What’s Your Story?

September 10, 2019September 12, 2019 / hhooks / Leave a comment

“…And thus, I make it my ambition to preach the gospel…as it is written, ‘Those who have not been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand’.” Romans 15:20-21 ESV

Paul quotes Isaiah here to explain Paul’s own mission to the Roman Church: to evangelize. Paul fulfilled his mission in part by sharing his testimony, and we are called to continue that today.

You may think, I’ve been a Christian since I was little. Nothing exciting has ever happened in my life. I wasn’t saved from drugs or a bad relationship or anything drastic like that. My testimony isn’t terribly interesting.”

While God has given dramatic testimony to some, the stories of others are less so. But those stories are not less valuable. All our stories are given to us by God to be used for His glory. And there is someone somewhere who would benefit from hearing it.

Be thankful for your redemption story. Share it boldly. Ask God to use it for His glory. After all, that’s why He gave it to you.

{ This post was written as part of Five Minute Friday’s Link Up }

Why “Venting” Won’t Cut It

March 29, 2019March 28, 2019 / hhooks / 7 Comments

When God shows us our sin, we have to repent and turn from that sin back to God. That means we aren’t supposed to go back to that sin.

Easier said than done, right? YES!

Some things I turned from and never looked back. Some things I turned from, and God had to work on me a while. Some things God convicted me about, and I still struggle to turn from them.

You probably have a similar experience although the sins you struggle with – the things you do that do separate you from God – may be different from mine.

Lately, God has been convicting me about my talk. He reminded me that we have to be holy in our behavior. He also reminded me that what comes out of my mouth reflects what’s in my heart.

Image Credit: Instagram

He reminded me that I should come to Him when I get frustrated with someone else’s behavior rather than “venting” to another person about what has made me angry or hurt my feelings.

“Venting” is what we call it when we complain or fuss to a third party about our frustrations.

For example, I could vent to my sister when I’m frustrated with my husband; I could go to her (and sometimes do) to complain or fuss about something he said that hurt my feelings or something he did that made me angry.

So, I vent to blow off steam, to let off the pressure, and then it’s all over, and I can move on, right?

But really this is just talking behind my husband’s back, isn’t it?

And it didn’t really fix anything, did it?

In fact, the only thing I’ve succeeded in doing is making it worse.

If we honestly look at it, venting is dangerous. It changes our mind and heart toward the person or thing we are venting about. It hardens our hearts more toward the situation and the people involved.

It also hardens the heart of the person we vent to. It literally changes how that person perceives the person we’re venting about. So, it causes the confidant or third party to sin, too.

So, what the heck do I do when I’ve been wronged, and I’m angry? When I need to fuss about what someone’s done to me? When I need to vent my frustrations?

Image Credit: Les Feldick Bible Study

Go to God. Pray to Him. Talk to Him about what that person said or did. How the person made me angry. How I want God to change that person.

You can do this, too, when you need to vent.

You can yell at Him. You can cry. Be angry. Be hurt. Be heart-broken. He can handle it.

Warning – God might not change that person who wronged you. But, He’s very likely to change your heart toward that person.

I know you don’t want that. You aren’t the problem, right? The other person is…so you may have to “get right with God,” as they say, before you can do this – knowing you’re more likely to be changed and the other person might not be. Wrestle with Him about that, too. God will speak to you in that wrestling. He wants you to bring it to Him.

And maybe God can use the change in you to bring about change in the person who wronged you after all. Maybe the other person sees the change in you and how you treat them, and God uses that to soften their heart so He can change them…kinda crazy, huh? But that’s how God works. His kingdom is upside-down, and His ways are not our ways.

So let’s try it.

I’m working on it, too.

The next time I am angry or hurt and feel the need to talk to someone about my issue with someone else, I’m going to talk to God instead. I’m going to take my frustration or anger to Him and allow Him to have His way with my heart.

Image Credit: Klove.com

Pray this prayer with me…

Dear God,

Living in the world as your child seems difficult sometimes. Your ways aren’t my ways. You call me to be different, and I want to do your will. You are wise. You are love. You are the Creator. You know how this is supposed to work. You see how it is meant to go. You know how it is going to end up.

You have control, and I thank you for taking that from me. You take my burdens and ask me to simply rest in you. You ask me to take your yoke which is light. You ask me to live according to your commands. Help me to do that.

Take my life, Father. Have your way with it.

Amen

Image Credit: Pinterest

Read more posts about how to handle hurt feelings. Also, read more posts about how to handle Satan’s attacks. The temptation to vent to someone other than Jesus comes from Satan, and you can combat that temptation the same way I discussed combating other temptation from the enemy.

Are You Stubborn Like Me?

December 14, 2018December 13, 2018 / hhooks / Leave a comment

The promises God gave us in the Bible are sufficient that we should obey what He tells us to do right away. He promises us, His children, everything He promised to the Israelites in the Bible. God, through His word, promised us His presence, salvation, grace, love…this should be enough to warrant our immediate obedience when we have a word from God.

But, just like Gideon in the book of Judges, we hesitate. Our faith is weak. Our theology is off. We want God to prove it’s Him! We ask for a sign to make ourselves more confident.

I’ve been there. I’ve taken months, even years to respond with obedience to conviction from God through the Holy Spirit. At first, it was because I didn’t know it was God. I wasn’t walking with Him. I wasn’t allowing Him to be my shepherd, so when He spoke, I didn’t know His voice.

Now, I honestly have no excuse. I walk and talk with Him daily. His voice is familiar. Yet I’m still slow to respond sometimes. I’m still reluctant.

At times, I’m just plain stubborn. I don’t want to do what He’s told me to do – not right then at least.

But delayed obedience is disobedience.

Sometimes I don’t want to do the thing the way He’s told me to do it. In my pridefulness, I think my way is better – MY timing, MY sequence, MY procedure.

Even though I know better, y’all!

In the end it always comes back to Him though. I try to do it the way I want to do it rather than the way God said to do it, and I screw it up. Then, I have to throw up my hands, and do it His way after all.

Wouldn’t I have wasted less time, used less energy, and endured less struggle if I just did it the way He told me to do it in the beginning? The first time I felt Him nudge my heart?

He gets the glory in the end anyway – no matter how I respond in the beginning. But do I miss out on some of the blessing I would have received if my obedience had been immediate? Do I fracture my faith? Do I tarnish my testimony? Do I hurt my heart? Am I a poor witness for others?

Fixing Me Was God’s Job (Repost)

September 14, 2018September 14, 2018 / hhooks / 1 Comment

Author’s Note: Ethan and Emery are in school, and i am on week 2 of my new job (will blog about that soon since I addressed it in an earlier post). So, I am taking a short break from writing new posts this month so I can focus on time with the kids and getting used to the new job. In the meantime, I am reposting pieces of my testimony that were published when I started the blog in October 2017).

God can use any time, place, or circumstance He wants to use to get through to you. He can speak to you in the most unlikely of places and in the craziest of ways.

When I was 31, after spending more than 10 years ignoring God’s voice (and at times even denying that Jesus existed), I actually obeyed God’s calling and left my full-time job to be a work-from-home-mom and be with my then-16-month-old son.

To date, it it probably the craziest thing I have ever done. Most of the things God asks us to do seem crazy at the time; that’s why those things are known as a “leap of faith.” They aren’t things we could accomplish in our own power or with our own knowledge, skills, or money.

And that’s where I was in May 2010: being obedient to Jesus when I still wasn’t even sure I believed in Him! I didn’t have trouble believing in a Creator God overall, but I had lost Jesus – the man who walked and talked and healed and taught and died and lived again.

So, what God did was to remove me from the busyness of the life I had created with a job and a mortgage and a husband and a child and a pet, and He sat me down at the family-heirloom dining table in our house and confronted me with myself.

Now, I’m not trying to say that staying home with your baby isn’t busy, but it was a lot less so for me than when I worked full-time outside the home. I still worked part-time from home and cared for our home and our son, but God had cleared my schedule quite a bit.

Life was quieter now. Life was slower now. I had time to think. (Funny, “thinking” was what got me into the mess I was in in the first place, but thinking was also what God used to get me out). I finally acknowledged that I needed help with my mind and my thoughts about God and Jesus.

At first, I tried to fix myself.

I remember reading a book or two I thought would help me believe in Jesus again. At this point, I really wanted to believe in Him but couldn’t fathom ever being able to again.

I did pray sometimes and ask God to help me.

I was so used to scholarly-type study from 6 years of higher education that I thought maybe I could study my way back to believing in Jesus.

So, I got a Bible commentary to read what scholars said about the Bible hoping that some smart person’s “proof” would sway me. I read the book of James because I heard someone say it was a good idea for new Christians to start with that book when reading the Bible.

God led me to meet some Christian moms from our church and start going to MOPS – Mothers of PreSchoolers – at our church with them in the fall of 2011.

I began to feel God more. It was slow, but it was there. I knew my worldview was made-up, but I still didn’t want to submit it to God.

I was working hard to fix myself before I went back to the Lord. I thought He wanted me fixed before He would take me back. {Spoiler alert} That’s where I was wrong.

Fixing me was God’s job. Fixing YOU is God’s job.

He doesn’t require us to come to Him already perfect. {Hint} If you wait until you’re perfect before you go to God, you’ll never go to Him. If God waited to save us until we were perfect, He’d never have anyone to save!

What To Do If You Have a Critical Spirit

May 4, 2018May 4, 2018 / hhooks / 3 Comments

You’re in for a treat today – our first guest post on Servant Girl Stories. I am honored to introduce my friend, Leigh, founder of Be Still Mama ministries at First Baptist Church of Indian Trail. Leigh and I met about 3 years ago when she and her husband, Brian, joined our life group at church. Since then, I have grown closer to her as a friend as our journeys as moms have merged. I also participate in Be Still Mama and enjoy working with her to encourage and love on the moms who also become involved in the ministry. She has such a heart for moms of young children and desires to pour into those moms and help lead them to the foot of the cross. Please welcome, Leigh Anderson!

By: Leigh Anderson

Growing up in the cul-de-sacs of a few big city suburbs, riding bikes and managing sticker collections, I didn’t have much to be critical about other than broken sidewalk chalk or a missing New Kids on the Block cassette tape. Or the fact that we got to pick out one “sugar cereal” per month and my brother would eat the entire box in one sitting as soon as we got home. Those were my critical moments, until my life changed one day in the formal sitting room in the front our house.

It was late afternoon, our friends were playing outside, and it was the first time I’d ever felt my chest tighten and my stomach go into a knot as the word “divorce” came out of my parents’ mouths to my brother and me. (Divorce is just as much a part of my parent’s story as it is of mine, so I share this milestone with the utmost respect for them but as a pivotal point of brokenness in my life).

Photo Credit: Pinterest

The onslaught of changes was not gradual; it was abrupt, and life as we knew it was completely different for all 4 of us mere hours after that conversation happened. I experienced brokenness beyond what I’d ever experienced. And being so young, it was difficult to name it or understand it or tell anyone how I was feeling because I simply didn’t know.

We moved out of state shortly after that, and our new reality was unlike any I’d ever experienced. It presented more challenges than successes. That wasn’t only true for our family but also true within the new community where we’d moved.

Naturally, if people have something in common, that will be the subject of conversations. Our common thread was struggle, and it was mostly what anyone talked about. There weren’t people in our community coaching people to have positive attitudes, to talk highly of each other, to stop gossiping, to lift each other up, or to spur one another on. It was just natural to share the crappy thing that happened that day and who did it. Those were just the everyday subjects of conversations.

Slowly but surely as we lived our lives and grew up, that mentality of complaining or criticizing, something I viewed as normal and right, stuck with me. And I didn’t even realize it was something bad.

I didn’t realize all of this until a friend recently had the courage to shed light on this aspect of my personality and challenged me to really work on it. After talking with her and thinking about it for a while, a light went off in my head. I’ve known for a long time that I struggle with a critical spirit during particularly stressful seasons of my life, but now I know why. And now that I know why – because it’s been a part of my life for 30+ years – it’s time to make some changes.

In Be Still Mama, the ministry I lead, I’m passionate that we all find the root to the challenges we face. If we don’t dig straight for the root, treating the symptoms is a waste of time. When we focus on the bad in others, our circumstances, or ourselves we focus our eyes on brokenness, not wholeness. God’s will for us is wholeness, and we can only have that in relationship with Him. When we focus so much on brokenness, it’s what we ultimately become – broken in our relationship with Him – because we took our eyes off of Him and started staring at everything that’s wrong.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

We form and feed critical spirits within ourselves when we continue to focus on the flaws of our spouses, our children, our friends, or the people we resent. The resentment comes after they fail to meet the expectations we’ve set for them – my husband hasn’t lifted a finger around the house, my friend didn’t respond to my text for 12 hours, my kids won’t listen or obey and they fight all the time. It’s easier to tear down these people in an effort to feel better about ourselves than it is to compliment them on something they’ve done well or a character trait we really admire. When in reality the latter is the key.

My pre-programmed reaction for brokenness is to criticize and wrestle with how that circumstance or that person made ME feel. I made every encounter with brokenness about me, and that’s the total OPPOSITE of what we’re called to do with it. Big no no.

When we encounter brokenness, specifically in people, we have several choices. We can talk about them to others, we can criticize/judge them within our own hearts, or we can make the choice to see them exactly how Jesus sees them.

The reason God doesn’t want us judging each other so harshly is because we simply don’t know what we’re talking about. We see a sin; God sees the heart. We see an annoying behavior; God sees a stronghold. We see poor choices; God sees pain that they won’t let Him heal. Many of these instances naturally become a lot less personal because I’m making them more about God and less about me.

Learning this lately has been so refreshing. It also shined light on how damaging it was to my own heart to operate in a critical and negative way. And as a mom, if my heart’s damaged and I operate out of that place, there’s a high probability that I’m causing damage to my family.

Encourage someone today. Double points if it’s someone who’s recently really let you down. We encourage and uplift people as an act of obedience to God’s commandment for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. You need encouragement; you need forgiveness; you need to know you matter, so give that to someone else today. May we not love in an effort to see what we can get from other people; may we love other people because we love God – as simple as that.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Meet the Author: Leigh Anderson is a follower of Jesus, wife to Brian, and mom to two toddlers. She graduated from Newberry College with a degree in Communications and Sociology and went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts in Film/Television/Media Theory from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Although her plan was to sell everything and move to New York City to take a producer position at CBS News New York, God had other plans. Instead, she spent the last 14 years in professional ministry roles in communications and marketing. Most recently, she was the Director of Marketing and Community Engagement for the Christian radio station New Life 91.9.

After being laid off from New Life in 2014, she became a stay at home mom and through the inspiration and leadership of another Charlotte ministry leader, launched the ministry of Be Still Mama at First Baptist Church of Indian Trail.

You can find Leigh on Facebook at Leigh Baldwin Anderson and at the public group Be Still Mama.

Portrait of a Servant Girl – Meggan’s Story Part 2

February 23, 2018April 18, 2018 / hhooks / 3 Comments

“And that’s how you have three kids in a year and a half!” Meggan grinned and slapped the table with the palm of her hand. “I didn’t do it gracefully, but boy did I learn, AND I don’t argue with Him anymore,” she emphasized. “We are still a work in progress,” she continued. “It is as imperfect as imperfect can be.”

The year and a half Meggan was referring to was from roughly December 2012 to March 2014. During this time, she and Dane would adopt two daughters from Uganda, endure two miscarriages, and give birth to a biological daughter.

Consequently, it was also during this time that Meggan told God no when He clearly told her what He had for her to do.

“I literally stomped my foot and said no!” She declared. It happened as they were in the midst of adopting their first daughter, Faith…but let’s back up a bit more first.

In October 2011, Dane and Meggan decided – next year, it’s baby time!

“We didn’t care if it was biological, through adoption, or both. Dane’s mom was adopted, so it was always in the plan for us to adopt anyway, especially once we got into missions,” Meggan explained.

While on one such mission trip to Uganda in January 2012, the couple realized that God had international adoption planned for them.

“We came together immediately on this,” Meggan reported.

Through friends, the found out about the HOPE Center, an orphanage in Uganda run by an American family.

“We started talking to Angie online, and that’s how we found Faith Hope – a newborn who was at the HOPE. Center and needed a family. We knew she was our daughter, so we began the process of getting everything together,” Meggan relayed the events to me. You see, Dane and Meggan’s last name is Love, so Faith’s name would be Faith Hope Love! (She even has her own Bible verse). It was immediately obvious to the couple that they were meant to adopt Faith.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

It was May 2012, and as they were making this decision, Meggan also had a positive pregnancy test. They happily thought, ‘We’ll have two babies at one time!’

However, Meggan had a miscarriage within two weeks; the doctors called this a “chemical pregnancy.”

Shortly before leaving for Uganda to bring home Faith late in 2012, Meggan and Dane again found out they were pregnant. They had an ultrasound and saw the baby and a strong heartbeat. Again, they had hope that they would adopt AND have a biological baby. They were exhilarated.

At this time, Angie also showed them a picture of another girl named Joyce.

“Angie wanted us to adopt Joyce, too! But she told us Joyce was 5, and I could tell by her picture that she was older than 5!” Meggan said. “I told her I would pray about it, but I didn’t. Then, I told her no,” Meggan admitted.

This made it a bit difficult when they arrived at the HOPE Center in Uganda. Angie continued to try to persuade them to adopt Joyce as well. “I kept thinking, ‘I’ve never been a mom before! I’m about to take home an infant and then have another shortly after! That’s all I can handle right now…’ So, I kept saying no,” Meggan shrugged her shoulder.

The day Meggan and Dane saw Faith for the first time, they were also introduced to Joyce. “The moment I saw her, God told me she was going to be our daughter. But I was still defiant. I stomped my foot and said no!”

Everything was going as smoothly as it could with the adoption processor Faith, and Dane and Meggan were looking forward to going home soon with their daughter when Meggan went into preterm labor and suffered another miscarriage.

“It was devastating,” Meggan said flatly. “Here I thought I’d show up at the airport with Faith AND a baby bump, but that wasn’t going to happen.”

And there was still the prodding to adopt Joyce as well.

‘It’s funny,” Meggan paused. “I was saying no and stomping my foot and all that, but I knew Joyce was going to be our daughter, too.”

After experiencing the miscarriage, they almost decided in Uganda to adopt Joyce at the same time they adopted Faith, but the Lord convicted Meggan. “He told me, ‘you did not pray about this. This is emotional. It’s quick. You didn’t seek wise counsel.’ Dane was frustrated; he was ready to take Joyce home, too, but I said no. I wanted to go home with Faith. I needed to heal physically and emotionally from the miscarriage,” she said, her eyes on the table.

So, they finished the process to adopt Faith, got on the plane, and came home. It was December 1, 2012, and Faith was their first daughter.

Dane and Meggan with Faith Hope Love!!! (Image used courtesy of Meggan Love)

Just a month later, January 2013, Dane and Meggan found themselves cleaning out a room in their home they’d previously used as an office. “Let’s just go ahead and say what we’re doing this for,” Dane challenged Meggan. It was as if he were reading her mind. “We’re turning this into a room for Joyce.”

“This is for a Joyce,” Meggan agreed without hesitation. By this point, they’d prayed about another adoption. They’d spoken with wise, godly friends. And they knew it was time to move forward to bring Joyce home.

Two weeks later, they found out they were pregnant.

At the end of June the same year, the couple set off again for Uganda.

However, this trip was much different. From the moment they got out of their car at the airport, everything went wrong:

The departure time for the first leg of their flight, Charlotte to Chicago, was bumped up, and they only have 30 minutes to get to the terminal.
During the flight, the pilot came over the intercom and told them they were nearly out of fuel and would be diverted to Detroit to refuel.
When they finally got into Chicago air space, they had to circle from 30 minutes before they could land.
They missed their connecting flight.
During the extended layover in Chicago, they got into a cab with an Egyptian driver. They told him their story as they drove around. “I hope you don’t end up with a layover in Egypt since with the revolt going on,” he warned.
Their new flight plan took them to Egypt. During the layover, airport staff asked if they’d like to secure temporary visas so they could sight-see. “I would have loved to see some pyramids,” Meggan admitted, “but we told them no thanks.”
They eventually got to Uganda, but their checked luggage didn’t. They were without it for 2 weeks. (Remember, Meggan was pregnant…she had packed lots of snacks in her checked luggage).
Once they got to the HOPE Center, they learned that their first court date had been pushed back a week. No one had told them.

Things didn’t improve once the process finally got started. Nothing went as planned. Meetings didn’t happen when they were scheduled. Paperwork was not ready on time. There was one misstep, rescheduled meeting, and late form after another.

“I finally gave up,” Meggan threw her hands up in the air, a look of defeat on her face as she remembered the circumvention they endured. “I told God, ‘This isn’t going according to my plan! All my organization and planning is out the window. I.Am.Done’!”

Then, Dane had to go home.

He’d been there 3 weeks and used all the vacation he had.

“I was there another 4 and a half weeks by myself,” Meggan told me. “I was also in my third trimester of pregnancy. In Uganda by myself. Trying to finish everything and get Joyce and go home.”

Meggan and Joyce in Uganda (Image used courtesy of Meggan Love)

Trying to complete the adoption process was…in a word, arduous. At what was to be the last meeting – the exit interview with the U.S. Embassy – Meggan was questioned by the consulate. She was completely honest – even about the misinformation uncovered in Joyce’s file.

When it came time for Joyce’s parents to go before the Embassy consulate, they were not truthful. Their story contradicted Meggan’s. Somehow, they thought they were being helpful.

In the end, the adoption was denied since the information on both sides was incongruent.

“They told me that Joyce wasn’t going to be leaving with me. They denied her visa.” Meggan said somberly. Her shoulder slumped. She was there again, standing in that room with the consulate.

“I ugly-cried,” she looked straight at me, her eyes glistening. “In front of everybody in the Embassy. I was 7 months pregnant. I was worried about the baby because my emotions were all over the place. I was by myself. The trip had been hectic to begin with, and then they denied Joyce’s visa! I left that place bawling my eyes out. I asked God what in the world was going on! ‘I’m doing what you want and you’re still making me wait!’ I told Him. I was totally distraught,” she declared.

“I had to leave Joyce,” Meggan’s face was flat. “I tried to tell her that we’d come back for her, but she didn’t understand.”

It was late in the summer of 2013 as Meggan got back on a plane and came home. This time, she had a baby bump but no daughter.

Photo Credits: Pinterest

Meggan’s story concludes next week. God’s still working, so please join us again next week.

That Christmas Morning Feeling

December 29, 2017August 2, 2018 / hhooks / Leave a comment

Christmas is my favorite holiday! The food. The decorations. The tree. The lights. The get-togethers with family and friends. The church programs. The music!

Y’all! The music!

The whole season is just so bright and happy and jolly.

Merry and bright – The Hooks Home

Christmases were very merry and bright when I was little – I guess I couldn’t help but love them.

Christmas Eve at my grandmother’s house with 4 generations! I’ve spent all my 38 Christmas Eves at her house 🙂 Photo Credit: Tiffany Murdock Manley

But, the big draw, especially when I was little, was the presents and Santa Claus! Christmas morning – that was the goal the whole season long.

What was under the tree? What was in the stockings? What was wrapped in all those boxes? Who had the present in the biggest box? Who had the present in the heaviest box? Who had the present in the weirdest shaped box?

What was I going to get? Would I get everything I wanted? Would I get something awesome I hadn’t even asked for?

I do remember being disappointed on Christmas morning when I didn’t see a gift that had been on my list…despite all the other gifts I did receive.

I do remember feeling sad when the biggest or heaviest box went to someone else.

I do remember feeling the let-down when I realized there were no more gifts left to unwrap…even as I sat surrounded by all the new toys, games, clothes, or electronics I had already opened.

In my defense, I’m sure I wasn’t the only kid to experience this. Happens every December 25. I imagine many adults can relate to this feeling as well. I know I’ve spent more Christmases than I care to admit feeling sad about something related to the gift-giving part – even as a grown-up.

It definitely helped to have kids. Once we experienced Christmas with our own children, I more fully appreciated how it felt to give.

Christmas afternoon at my parent’s house now includes 2 sons-in-law and 4 grandchildren! Photo Credit: Tiffany Murdock Manley

Still, there was that empty feeling once all the gifts were opened.

Christmas.was.over.

There were 365 days until we’d do that all over again, until we’d have that…feeling.

A-ha! It was the feeling! That was it! That Christmas morning feeling! The anticipation. The eagerness. The excitement. THAT was what was so hard to let go. It had been building up for 24 days or more and once it was over…there was an emptiness. A quietness. A sadness. A let-down.

How do you make that last?

We tried spreading out the present-opening part. We’d open gifts with extended family later on Christmas day and eventually did some present opening the day after Christmas.

But, eventually there are no more gifts to open – no matter how long you extend it.

How do you make that Christmas-morning-feeling last?

The past few years, I’ve been praying about it, and God helped me see that I have to desire Jesus more than gifts. I have to want His presence more than I want presents.

That takes praying and being receptive to the changes God wants to make in my heart. It doesn’t mean I’ll stop liking presents or Christmas morning or my mom’s sausage balls or hearing Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas.” It just means I’ll realize Jesus is more valuable than those things.

It has helped me to do an Advent Bible study; I’ve done one the past two years. It helped me focus on the real reason I celebrate.

This year, before we started our Advent study, I prayed for God to give me a heart like Simeon and Anna (Luke 2: 25-38).

Photo Credit: Pinterest

I want the Holy Spirit to be upon me like it was upon Simeon, to guide and direct me into the presence of the Lord. I want to serve day and night as Anna did. She never left the temple and her reward was to see the Christ child.

To wait in eager anticipation like Simeon and Anna – that is what I want. To wait to see the promise of God fulfilled in Jesus. That is the excitement I want! That will give me the Christmas-morning-feeling all year ‘round.

I prayed for that this year from the first of December until Christmas, and I believe God answered that earnest prayer of His servant girl. Christmas was happy and bright and exciting for me this year. Opening presents was a jolly time, but I didn’t experience the degree of let-down that I sometimes do when the last piece of shredded gift wrapping paper is thrown in the trash. I was happy, but I was also calm…at peace. The value wasn’t in the gifts; it was in God’s promise. We know that He keeps the promises He makes with His people – the Bible is full of evidence for that. So this Christmas, I focused more on God‘s presence than on presents.

Of course, I will have to continue to pray for this daily, especially when next Christmas rolls around, but I know God will fill my heart with His Son if I ask him to do so.

My prayer this day and every day, for me and for you, is that God would give us hearts like Simeon and Anna.

Always eagerly waiting.

Always faithfully serving.

Always gratefully praising.

Until we see our Christ.

A Love Letter from God

December 22, 2017December 22, 2017 / hhooks / 2 Comments

Why? That’s the question I asked myself over and over when I was trying to “get right” with the Lord. Why did this happen to me? I was raised in church! I was saved when I was young! How did someone like me go so far as to not even believe in Jesus anymore?! Why did I have to go through this?

The short answer is – it happened to me so I could tell you.

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God gets glory through the lives of His children – when we surrender to Him. When we live for Him. When we obey Him even when what He’s asking is scary.

This happened to me – this time spent away from God and then coming back to Him again – so I could write to you and tell you. This happened so you could look at my life and see who I have been and what I have done and where I have gone…and see Jesus.

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This happened to me because it was the only way I was going to give Him control over my life. He knew me and what it was going to take for me to honestly come to Him…not just go to church because that’s how I was raised. He wanted me, but I had to want Him. He wanted a relationship, not the religious person I was when I was younger.

I believed with my head but He wanted my heart. My heart was more difficult to convict, but I am grateful for the journey. I wouldn’t have the relationship with Him I have now if it weren’t for this journey. I’d still be trudging along in legalism and good-girl church stuff.

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I wouldn’t have any idea how to talk with Him or listen to Him, and I certainly wouldn’t be telling you about Him.

But, here we are.

(If you just found this blog, please go back and start with the first post, June Cleaver? Who Me?, so all this makes sense).

Here’s some of what I’ve learned and what God wants me to share with you. (I have included some scripture references; however, the list isn’t exhaustive. It may not even be the best and most relevant reference, just one that I found while researching).

{WARNING: these will sound like the cliches you always hear Christians say. They did to me at one time, but they are real to me now that I have truly experienced Him}.

The presence of the Holy Spirit – the one God sends to live inside you when you believe in Him – will change you. You will not be the same. You cannot think the same or behave the same as you did before.
God is sovereign (Psalm 103:19, Psalm 115: 3, Romans 8:28). He wants us to surrender our lives to His sovereignty – TOTALLY. Simply acknowledging that He is real is not enough (James 2:19).
Take captive thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5) when they go against biblical truths. Guard your heart (Proverbs 4:23) against lies the world will tell you. Go to God when you think your thoughts are leading you astray. Go to God when you find that your heart is turning away from Him.
God wants us to trust our lives to Him. He was us to be obedient and follow where He leads (Psalm 37:5, Proverbs 3:5-6).

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Pray (Philippians 4:6). Talk to Him. Read your Bible (Philippians 4:6, 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Write what you’ve learned. Write what you feel. Write questions you have. This is journaling, and this is a way to have a conversation with God.
HE IS ALWAYS RIGHT THERE (Hebrews 13:5). He doesn’t move. He doesn’t go away. You may, but He doesn’t (Psalm 16:8). He is waiting right there for you to decide that you want Him. He wants you, and He wants you to want Him.
God speaks to me. God will speak to you. It may not be an audible voice you can actually hear with your ears, but once you learn to hear and understand His voice and how He speaks to you, you begin to realize that He speaks to you all the time in many different ways (John 10:27).

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God is persistent. He has a plan and a purpose for your life. He will continue to woo you in the direction He wants you to go (Proverbs 19:21).
God doesn’t need us to fix ourselves before we come to Him. We can’t anyway. We simply go to Him, give ourselves to Him, and then He does the fixing. If you are waiting until you’re “better” or “right” or “good” to go to Him, please stop right now. You’re wasting precious time. Just tell Him you want Him to take over your life. Tell Him you believe in Him and want Him as your Savior. He does the rest.
Obey – immediately! (James 4:17)

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Be still and be quiet (Psalm 46:10, Exodus 14:14). God doesn’t scream and shout and stomp His feet. If you aren’t still and quiet, you’ll miss what He has to say.
Turn towards God. That is what He wants – your permission to take control of your life.

My journey wasn’t in vain. I know this. God has shown me. It happened for me – to save me, and it happened for you – to save you. You need to know that God is right there. You need to know that whatever you did wasn’t so bad that He doesn’t want you. You need to know that you haven’t gotten too far away from Him. HE’S RIGHT THERE WITH YOU! HE LOVES YOU. HE WANTS YOU*.

Talk to Him. Read about Him. Write to Him. Ask trusted Christians about Him.

He’s got a journey to take you on, too.

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*I typed this post last night and then got up this morning to read “Day 21: He is Immanuel” in O Come Let Us Adore Him: A Study for Advent by Kristin Schumucker and Cara Cobble Trantham. The last few sentences seemed to echo what I described here, so I’d like to share them:

“Immanuel means ‘God with us.’ It is one of the most profound and mysterious names of our God. It displays His greatness and power as He is the almighty and eternal God. Yet it also displays His humility and love for us personally. He is the almighty God who has chosen to come and dwell with us…He came to dwell with us for us. Immanuel – God with us is an invitation to us. It is a reminder that we can come to Him because He has come to us. it is a reminder that this personal and glorious relationship was initiated by Him when He humbled Himself to be a baby in a manger. It is a reminder that no matter what lies ahead, He will never leave us. Our God is with us.”

How does God talk to you? How do you know His voice? How did you learn that it was Him? What has He shown you on your faith-journey with Him?

I Was The Prodigal

December 14, 2017May 22, 2020 / hhooks / 3 Comments

It was a gradual thing: me turning my back on God and deciding Jesus never existed. It was gradual, but it eventually held fast. My heart became stone.

Just as gradual was me turning BACK to God.

He had been working on me persistently since about 2005, and He really stepped it up when He called me to leave my full-time job to stay at home with our son. I obeyed; it was May 2010. Through a series of events, He kept wooing me closer – slowly but steadily. He had me in a group of Christian moms who met in a MOPS group sponsored by our church.

I was searching – this time for Jesus. I really wanted Him to be real to me again. When I read things in the Bible that He’d done, I wanted to KNOW for sure that those things had actually happened.

I wanted to KNOW that His feet had taken him to sit by the well where He talked with the woman from Samaria (John 4:4-26).

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I wanted to BELIEVE that He actually wore the cloak that the woman in the crowd touched. She’d been afflicted for nearly 12 years and had found no relief. However, she heard that Jesus was coming and believed that just touching His clothes would heal her of her affliction (Luke 8:43-48).

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I needed Him to be real again.

After about a year, the MOPS group dissolved into a Women’s Bible study. I moved on to that with some of the mom-friends I had from MOPS. I was very excited! I was ready to be pushed and challenged and really dig into the Word. It was time! God was stirring. He had been working on my stone heart; it was softer now and ready to be fed.

I dove head-first into the first Bible study, Living Your Life as a Beautiful Offering, by Angela Thomas. In this study, Thomas uses the Sermon on the Mount to show how to give our lives as an offering to God.

I prayed. I read the study and my Bible. I wrote in my journal – things I felt, prayers to God, and what I learned from reading the scripture.

God began to speak to me – through the study and through sermons at church. I had never been convicted by a sermon in my life!

Our preacher, Mike Whitson, talked one Sunday about how a Christian should show God’s love. We should love other people simply because they are God’s child, not because they are lovable. I realized I didn’t love people unless I wanted to. During the invitation, the preacher called for people to come to the altar, and I practically RAN down there! It was one of the few times in my life that I have voluntarily gone to the altar. I begged God to help me love people because I didn’t. I asked Him to break my heart and make me love people the way He did.

About the same time, Preacher Mike gave another sermon about the Christian life producing fruit because of the Christian’s relationship with God. I didn’t have anything like that in my life. I could say I was saved when I was 12, but now I was in my mid-30’s and had nothing to show for it.

Those two sermons convicted me. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more. I asked God to break me. I asked Him to help me to love people like He did. I begged Him to help me believe in His Son again.

And, all of a sudden, He DID! Jesus was there, and He was REAL! The process God used to get me to that point was gradual, but He was working on me and softening my heart. When I finally realized it, it seemed like everything was just…“POOF”…fixed…after praying and begging and reading and journaling.

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HE WAS REAL AGAIN!

When I read things in the Bible that He’d done and said I saw them and heard them and believed them.

The Angela Thomas study showed me that I’d done a crucial thing – I had turned back towards Jesus. That’s all He’d been waiting for. He was waiting for me to ask. He was waiting for me to give Him permission to take over my life and heart. I didn’t need to do anything to fix myself or make myself believe in Jesus again…except turn my face back towards Him. He did the rest.

Thomas used the story of the prodigal son to illustrate this concept. She described how the prodigal realized the error of his ways and set out for home to ask his father’s forgiveness and try to ask him for a job. The story says, however, that when the father saw the son, way off in the distance, coming back toward home, the father RAN to meet the son. The father was so excited that his wayward child was coming home that he didn’t wait on his child to get to him…he RAN out to meet his son.

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Thomas explained that this is how it is with God – you simply have to turn towards Him and He will run to you. This is exactly what happened to me. He saw me turn towards Him. He knew my heart, that I wanted Him, and HE RAN TO ME!

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Praise the Lord!

He healed my damaged mind.

He softened my heart to allow Himself back in…and I believe!

I KNOW!

Hallelujah!

Have you ever been a prodigal child? From God or from your family? What made you turn back towards home?

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Fixing Me Was God’s Job

December 8, 2017September 7, 2018 / hhooks / 5 Comments

God can use any time, place, or circumstance He wants to use to get through to you. He can speak to you in the most unlikely of places and in the craziest of ways. When I was 31, after spending more than 10 years ignoring God’s voice (and at times even denying that Jesus existed), I actually obeyed God’s calling and left my full-time job to be a work-from-home-mom and be with my then-16-month-old son.

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At first, I tried to fix myself.

I remember reading a book or two I thought would help me believe in Jesus again. At this point, I really wanted to believe in Him but couldn’t fathom ever being able to again. I did pray sometimes and ask God to help me.

I was so used to scholarly-type study from 6 years of higher education that I thought maybe I could study my way back to believing in Jesus.

I got a Bible commentary to read what scholars said about the Bible hoping that some smart person’s “proof” would sway me. I read the book of James because I heard someone say it was a good idea for new Christians to start with that book when reading the Bible.

God led me to meet some Christian moms from our church and our area, and I started going to MOPS – Mothers of PreSchoolers – at our church with them in the fall of 2011.

I began to feel God more. It was slow, but it was there. I knew my worldview was made-up, but I still didn’t want to submit it to God.

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I was working hard to fix myself before I went back to the Lord. I thought He wanted me fixed before He would take me back. {Spoiler alert} That’s where I was wrong. Fixing me was God’s job. Fixing YOU is God’s job. He doesn’t require us to come to Him already perfect. {Hint} If you wait until you’re perfect before you go to God, you’ll never go to Him. If God waited to save us until we were perfect, He’d never have anyone to save!

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What is the craziest thing God has ever asked you to do? How did He achieve this thing through your obedience?