Summer is for Camping!

Can I just say that I LOVE camping!! I am convinced that I could live in a travel trailer or a motor-home for the rest of my life! I haven't been able to convince Michael that this should be our retirement yet, but I am not giving up!

This year the kids and I did our fair share of camping and it was wonderful. Michael joined us when he could, and spent a lot of time this summer commuting.We did two longer trips and a long weekend. Our trip to Noisy was first and then we did a few trips to a private campground about 5 minutes from our place with my sisters.

My favourite place to camp is always Noisy Creek. We had a lot of fun again this year and enjoyed our time with friends and our family. It was a little harder this year planning and getting ready knowing Michael wasn't going to be able to take the time off again. I am not sure what it was that made it harder, maybe having done it a year or maybe just because it seemed to be the new norm and I don't really like that, but for whatever reason I was a little grumpier about it. Once we got up there though and were set up, we began to have as much fun as usual. We had lots of friends around this year and it is always nice to have some time to just hang out and get to know people a little better around the campfire. We had beautiful weather and spent a lot of time on the beach. It was absolute bliss, reading and relaxing as well as swimming and boating. We even managed to get in a beautiful hike this year.

 

I LOVE this silly man! When he would arrive around dinner time or for the weekend, the whole campground knew how much he was loved! The truck would drive in and all you could hear was "daddy's here" squealed throughout the campsite.  Some nights I would try and trick the kids into being busy during the time I was sure Michael would be pulling in so that I could get to him first, but, that noisy truck he drove always gave it away :)

 Is there any wonder why this is my favourite place? This is how we did breakfast every morning. On the beach in awe of God's creation. It was breath taking every morning!

 Swimmer's itch was big this summer, it was there bad for a few days, and then disappeared for a few. I have no idea why, but after the first couple days of being really bad we were all safe for the rest of the trip. Bella got it the worst, I have never seen such a speckled child, and she was such a trooper too!

 

 The kids always found other kids to play with around the campground. They spent a lot of time with the wild life. Fishing, catching lizards, petting snakes, and even looking after a mother mouse and her babies.

 This year, we did the hike to the lookout for the first time as a family. It was awesome! I was so proud of the kids. They wanted to do it so badly and every single one of them made it to the top on their own steam. Mason hitched a ride for the way down but the rest had to walk. Looking forward to doing it again next summer :)

Our last day of camping picture. Always a sad day when it's time to go home. I am never ready for reality to set in and a full house to clean!


Whenever we camp at Bruce and Linda's the kids always have a ton of fun! They get to run around, hunt for frogs, fish, and Linda invites them over for craft time. This year the girls managed to make tye-dyed shirts, necklaces, and masks. There were a lot of frogs caught again this year, and we even had a guest fall in the frog pond! It is luxary camping there, we have power, water, and lots of grass so the kids don't even get dirty. It was lots of fun having the extended family all together. The cousins had so much fun playing together and of course we had to take a ton of pictures of them all in the hopes to get at least one good shot of 12 in a flower bed, haha. Being close to town also meant lots of visitors. It was so nice to have people stop in for a few hours or a meal. The kids always played nicely and it was a great way to catch up with people that we didn't see much over the summer.

All the cousins together for a few nights at the campground. It was like living in a whirlwind but a ton of fun! The kids all had a blast hanging out together and enjoying the sunny weather!

Catching huge suckers was a huge part of the family entertainment! The kids could spend hours down on the dock, and were always saving bits of lunch or supper for bait. Since this trip I have even had Mason try to convince me that he didn't have to eat his crust at home cuz he was saving it for bait, lol.

Rainy day movie on the lap top! A nice perk of camping with power and water, it was like a luxury resort in comparison to what we are used to!

This was the pond muskrat. The kids spent hours trying to trap him/her in a live trap or spot it. According to the kids there was also a couple babies floating around the pond.

One of the big a family feed sessions! It was all about feeding the kids first and then having a nice quiet meal while they ran around trying to catch frogs.

Mason was always Michael's little helper setting up the campsite. He loved winding up and putting down the jacks. The one trip Michael had gone a head of the kids and I to set up Mason was devastated when he arrived and realized he didn't get to help put the jacks down!

Emmersen got stung in the face three times by a wasp, once on the nose and twice in the eyebrow. I must admit it was a little hard not to chuckle when we looked at her :)

Like I said, there was lots of fishing. At one point the kids and Uncle Daniel caught two fish in one cast! It was pretty impressive!

When grief, frustration, and stories like Hannah Anderson's keep you up at night...

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This morning I woke up, earlier then normal, before the sun, before kids, when the world is still quiet and the air still cool. I found that at this time, in the stillness my mind wanders, it travels paths I don’t usually allow it to, and I don’t block it, there’s no kids crying, there’s no one needing breakfast, and so I am free to follow the stream of my thoughts. It is in these moments where faith and trust can waiver, can seem a little shaky. This morning I found myself asking, where are you God? Where are you in the hurts and the cries of this world. Where are you when the mother is screaming, when the widow is crying, when the orphan is reeling?

Truthfully,  It started last night, overwhelmed by the news of another Amber Alert in the states,   I couldn’t help ponder life, waiting for sleep to come, wondering how it is that I pray for sleep, milking to go well, the details of the day, and somewhere there’s a dad, he’s crying out, for the one he has left in the world, crying for the return of his little girl, begging a friend, a man he trusted,  to return her, asking for his mercy as he mourns the loss of his wife and son, daring to hold onto hope that the one he has left will come home safe.

How does this fit? How do I get to kiss my kids goodnight, lose my patience over spilled milk, hustle them through life, and mothers all over the world are in agony, they rise during the night, their hearts pouring out like water begging for mercy, asking God to step in, to heal, to return, to save (Lamentations 2:10). How does one comprehend how God’s plan is good in these moments, how do you feel him near? How do you not stand, throw your fists to the ski and cry out, where are you God? 

I walk through these moments, trying to process these sorrows and continue to argue and fight with God about how things could be different, how if these miracles could happen, that this girl could be returned, or life restored to the mother’s child, that his glory would be proclaimed, that the world would have to open their eyes and see, that people could no longer deny the intervention of a Holy God. I plead that he do it my way, that he answer the prayers of the broken, and I know his answer. I feel it come over me, the familiar whisper, TRUST.

Peace does not come in understanding, it’s been the mantra running through my heart, through my soul, my thoughts these last two years. I have felt it, I have read it, I have had godly people say it to me, and yet I fight it. I keep telling God I need understanding, and he keeps bringing me back to the fact that peace is in trusting Him, it’s not found in understanding His plans, the world, not in the answers to the why God? Why her? Why me? Why so much pain? Peace comes in trusting “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7,8. And there, in the reading, He gets me, He has put in his book, just for me, the perfect words for me to read, in these moments.  It is through nature, I best understand, feel, and recognize him. When I look at creation, and His word picture, it fits me, I long to be that tree on the riverbank. Perhaps that is why I love where I live so much, the visual reminder of what it looks like to be a tree with roots deep into the soil on the banks of the river. To be well watered, to see the fruit produced, in spite of the hard seasons. 

And so I sit, for the moment feeling the need to be content to trust, to stop fighting to understand and to instead just rest in his overwhelming presence. In this I choose to believe that he is not the indifferent uninvolved God that I am painting in my mind, I won’t believe these lies or allow them to hold me captive in my grief. That when the psalmist says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book,” (Psalm 56:8) it shows that His heart breaks with mine, and all those who are broken and hurting. That He loves, and loves eternally (regardless of how those of us who follow Him fail to live it, how we may distort words, instead of showing the world the only love that completes, but His love never fails), that He feels each wound and scar we feel, that He is involved, and He is moving, working to bring the ultimate peace…and I read on, and again He speaks to me…”Tears of joy will stream down their faces, and I will lead them home with great care. They will walk beside quiet streams and on smooth paths where they will not stumble. Their life will be like a watered garden and their sorrows will be gone. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.” Jeremiah 31:9, 12b, 13b.

And finally, I find peace in this, that there will be a day, that for now my questions will be unanswered, and there will be pain and mother’s (and father’s) that bury children, spouses who become widow’s too young, and sons and daughters orphaned, that I will not understand but that there will be a day with no more sorrows that “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelations 21:4

Bella is 5!

Special date night with Daddy!

It seems so bizarre to think that our little Bella is 5 already! It seems so crazy to think that our baby girl will go to kindergarten this year. As much as it seemed too fast when Cheyanne went to kindergarten it seems even more unbelievable that Bella is going this year. I don't know how time keeps going so fast or why I am still continually surprised at the fact that time goes so fast. You would think that by know I would be used to it, but for whatever reason I just can't seem to accept the fact. I find that each birthday one of my children has is a reminder to slow down and appreciate that little one right where they are at. In every day life it can be so easy to hurry them, tell them they should be able to do this or that on their own by now, groan about having to help with putting on socks or pouring the milk, but really I don't want them to grow up any faster. I find this to be especially true with Bella. Sometimes she talks too much and doesn't get supper done on time, or starts dancing and giggling instead of getting dressed, or breaks out in song when she's supposed to be quiet. She's a little slower at getting her own socks on and turning her clothes right side out, and she almost always forgets what she's supposed to be doing. I can find this frustrating and loose patience with her, but this year I am realizing that she is growing up, and faster then I want her too. I am pretty sure she will be my girl that is a sweet little five year old and the next day a sixteen year old young lady, so I have decided that I really need to appreciate her where she's at instead of hurrying her towards independence. That's the goal I am setting for myself this year, we'll see how it goes, but I am going to try and enjoy every moment of her innocent giggles and constant chatter.

Bella brings so much laughter in our house. Sometimes it's because she's trying to be funny, other times we can't help but laugh at her perception of life, her way of phrasing her thoughts and her quick wit. She uses words that are way too big for her age, and most of the time uses them correctly, when she doesn't it usually comes out in a goofy sorta makes sense way. Bella NEVER stops talking, EVER! She can't help herself, it's like the words are just bursting out of her and she can't contain them. She also needs to know everything that's going on, what I am doing, what's for dinner, when? what? why, why, why? Often it's so exasperating but, again, I keep trying to remind myself, that one day she might be a teenager who keeps her thoughts to herself, who doesn't tell us every passing thought, and so I am trying to enjoy this too. I would rather her be asking us her questions then trying to sort life out through the lens of her peers.

She is such a little doll and all girl. She has this adorable head tilted grin and a glint in her big blue eyes that helps her get a way with just a little more then her sisters do. She has a way of giggling after an order or doing something wrong that somehow gets her out of trouble, especially with Daddy! There is no tom-boy in her, she loves to go to the barn, but even there fashion matters. She loves to wear dresses, carry purses, and pick out fancy shoes. Lip gloss and hair accessories are also essential to completing her look.

Bella's birthday this year couldn't have come at a busier time. Spring, and June especially was nuts for us. It seemed like the year long activities and the start of summer activities merged to make one crazy schedule, combined with one of the craziest times of the year for my job I felt like I was going crazy. I was quite relieved when she just wanted to go to the barn for her birthday, and didn't mention having friends over. She was so excited to choose her birthday meal, open her gift from us, and be the "special" girl for the day. On the weekend we continued the party by combining our once a year Wyat side of the Olund family BBQ with Bella and Dexter's family party. It was a good week with lots of partying for Bella, she even got to celebrate with her swim class. :)

Bella's Birthday Menu:

BREAKFAST

~Swedish Pancakes (crepes) with strawberries and whip cream

LUNCH

~Pink Mini Wheats

SUPPER

~Corn on the cob (I added smokies and potatoes)

 

Birthday Breakfast with lots of violet decorations.

Opening her gift from Mom and Dad, a piggy bank, her response, "It's what I have been wanting my whole life!"

 

IT may have been pouring rain, but she was still going to the barn with Daddy. And she was very clear that Mason was not invited! 

 

Ready to practice being a vet!

Collecting the eggs.

Playing scarecrow to look after Daddy's corn!

Later in the day Grandma and Grandpa Olund brought their gift out, new clothes, and she loved the sparkly newsboy hat, straight from Vegas!

Lunch, perfectly simple :)

She was pretty pumped about that corn, haha.

We waited all afternoon to see if Bella would get a bonus little birthday gift, but, baby Pyper decided to arrive 10seconds too late to be Bella's little birthday buddy arriving at 12:00:10, lol.

It was one hot day for a BBQ, so the sprinkler had been out! Happy Birthday to the cousin twins, who have grown up so much!

Our birthday interview, thanks to Ladybugs n' Latte's for the idea!

Favourite Colour:?Violet

Favourite Food? Pancakes

Favourite Show? Sofia the First

Favourite Book? Rapunzel

Favourite Toy? Techna (a fairy from McDonalds)

Favourite Song?  (Taylor Swift)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Artist

What are you good at? colouring pictures

What are you excited about? going camping

What are your favourite memories from being four? getting to go to school to do stuff (meet the kindergarten class). Cross Country skiing.

What is your favourite memory verse this year (edited to what have you learned about God)? That you can always pray to him.

What is one thing you would like to say to the whole world if you had the chance? That you should always pray to God. And I love them.

Spring Was Busy!

Spring was absolutely nuts this year!! We were so busy that whenever we had a day or evening without plans I was panicked that I was forgetting something. Somehow I figured homeschooling would bring us a slower pace of life, but it didn't seem to workout that way for us this year, well except that we definitely enjoyed slower paced mornings then if we were trying to catch the bus! Somehow we ended up a little over scheduled, and yet we managed to have so much fun as a family. Spring is a crazy time on the farm too and Michael is so busy and his brain is always on overdrive trying to figure out when to plant, when to cut, when to put the cows out, etc. I think he finds the thinking part of farming far more draining then the early mornings and hard physical labour. It is springs like this though, that remind me how blessed I am to be married to such an amazing man. He has such a balanced approach to life, and to farming. I love that he farms to live, instead of living to farm. He never missed a parent watch day at gymnastics, a music recital, or a WildSole's run. He made it out to most of the kids' ball practices to help the coaches, watched swimming lessons, and many of our other activities. I definitely feel blessed to be married to a man with such a balanced perspective to life!

We went to EnergyPlex for the first time on our impromptu family vacation. The kids had a blast and loved getting their face painted. Mason was so tuckered out that he almost fell asleep while the lady was painting his face. The older girls both tried the climbing wall and the big jungle gym was a huge hit.

Michael had a worship conference in Kelowna that went late and started early so we decided to make a fun family weekend of it! Nothing more precious then sleeping children :)

It has been an almost annual tradition for us since we were first married to attend the Good Friday Hike with Ashton Creek church. I love that we have been able to carry on this tradition with our family! Next year we might even manage to do it without a stroller!

Salmon Arm has an amazing lady and her team who organize family trail runs called WildSoles. They take place on four different beautiful trails around the Salmon Arm area. They were so much fun! I was especially proud of little Bella who made it the whole 2k without whinning or needing a piggy back. The older girls did amazing too and managed to run the majority of most of the races. Mason was also a little trooper, some of those runs were steep! He did get a piggy back along the way though. Bella won door prizes at three out of the four races much to her sister's frustration, and Cheyanne won pizza one night!

I had so much fun at the trail runs, but there were so many people that I decided to buy us team uniforms, lol. blue shorts and neon yellow/greenish shirts. I might be a dork, but it was still a lot of fun! We even inspired a few other families to dress to match, haha.

I participated in the Run Walk and Cycle 10k this year for Gardom Lake and they had all kinds of family activities for the kids. The big girls loved the climbing wall, and did great!

Not sure why, but I decided our family needed to add to the craziness, so we adopted a puppy :) And true to our family history, she too was named after a Disney Princess. Jasmin has been such a great little puppy, she has fit right in with our kind of crazy!

We ordered butterfly larvae and raised our own little butterfly world. The kids loved watching the transformation from larvae to Chrysalis, to butterflies. This was release day!

 

The girls loved doing gymnastics this year. They really improved a lot over the year, although some of them still need some work on their cartwheel, starting to wonder if maybe one or two take after aunty Renee ;) hahaha

I was trying to take a nice picture of the girls, but our little ham could not resist joining in.

Cheyanne has really improved in her violin this year. I am amazed at her ability to pick it up so well. Emmersen has also done really well. She is loving her lessons and learning to focus and play. She has a great rhythm and her timing is always bang on in her songs.

We had our first trip to the ER this spring as well. Actually, having had kids for 8 years I am surprised this was our first ER trip! Emmersen was looking down and walked into a bike rack that was on the back of a car. She hit it hard enough that it knocked her off her feet and cut her right to the scalp. She was such a trooper though, no panic and no tears when the doctor stitched her up. Luckily it came on the same day baby Pyper was born so we got to sneak in and visit the baby at the same time.

Swimming lessons added to our crazyness as it started before all of the other spring activities were finished and it was everyday for two weeks. They all did great and swam in all kinds of crazy weather! It was a cold lesson set and not a lot of fun to watch but the kids loved every minute of it.

Last day of swimming lessons was superhero day!

Emme did her first night at camp with her friend Elianna. It sounds like she had a ton of fun and really wants to go back! She was so excited when I picked her up she couldn't stop talking about all that she did.

...and somewhere, in all the craziness, we fit in a little school work :)

Ladies Spring Tea Talk ~ SHAPE ~

I want to start today by reading one of my favourite passages of scripture. I chose this passage because I think we as women can often get into a cycle of discontentment with who we are, comparing ourselves to those around us and forgetting how precious we are to God. I want to use this scripture to set the context for the rest of my talk. Most of you have heard this many times, for some it may be new, but I really want you to meditate on the words, picture the scene where God is creating you, planning for you, and finding joy in you.

New Living Translation (NLT) Psalm 139:13-18

¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
¹⁶ You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me,^[a] O God.
    They cannot be numbered!
¹⁸ I can’t even count them;  they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,  you are still with me! 

How many of you knit, or have watched someone knit? There’s a method, there’s a pattern, a design that is followed. Each stitch is important and planned carefully. Each stitch is a part of shaping and designing, and molding the wool into what it will become, to serve the purpose of the creator. Similarily with us, God didn’t just randomly stick attributes, circumstances, and features in a bag, shake it up and see what would come out. He carefully planned for us, each circumstance, what family we were placed in, our personality, our gifts, were planned and put into place to enable us to serve our purpose, the one he had planned for us before we were born. We may at times look at ourselves or others around us the way we look at  And though we might look at ourselves or others and wonder why God did this or allowed that we know that he plans all things for the good of those who love him. 

 That verse also tells us we are loved. (Personal Story: When Michael and I started dating) When a holy God’s thoughts of you cannot be numbered, that’s love! To be loved by God means you are valued. Isaiah 49:16 says I have written your name on the palms of my hands. He gave his son for us, that we may be forgiven, redeemed, and saved for a purpose.

That means ladies, that you are WORTHY. That God can and will use you. That you don’t have to wait until you have it all together, that God will take you right where you are, weaknesses and all, and accomplish his purposes with you.

So, let that set the premise for what I really want to focus on and that is the intentionality of God in his design for each of our lives. And how we need to find contentment with how we were created, and work with in that to serve God’s purposes.

As I was looking into this I came across an acronym that I felt was the perfect word to use for a reminder to women that we are who we are because God planned it that way.

What is the one thing women tend to be least content with themselves about?....It is how we look, our “SHAPE” We’re too plump, too thin, too tall, too awkward, our eyes are too close together, our hair’s gone grey, our teeth are crooked....etc.etc. Millions of dollars are spent every year on the beauty industry, and why? because we want to change who we are, and how we look.

I want to use the word SHAPE  to remind us to be content with God’s creation, and with who he deisgned us to be, and to not only stay at a place of contentment but to come to a place where we praise him for who we are

 

S- S is for Spiritual Gifts: God has given each of us different spiritual gifts. At different seasons of our lives we may notice that different gifts seem to stand out more then others, or our spiritual giftings may change and develop over time as our walk with Christ deepens and is strengthened. These gifts are not simply meant for us to receive and hoard, but they are meant for us to bless others with, to serve and to give these strengths to those around us. In 1 Corinthians 12:7 Paul says “ A spiritual gift is given that we may help each other” and in verse 11 he goes on to say that “He alone [God] decides which gift each person should have,” Therefore we shouldn’t be looking to the lady beside us in envy of her spiritual gifting. If we spend our time bemoaning the spiritual gifts we don’t have, we miss out on using the ones God has chosen for us. We need to figure out our spiritual gifting, work on strengthening, and preparing them so that we are ready to use them to serve and help others for His glory when he calls us to it.

 So, S- spiritual gifts.

H- Heart, Proverbs 27:19 says “as water reflects a face so a heart reflects the real person.” Our heart , what is that, what does it mean to have heart? What does it mean to say our heart reflects us? Heart can be described as “who we are” deep inside. What is it that hurts us? It’s how we respond in certain situations, it’s our passions, our dreams, and these desires and responses are placed there by a God who wants us to serve a purpose. God gave us our passions, and he will call us to use these,  which can lead to seasons of joy and fun within our ministry, but at times he will also chose to push into areas that we dislike, or we feel we are weak at calling us to release our heart and our gifting to him, allowing him to direct us on how to use these gifting. In this way, we will experience stretching and growing times, but we will also see God do things with us we could never have imagined as possible. (Personal Story: My Experiecnes in God calling me to what I like and don’t like) Having experienced God using me in both ways has lead me to believe that  When Paul says, “ I serve with all my heart” in Romans 1:9—it means I will passionately serve God in my interests, in my loves, and I will passionately serve God when he calls me into the ministry I don’t like or, in ways couldn’t have imagined being used. God has given us our heart he has created us with passions that will be different then the women around us and that’s okay. Instead of trying to rewire our hearts to make us like the women we admire, we should instead spend time, reflecting on what it is we love, what it is that moves us, what it is that hurts us, what it is that angers us, and take these to God, asking for direction in where he wants to use these attributes.

S-spiritual gifts, H-heart, A is for abilities.

For many of us, this might just be the hardest letter to be content with. I know, I can look at a friend and think, man I wish I could paint like her, or I‘ll listen to another friend play the piano and sing, and find myself envying her musical talents, oh if I could just sing half decently on key, (Personal Story: and trust me, I don’t have that talent, I know you musical people say anyone can learn to sing, but trust me, I can’t, Michael has tried to teach me, and after years of marriage has resigned himself to chuckle at the fact that I just don’t hear it, and given up) these are not my talents, God has given me other abilities that come more easily to me. I can choose to complain about what God has not given me the ability to do, or I can take the talents he has given me and I need to be aware of what they are and work on them, preparing myself for his calling, that I may use them to bring glory to God. In Romans 12 Paul says “In his grace God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well” he goes on to say “whatever ability he has given you use it to enthusiastically serve the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul uses the picture of the body, how each part is important, that no part is less valuable then another and that if one part, for instance the mouth, wants to do another part’s job, say the ears job, not only would the mouth’s job not be getting done, but the job it was trying to do, hearing, wouldn’t be done well either because the mouth wasn’t given the ability to hear. God has given you your abilities for his purposes and for you to use, it is our job to respond,  give thanks for these abilities, and use them.

S-spiritual gifts, H-heart, A-Abilities, and P- is our personality

Our personality can be somewhat linked with our heart and with our abilities, in that it is a part of how God has gifted us. Our personality is the little quirks that make us different from our peers. Some are funny, some are serious, others are laid back, gracious, kind, servant hearted, organized, like to take charge etc. I find that as women we tend to respond in two ways to other women’s personalities, we either judge that person because their personality just rubs us wrong, or we put them on a pedestal, wishing we could be more like her. Neither of these responses is healthy. Both lead to discontent in our hearts, one will cause us to try and change people or can lead us to a false sense of pride where  we can say, well I may not be perfect, but at least I am not like her. The other response creates an idol, it creates insecurity and instead of being content with who we are, we try and change. Often we will alter our personalities so much that we lose sight of who we are, we try to act like them, dress like them, adopt their quirks, but this doesn’t work. Instead of bettering ourselves, we become phony and people can’t relate to us because we aren’t living authentically. We hinder our relationships with others because people see through the act and instead of being able to serve them we put distance between us. When we can’t be real we become untrustworthy. (Personal Story: changing to fit in) So as Paul says, “If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously, if it is to lead, do it diligently, if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Do you notices all the “gifts” Paul mentions are words we use to describe someone’s personality? When someone says, what is Renee like, they would say “she’s serving, kind, generous etc. These gifts mentioned are our personalities, they are who we are.  We need all personalities to accomplish God’s plan for this world. Accepting our personality, doesn’t mean that we don’t work on it, each personality comes with flaws and weaknesses that we need to be aware of and bring to God to mold and shape, however, improving our personality is different than trying to change our personality. When we try to change who we are it is like we are telling God that we could have created ourselves better than he did. When we work to accept the personality we are given, and allow God to work on the weaknesses it is like a jeweler, taking an old tarnished necklace, and cleaning it up, removing the years of damage, to restore the necklace to the beauty it was created for. When we allow God to do this we come out a beautiful creation that he can use.

S-spiritual gifts, H-heart, A-Abilities, P-Personality, and the final letter is E-experiences.

Our experiences, where we grew up, who our parents were, what happened in high school, who we married, and all the other bumps along the way were part of shaping who you are today. Our experience  are just that, Ours. They are personal, they are private, and they can be emotional. Often we want to keep our experiences to ourselves; we feel it is our right, that they belong to us. But, God, he has another plan. You see, before you were born, he wrote your days in a book, every moment was laid out, all your experiences recorded, and God doesn’t plan for anything to go to waste. He has designed your experiences to be used to bring him glory, and to serve. Even our most painful experiences are given that we might serve others. In 2 Corinthians 1:4 it says “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others when they are troubled. We will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us, so the experiences we have in this life, the painful, the happy, the mundane, they are all given to enable us to serve the purpose we were created for.  We may feel that our testimony is too dull, or our past is too messy, or we’ve made too many mistakes for God to use us, especially when we compare ourselves with the women around us, but look at the women that are mentioned in the genealogy of Christ: Tamar, a widow willing to do what it took to stand up for what was her right,  Rahab, a prostitute, Ruth, a foreigner , one raised to worship an evil pagan god but chose to love the God of Israel, and was faithful,  Bethsheba, an adulteress, and Mary, a simple small town girl who loved God. Even in the lineage of Jesus we can see that no one is beyond redemption, and no one’s experiences are too dull or to messy to be used by God to serve mind boggling purposes.

So, there we have it, our SHAPE. We need to know our SHAPE, learn to be content with our SHAPE, to embrace our SHAPE, and to love the SHAPE God has given us. We need to use our SHAPE to serve others and bring God glory.   Our SHAPE, spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences, are all meant to serve a purpose and to accomplish kingdom work, the unique purpose we were created for in a way that no one else was. Our SHAPE is really about you and me, about loving, serving, and doing life with one another, not comparing, envying or tearing each other down . And so, when you start to compare yourself to the women around you, when you find it hard to be content in who you are or  you start to believe the lies that you aren’t good enough, you aren’t valuable, you aren’t loved I wasn’t you to remember

 “[You] are God’s masterpiece. He has created [you] anew in Christ Jesus, so [you] can do the good thing he planned for [you] long ago.” Ephesians 2:10