Standing Out by Rachel Joy

Precious and I have a bit of a morning routine. Every morning she wakes me up--at a time I don’t see the purpose of waking up at--followed by me sassing her through the door.

After I bant* with her for about 15 minutes, I get out of bed and stumble, proceed, stagger walk to the kitchen where I start the coffee, whilst saying a lot of snarky things to Precious. I then feed her and mostly just stare at the coffee pot, waiting in desperation for it to be ready for my consumption. (The struggle is real. Just saying.) 

When she gets done eating (and the coffee is done) she heads to the front doors and meows relentlessly until I open the door for her.

Yesterday morning as I was letting her out (to get my peace and quiet) I noticed these two black crows sitting at the end of the front… cement thing.

Precious noticed them too.

Now, before I tell this story I want to say something. Precious has a beautiful coat. I literally want to take her with me to Home Depot or something and be like, “Hello, can I have two buckets of paint in these colours?” And then pull her out of her cage and be like, “Yeah. These colours.”

She’s a beautiful cat! But she is not good colours to hunt. I can literally see her all the way across the lawn.

She also has the grace of a hippo. Those two factors have saved the life of many birds, mice and large insects.

So when Precious saw these crows and decided that one of them was going to be breakfast, the crows also saw her. They were like, “Ha, look at that thing trying to eat us. Maybe I’ll let her… Just kidding! *Flies away crowing sarcastically*” 

After watching her futilely trying to get those birds, I sat  down on the stairs with my coffee, and I started to think.

So often we have these goals that we set and we are like, “I’m just gonna rule the world! Come on everyone let’s do this!” There is nothing wrong with that, I have a lot of outlandish goals that I want to do with as many people as I can. But sometimes people see us coming and are like, “Ah… you know. Doing that is great and I applaud you for that, but it’s a Netflix and pizza night. I’ll like your pictures on Facebook! Good luck!” And they fly away. (Or walk. Most people walk.)

This can lead to disappointment, discouragement and other forms of depression.

We can be like, “What’s wrong with me that I can’t do *whatever your amazing goal is*” and we just get so frustrated with ourselves.

First of all, you are amazing. Keep pressing on toward the goal that God has laid on your heart! Because with him by your side, you can do it. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.)

Second of all, don’t try to change the colour of your coat to make it blend in. Because you stand out, and it’s beautiful when you do so. There are so many people that match, and when you stand out in the way that God has created you, it’s absolutely stunning. 

It's priceless when you stand out. Don't try to stick a price tag on your self, because you are so valuable that a King laid down his life for you. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, Precious is meowing to be let in, so I should do that...

“ Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect” – Romans 12:2

~Rachel Joy

*My mother, Google and spellcheck say “Bant” is not a word, but I’m pretty sure it is, so I’m just gonna make it a word. Bant is now a word. It means “Sass sarcastically” and is basically short for ‘banter.’ 

I'm in Love

I’m in love

By Rachel S.

You know how they say that when you’re in love there are star sparkles on your eyes and all that jazz, well… it’s totally true.

It’s amazing.

Every morning I wake up just looking for the person I’m in love with, and he’s in everything. Everyone I see, the pumpkin spice muffins, and my coffee, it all reminds me of the person I’m in love with.

It’s hopeless. Don’t try and talk me out of it. I have on the rose coloured glasses, and I totally adore every moment of it.

I know, I’m a hopeless romantic, but I know that my lover loves me too! We have longwinded conversations, and He is with me all the time.

He’s a painter. And an architect. And a potter. He also enjoys shepherding and cow herding. (The irony of my family teasing me about a cowboy…) He’s also a very strong abolitionist and loves people.

He’s basically fabulous.

When I’m sad, he holds me tight, and he is with me in scary situations.

He’s really strong and mighty too. Like… yeah.

(Can I just say I feel like such a tween right now.)

Oh? You want to know who this fabulous person is?

You can read all about him, in this amazing book that he ordained, and his name is Jesus.

You know how I know that he loves me? Because he offered himself for me on the cross, so that I can be free indeed through him.

Yeah.

I’ve been finding myself falling in love with all that God is. How strong and mighty he is. How sovereign he is, sinking deeper into his loving embrace.

I am so in love with Jesus.

I’m not sure when that happened, but I just… I feel like He’s walking right here next to me, and that he loves me sooo much!

I know that I haven’t always felt like that. I have had days when I felt like I was a failure and like I wasn’t worthy of God’s love.

But I now see. I was never too far from his Grace.

And I’m swept up in the power of his Love.

All that time I thought I was falling into an abyss, I was really falling into his never ending love!

And I’m so in love with all that He is.

“Loving God means obeying his commands. And God’s commands are not too hard for us, because everyone who is a child of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world—our faith.” – 1 John 5:3

~Rachel Joy

Courageous

Courageous 

Rachel S.

“Remember that I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

                                                ~Joshua 1:9
I have loved this verse for a very long time. It’s a command from God to Joshua to stand strong even when the world might be crazy.
 
Really, how cool is that?

You see, I’ve been thinking about this lately.  I’m not the strongest person on the earth. In fact, I’m pretty sure that God gave me two very strong brothers for the reason that they can lift all the heavy stuff that I can’t seem to manage to drag along the floor.

Also, I’m not very brave.

(True story: one time there was a spider in my sheets and I slept on the couch. I’m not even kidding.)

I can be brave, (like one time I ate sushi…That was fun…) but just me being naturally like, “Hm, let me go do something crazy and brave!” That just doesn’t happen.  (I’ll hide behind a laptop and blog about how I wish I was brave instead.)

“Don’t be afraid.” Quite honestly, I do a lot of fearing. I fear spiders, falling, spiders, change, spiders, snakes, spiders, and… well… just a lot of things. (If you happen to be small, hairy and have eight legs, I am probably afraid of you. Just saying.)

So when I read this and I see God commanding his people to be, strong, brave and not to be afraid… I kind of just curl up in a ball and die.

But I wonder if it’s more than just being physically strong, brave and not afraid.

Like what if it’s being strong in the faith? What if it’s being brave enough to walk across the room and pray with a hurting soul? What if it’s not being afraid of what people think of you?

Because while there is something to being physically strong, brave and courageous (Like, it’s cool to go mountain climbing and parachuting.) I wonder if God perhaps wanted us to do more than just be able to lift a cow.

What about being strong in the faith? Could it be that maybe he wanted us to be strong enough to press on in the race that he has set before us?

And what about if being brave is more than just physically… lifting a cow. (For example. It works, so I’m just gonna run with it.) What if it’s also being brave enough to walk across a room to talk to someone that he wants us to shine into?

Lastly, what if being courageous is more than killing a bear (What is up with me and barnyard references today?)  And is having the guts to stand up for what is noble and pure—even if we don’t want to or it’s not the easiest thing to do.

Because although there is nothing wrong with being physically strong (most of my family is.)

But I think there is more to it than just that…

Is there something to being strong and courageous because we know the sovereignty of God??
Just a Thought...

Thinking About my Name

Thinking About my Name

By Rachel S.

Truth be told, sometimes I do not like my name.

“Rachel” is a name that people can just spit out when they are mad (and they often do.) It’s easy to say, and is very common.

The name “Rachel” literally means “ewe” (as in the sheep, But when you say it out loud… It doesn’t have the same ring.)

But name “Rachel” also means Shepherdess…

When I think of the word “Shepherd” I think of the Good Shepherd. The one who is the good shepherd to all us sheep.

I’ve always thought that shepherds are pretty cool people. Shepherds are strong and responsible, they are wise and they have to get there sheep to look up to them. Shepherds have to be willing to give up their life to defend their sheep and shepherds have to be level headed.

My name means Shepherdess. But I don’t think I am very much like one.

I’m not very strong. I’m not very wise. I do not have a very level head. (Ok… I can. But it basically takes the world falling apart.)

It’s a good thing that I serve under the Good Shepherd.

He takes me on long walk through green pastures, where he tells me of all the little things that a shepherd should know. With his rod and his staff, he comforts me. He guides me in paths of righteousness, for his name sake.

He knows what is best for me.

In Ezekiel 34:11-16 God talks about his sheep. He says he will take care of his sheep. That he will, “save them from all the places where they are scattered.” And that he will “search for the lost, bring back those that strayed away, put bandages on those that were hurt and make the weak strong.” (Ezekiel 34:16)

The Good Shepherd watches his sheep, and he loves them. He will bring back those that are lost and hurt, and make them well again.

One verse that really spoke to me when I was trying to write this post is found in John 21:15-25. You can read the whole thing because I am just going to be posting a couple verses here.

Jesus had just risen from the dead. And he was eating with his disciples. He turns to Simon and here is what he said:

                                “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

                                He answered, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

                                Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

This happens three times. “Simon, do you love me??”

“Yes!”

“Then feed my lambs.”

And the thought that I kept having while reading these verses is this:

Jesus calls those who love him to feed his sheep.

I am not strong enough to feed sheep by myself. I can’t lift the big bag of food. I don’t think the sheep would listen to my voice.

But the Good Shepherd is still next to me. As he is leading me to the quiet waters, he is helping me lead the sheep

 He is leading me on the right paths, for his name sake, and helping me lead sheep there.

Even though I may go through all sorts of troubles, I have no need to be afraid, because he is with me.

He has set a table before my enemies for me to eat at, and he has filled my cup to over flowing.

With him by my side, I trust that I can have the strength to feed his sheep, and live up to my name.

The Shepherdess

Extending Grace

Extending Grace

By Rachel S.

 Over Christmas last year, I got a kitten. She is an adorable little gray and white baby. (Not as baby as she was ten months ago but, you know.)

When we first got her, it was very evident that the name the animal shelter had given her was not going to work. They had called her Grace which is a great name! But not for this kitten. She is so awkward and clumsy! She can’t turn a corner to save her life and if she ever figures out how to walk a straight line, I think that I’ll introduce her some kind of unknown to her kitty treat.

Anyway, because my little, Grace was obviously not very graceful, we re-named her, “Precious.” (What where we thinking? My family should never name anything after a virtue….)

For the record, my kitten is Precious. When she is sleeping.

Along with being extremely adorable, and clumsy, she is also very naughty.

Every morning we have to peel her off the curtains, take her off the table, I usually end up walking into the kitchen and hear a thump-which would be the sound of her jumping off the counter. Occasionally I find myself wiping paw prints off the floor, from the ash in the fireplace that she got wet in the sink that found its self on the floor.

Yeah.

I’m thinking about un-re-naming her.  Back to Grace. Remember that she is just as clumsy as the day we got her, here is why, because every day I have to extend grace to her.

I was thinking about this whole naming thing, as she was sleeping soundly (and yes, looking adorable) on my bed. I was sprawled out on the floor writing and here is what came to mind. I am not good at extending grace.

There are times when I don’t want to extend grace to my kitten. I just want to throw her out and ask her what she thinks of that.

“I gave you mercy for your little naughties yesterday!” I long to yell at her. “Would you just behave yourself for one day?”

And it’s not just with my cat. I get tired of extending Grace to my brothers for all the times they drive me up a wall and I get tired of extending grace to people when they bug me.

I have been having a problem of extending grace recently. Sometimes it seems like I’m right, thus, the rest of the world must be wrong. I didn’t want to extend grace, but what I realized was that God extends grace to be every single day.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says this, “The LORD’s love never ends; his mercies never stop. They are new every morning.”

Every day, God hands out new grace to me, he just hands it to me!

In Romans chapter three 3:22-24, Paul tells the Christians this “God makes people right with himself thought their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by his grace which is a free gift.”

God gives out fresh grace. Every. Day. No matter what you have done and what you will do, he still loves you and gives more grace. No amount of bad stuff will ever separate you from the incredible love and grace of our father.

But you can only get this grace, thought Jesus Christ his son who came down from heaven to die for all of our sins. He died on a cross, but he didn’t stay dead! He rose from the grave three days later and now reigns at the right hand of the father, giving out grace.

It doesn’t mean that he likes the things that we do, but his blood covered our sins. He has washed them with his grace and his love!!!  

In conclusion, I have some… challenges to give out

Number 1: to practice extending grace. When someone bugs you, just think about the fact that you both are receiving grace.

Number 2: Even though God gives out grace freely and far behind what we could ever think or imagine it is important to grow closer to God. Because it’s just the truth that other people will. Drive. You. Nuts. And the only way that you can give out grace, is though Jesus and with we can’t extend grace without Jesus’ help.

Feel free to comment! I love reading what ya’ll have to say!!!

Rachel Schaus (in the house!)