me.

When Stephen and I got in the cab to go to the hospital, my body trembling, God was with us.

As we waited in the waiting room, the unknown before us, God was with us.

When I was on the table waiting to be wheeled in to the room for surgery, Stephen held my shaky hand, and God did too.

As I laid under the lights surrounded by the doctors and nurses, God prompted me to pray for the people around the table. He taught me in that moment I wasn’t there just for me.

As I drifted into a deep sleep, God placed an angel at my head who whispered in my ear, Jesus is with you, Jesus loves you. I thought this was a dream until I woke up and realized it was not.

Although my palate is gone, I pray to always use my voice to share of God’s goodness and grace.

Thank you God for being with me then, and now. May my life honor and glorify you so that others come to know of your transforming love.

I share this with you today to invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

Please know I am not unique. God is with you, today and everyday. Just because God is with us and for us, doesn’t mean we won’t go through hard things but He will be with us to help us through.

Whatever you are going through, I pray you can hear and absorb that truth. And if you haven’t already, consider being with God too. His Word and love are transformative. God was the last thing I was looking for in my life but became the one that provided me with what I was needing. And I wholeheartedly believe He will do the same for you.

With love and hope,
Shawn

…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Renewal of Our Minds

My mind has been a little messy recently about a couple of things. I found myself at the computer last night closing down at least ten tabs that were open on the screen. I laughed because a friend and I had just been talking about having lots of tabs open in our minds.

This week I read about how when our mind is busy, even though our body is in a physical place, how our mind is disconnected from being where our body is. Therefore, we don’t get to experience the moment and be where we are and who we are with.

I know this but for some reason this week it hit me hard. It reminded me of a moment last year when Matt and I were driving.

He was talking and my mind was elsewhere. Matt said, “‘Mom, it seems like you are ‘hmmming’ me but not really listening.”

He was 100% correct.

I apologized and reeled my brain back to the moment so that I could tune into Matt rather that my multitude of other thoughts flowing through my mind.

What’s funny is when I am in Matt’s role in a conversation, and I know people aren’t tuned, it’s frustrating. Yet Matt reminded me that day, that I am that person sometimes.

Have you ever been the talker in a conversation who knows the person with you isn’t really with you? Or have you been the non-present listener? Or both?

If so, I invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

When we find our minds messy and taking us away from being where we are and from who we are with, may we pause and acknowledge that truth. May we pray for a renewal of our minds and for God’s help to close the non-essential tabs open in our minds so that we can be in the present moment. By doing this, we will not only have more peace within, but we will strengthen our relationships by being present and listening others hearts, just as God is always doing for us.

With love and hope,
Shawn

How to Get Our Hearts in Tune with God?

The other night at a concert I went to, I heard a pastor discuss keeping our hearts in tune with God. He was strumming a guitar as he spoke which made me smile as Matt has taken a love of playing guitar recently. He was saying how when we spend time with God, it helps our hearts be in tune with Him. Yet it’s so easy for us to become distracted and turn away from Him. He stopped strumming and turned his head away from his guitar. As he did that, one of the people from the band that was onstage with him came up and turned the tuning pegs on the guitar and made it out of tune.

What are things that make our hearts grow out of tune? Maybe we have an unpleasant interaction with someone, read a social media post, receive a text message or email, or something else.

When life happens, do we remain in Him, or do we turn away from God and grow out of tune?

I admit, I can leave my prayer time in the morning and feel in tune with God and within minutes something happens and I am no longer feeling the peace and calm but I can allow frustration, fear or something else to take its place.

Can you relate?

What the pastor did to put the guitar back in tune was he turned his chair towards the piano player in the band who had the right notes to play. He asked him to play each note so he could get his guitar back in tune. As he did this, he said how God is the person we can turn to as our heart tuner.

Today, I invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

May we pray to have our hearts in tune with God. Yet when our hearts become out of tune, as they inevitably will, may we notice what we turn to help us, and see if it’s actually helping us get back in tune or not. And if not, may we remember to turn to the one who will help us tune our hearts back in alignment so that we experience greater love, peace and joy in this day, no matter our circumstances.

With love and hope,
Shawn

A Blessing for You

The other night I heard one of my favorites songs in person and it was so powerful. As I stood there listening, my heart was fueled with joy, to be beside friends and strangers singing these lyrics to this beautiful blessing together.

“The Lord bless you
and keep you
Make His face shine upon you
and be gracious to you,
The Lord turn His face toward you, And give you peace*
Amen”

I share this with you today as a blessing over you in case you are needing peace in your soul.

I invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

May we take a moment to sit back and absorb the words.

I pray this blessing brings peace to your heart, as it does for me. And if you know someone who could use some encouragement, pass along the song their way.

Imagine what a difference it could make in hearts, homes, communities and beyond if we chose to send love and blessings to one another each day💕🙏💕

With love and hope,
Shawn

*Song is based on
Numbers 6:24-26

To listen to the whole song, look up The Blessing by Elevation Worship.

Your Puzzle Piece Matters

In 2016, one of the talks I gave was to a hundred teens. At the talk, the teens were divided into ten tables with ten kids at each table. I gave each table ten puzzle pieces, one for each teen at the table. Each teen took their puzzle piece and with the people at their table, completed their section of a larger puzzle. Then I went to each table and picked up each section of the larger puzzle. I brought all the parts of the puzzle together to the front of the room and put the puzzle together. I wanted to show each teen that their puzzle piece mattered and the puzzle wouldn’t be complete without them.

Later that week I had a bunch of words come to me and I sat down at my kitchen table and wrote A Place for Sam in thirty minutes.

When I wrote A Place for Sam I believed it was a timeless story to encourage kids that their puzzle piece matters.

Nine years later, I am so grateful that the message continues to resonate with children, parents and educators. And I am so grateful for Yolande Spears and The Bushnell for believing in the message and adding A Place for Sam to their Horace B. online Library for educators. It was a gift to be invited twice recently to share the book at a homeschool conference The Bushnell held.

I share this with you today because it’s so important we speak truth into kids hearts and remind them that they are unique, valued, loved and their ‘puzzle piece’ matters- no matter their age. Also, I am sharing because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the adult reading the book to the child reach out to me and say, “I needed to hear that too.”

So in case you too needed to be reminded, I want you to know - and believe - that you are beautifully and wonderfully made, you are valued, you are loved and your puzzle piece matters too.💕🙏🧩

With love and hope,
Shawn

How to Get Our Head Above the Noise

This weekend I went to pick up a table from a friend's home. When I went to pop my trunk, it wouldn't open. Not only that, my trunk starting beeping, a high-pitched continuous beep. I tried locking and unlocking the car. I tried turning my car on and off. I continued trying various ways to get the beeping to stop but nothing was working. I realized I had to go and get Matt from school so I drove away from my friend's house with my trunk beeping all the way to get Matt.

When Matt and I arrived home, I googled options and tried them yet nothing was working. After a little while Matt said, "I need to get away from this noise." I found myself replying, "we need to get our heads above the noise."

After an hour of listening to the beeping and exploring every option we could find, I ended up bringing the car to the dealership. As we drove up to the dealership I laughed and said to Matt, "this won't take long because no one else wants to listen to this beeping for long."

Thankfully the people were quick to help us and find a solution to make the beeping stop.

I share this with you today because in life there is a lot of noise but unlike the beeping of my trunk, sometimes we can't make it stop. So what can we do?

I invite you to join me to...

pause. breathe. pray.

We need to find a way to get our heads above the noise.

How can we do that?

Four things we can actively do are:

- unplug and sit in silence and solitude
- breathe deeply
- pray
- meditate on God's Word

Practicing these four things isn't easy or a light switch that will immediately flick off the noise. Yet over time, and with practice, there is a quieting within that will happen. When we access this quiet space within, we will get closer to God's peace ruling our hearts and minds rather than the noise.

May we put these into practice so that even if the noise doesn't stop, like the beeping of my car, we are able to have greater peace within and gain wisdom on how to navigate the noisy circumstances.

With love and hope,
Shawn

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts
-Colossians 3:15

"There will be valleys to fill and bridges to build"

Recently when our family was in Nashville we visited the Johnny Cash museum. While we were there, we heard some lyrics that really captured my heart so I wrote them down...


“There will be valleys to fill and bridges to build.”

These lyrics caused me to pause because there are so many hurting hearts right now, from personal loss to what’s happening in our world.

These words reminded me that God is with us in the valleys of life, sitting beside us with compassion. And not only that, He is the one that can bring comfort and peace - or whatever it is we need - and “fill the valley” for us, in time.

The second part of this verse, that there are “bridges to build,” was really potent to me as it is something that is needed in our lives. Whether that is building a bridge between ourselves and God, building bridges between our hearts and the hearts of people in our lives, or maybe we are to be a bridge between others and God.

I share all this with you today to invite you to join me to...

pause. breathe. pray.

May we remember when we are in the valley that God is with us, He is for us and He will help “fill the valley” and get us back to solid ground, in time. May we remain close to God, even if it challenges us to do so, trusting that He sees us, hears and and is there for us to help us through.

Also, may we seek to build bridges, between ourselves and God, between our hearts and others hearts, and may we be a bridge for someone to get to know God a littler better this week by living out love towards them.

I know lyrics are powerful and impactful, yet God’s Word is transformative. So let’s make the time to be in God’s word - whether it is for a minute or an hour - to help equip our hearts, minds and souls for what is before us.

With love and hope,
Shawn

Making Good of What Wasn't Good

I am grateful to the @csz_foundation for a fun night Friday night at the Wolfpack game and for what this foundation is creating for the youth in our community!

CSZ is a local non-profit that is focused on empowering our youth. CSZ stands for Connor Scott Zieky, the founders of CSZ’s son. Sadly their family tragically lost Connor to an accidental overdose when he was in his 20’s. They are harnessing their family’s story and have created the CSZ Foundation and a community center for kids in our town. The center is aimed to make a difference in the lives of other kids in town by having a place for youth to come to have fun, have in-person connection with peers, while also having engaging activities and mentors to support the kids.

I love the heart behind their mission and what they are doing for our youth, including for Matt.

I am sharing this because the Zieky’s family story is tragic…and powerful.

I invite you to join me to…

pause. breathe. pray.

Each one of us has a story. May we be encouraged by the Zieky family and how they are making something good come from their heartbreak. May we be prayerful about our own stories and when the time is right, let’s be willing to share our stories to help others, whether it is in a one-time conversation with someone, or by creating something to bless others, as their family has done.

With gratitude and hope,
Shawn