uptomytoes

Category: Love

  • When You Just Want to Hide the Hard

    This past weekend I planted 7 large bushes. Digging the holes ‘bout killed me. I was determined to get through all the roots, rocks, and clay. I jumped on that shovel like my life depended on it. Wrestled those shrubs out of their buckets and into my hard-fought holes. Filled back in the edges with…

  • Be Who You Already Are

    I was sharing with a dear friend some hard things that were happening and she texted me this, “God will provide abundantly and be your Bridegroom. He is King. Be His beloved.” Gentle but powerful words that went straight to my heart.  In those words I heard, “Be who you already are.”  I am Beloved.…

  • Fidgety

    On a recent afternoon, my youngest daughter and I took a walk by the river (above picture). It was beautifully serene and peaceful. My chest ached with a longing to be that peaceful…to be quiet inside. I shared with my daughter how I longed to feel the way the water looked. She said, “Momma, why…

  • A Common Theme

    Around 9 years ago I became a single parent to my five beautiful children.  About the same time, I started writing.  Although I’ve always been a writer in my own way – journaling, making notes, jotting down thoughts here and there. As a teenager, I even wrote a few poems although those might never see…

  • Held By The Word

    Ever have that one song that speaks profoundly to your heart?  You turn it up louder the moment you hear the first chords on the radio.  You google it, play it at full volume, close your eyes, and lift your arms, either in praise or surrender to God.  You work out chords in an effort…

  • Too Many Words

    Last Sunday I excelled at words.  They poured forth from my mouth like a fountain. Unfortunately, they were not a fountain of refreshment, but rather a fountain of refuse.   I remember some time ago I read a parenting book that described nagging as using a lot of words to convey a point.  Good gravy!…

  • What are feelings anyway?

    On the way to church recently my 7 year old daughter asked, “Momma, what are feelings?” I started to say, “They’re how you feel.  I mean they are what you feel…I mean…ahhh!!!” I couldn’t figure out how to define it without using the word “feel.”  I thought if I used the word emotion it would…

  • Let Him Have It!

    Recently someone asked me what God is doing in my life.  What big things has God done? And I had to think… Sometimes it feels like I’m in a perpetual state of weary and I can’t see beyond the next moment…and other times I’m so desperate for a change that I look ahead with either…

  • Love-Longing

    It’s a gloriously slow, snowy morning…quiet and peaceful. All my sweethearts are warm, cozy, and asleep.  Me….warm and cozy in my comfy chair, pondering the truth of God’s love. Recently a friend challenged me to consider what love really is.  What does it mean to be loved by God?  What does it mean to be…

  • Middle of the Night Thinking

    Maybe, in the middle of those sleepless nights, He is whispering in my ear, “Dearest, trust me.”