Tag: Coffee

Choose to Show Up

Published on by BrandiLeave a comment

I sit down with my coffee and my Bible. I get settled in and open my journal and my Bible. I hear stirring from the baby monitor. The baby woke up. Again. 

Sound familiar?

In high school I used to spend long stretches of time reading my Bible. In college, my workload got more intense, and I didn’t have as much time to spend in the Word. At the time I didn’t understand that different seasons of life mean that our time in the Word may look different. Instead, I felt guilty and would often go through long periods of not reading my Bible at all because I thought if I couldn’t spend the time that I was used to spending then I shouldn’t spend any time at all – I was wrong, by the way.

It’s so easy to get frustrated when different seasons of life make your “quiet times” with the Lord look different. It’s easy to just not show up. Something to remember, however, is that God values faithfulness. He honors when we choose to show up, whether we have an hour or just ten minutes. I believe time spent with God is never time wasted. God can bring fruitfulness out of both situations, even if we don’t necessarily see the fruitfulness right away.

So I take a drink of my coffee, set my Bible and journal aside temporarily, and go get my sweet baby. My quiet time is different than it used to be, but that’s okay. Seasons of uninterrupted time in the Word are beautiful, but so is this season.

There will be times as my daughter gets older when I wake up early to spend time with the Lord and the little pitter-patter of feet come down the stairs before they are supposed to, and that’s okay. Maybe I’ll pull her onto my lap and we can read together. Or maybe I will take a break to make her breakfast and then resume – maybe ten minutes later, maybe two hours later. But what I won’t do is get frustrated. I want my children to see their mama meeting with God regularly, and that may mean my quiet times looking much different than they did when I was fifteen. And that’s perfectly okay.

Friends, be willing to meet God where you are, no matter the season. Seek His face no matter what, and remember that your time with God is never wasted. 

With love, 

Photo credit: 

unsplash-logoAaron Burden
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March 2016

Published on by BrandiLeave a comment

Apparently it’s the last day of March!

This month has been a roller coaster of sorts, but looking back, every low point led to me realizing how much I need God and how amazing He is.  There have been battles faced and there have been times of spiritual rejuvenation.  A lot of caffeine has been consumed. An appreciation for concealer has been formed for its ability to lessen the appearance of dark circles. I got bangs.  I still am terrible at knowing what day of the week it is.  I smashed my knee into a pew at Chapel. I finished my first journal.  I’ve developed the “allergies”. I’ve read a lot of books.   I have a month of school left and then I’m halfway done with my BA degree.  I made dinner – twice!  I’ve practically learned the layout of the new Walmart Market (a.k.a. The Baby Walmart).  I learned that my sister is Batman. Easter was EPIC.

1/4 of 2016 down, 3/4 to go! I’m ready for adventure!

Photo Credit: Claire Satera

Coffee

Published on by Brandi2 Comments

Coffee and I have always had a strange relationship.  For years I detested coffee: the smell, the taste, the very existence of the substance.  Then one day I tried coffee again but prepared a different way and absolutely loved it.  My thought at the time was something along the lines of: OH MY GOODNESS THIS STUFF IS WONDERFUL IT MAKES ME FEEL AMAZING I WANT TO DRINK IT SEVEN TIMES A DAY IF YOU BUY ME COFFEE I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER.  See, I love coffee, but sometimes I randomly stop drinking it because I’m too lazy to make it or I don’t feel like buying creamer or some other reason.  Then one day I’ll have coffee again and remember how much I love coffee and how ridiculous it is that I let stupid little excuses get in my way of drinking my beloved coffee.  And the cycle goes on and on.

Then one night last week I was lying in bed when I had an epiphany.  Are you ready for the spiritual analogy?

My relationship with coffee is like our relationship with God.

We spend part of our lives avoiding God, not knowing who He is, running from Him, running from the hypocrisy of “Christians,” etc.  Then one day we have a real encounter with Him and we can’t believe we went our lives without Him as a part of it.  Then we get lazy or we procrastinate or life gets in the way and we forget about God or we put Him on the back burner.  Then we encounter Him again and remember how amazing He is and how much He loves us and we realize how ridiculous this cycle is.

So why do we continue to do it?  I guess because we’re human and we are flawed.  But the beautiful thing is, no matter how many times we let our relationship with God slide, He is always right there waiting for us with open arms.  That’s amazing. Even more amazing than coffee (though I do thank God quite often for coffee).

So now when I drink my coffee in the morning it does more than just wake me up, it reminds me of how amazing our God is.

Photo Credit: Dan Gold