As I write this blog, peace is not how I feel on the inside. I have learned from experience that when the Lord uses my circle to reach out to me, it is normally something he is teaching me a lesson on.
I have spent my whole life pleasing people. I love my circle well and plan to until Jesus hugs me in Heaven. I am not saying that it is always a peaceful road. You should see my picture of my path to my goal…it is a straight line to the goal! Then there is God’s path, and it is all over the place to make it to the goal. That is reality! We want easy. Our brains look for the path of least resistance. But did Jesus choose the easy path?
I like to look at Jesus teaching others and how he would leave them and pray. He took time for himself to regroup and fill his cup with God’s Wisdom before he poured it all out on others. How many of you pour out to people constantly and rarely get a thank you or I appreciate you? Often, we seek affirmation from the people around us when we should be taking the time to pray and listen to what the Lord has or needs next from us.
I will never forget coming to Harvest as a young mom. My house was not peaceful. I was a yeller and would get so frustrated with myself if everything wasn’t done when I went to bed. I was a stay-at-home mom so why was it so difficult to get all the dishes and laundry done? My husband had a stressful job. He was driving over an hour one way every day and farming an hour the other direction. Peace was hard to find. One day a dear friend said “Janeé if you want peace in your home you have to seek peace.”
I just looked at her. I didn’t even know where to start. She smiled and said, “Take the pressure off. Look at your husband through Jesus’s eyes. Look at your two beautiful girls through Jesus’s eyes. Look at your beautiful home through Jesus’s eyes. It is okay to have dishes in the sink and dirty clothes. That means you are living a full life. It is okay to have toys everywhere. Soon, they will be gone. When you stop yelling everyone else will.” Thank you, Erin Cruz! We know heaven is amazing! We miss you and love you!
As I type this, I hear the vacuum going in my youngest teen’s room. She is asking us not to sit on her bed because we’ll wrinkle the covers. We jumped on that bed and started laughing because we all thought this day would never come. It does young moms. So please seek Jesus in your crazy to find the peace to see your people through his lens and not just look at your to-do list.
You cannot control PEOPLE!
Through the years I have worked with so many parents and adults. It is not an easy job to be a teacher and a coach, but it is a rewarding one! I am coming off a hard year. My health tanked last June and I had to have emergency surgery. It is true that it takes a year for your cells to turn over. I am just now feeling like myself. My busy world stopped in June, and I had to sit down and process the last few years that have been some of the hardest. The panic attacks came back. You see, I am strong for others and encourage them but for myself I am my worst critic. I also keep going to avoid dealing with the pain of losing loved ones, the pain of my body that hurts daily, the pain of having hard conversations with people choosing a hard path. And even the hard conversations I chose not to have and now
that relationship is not what I wish it was because I didn’t let the Lord lead. We are all facing something and going through something so choose kindness!
The Lord spoke to me one day when I was teaching elementary kids and I will never forget it. When it snows, I always take the kids out to play in the snow with magnifying glasses. We talk about how all the flakes are different. We talk about how many millions, billions, trillions, of flakes it takes to cover the playground. How do so many flakes make the playground so beautiful? We talk about how each one is not the same but together they create beauty. Then I tell them to look at the person beside them. Are you different? Are your stories different? When we work together what do we create? They look at me and say something beautiful. Yes! Littles get it so much faster than we do!
We are all snowflakes, we fall through life, and we are put through different storms at different times creating something beautiful. All our stories are different and yet, we tend to want to control the people around us. WE CAN’T! They must fall and choose for themselves. Loving people where they are at is a hard job. God’s timing is not always our timing. Too often we want to rescue our kids or loved ones and make life easier for them and we stop that beautiful crystal arm from growing. You see without walking through the hard and letting the Lord guide them we sometimes become the melting point. What does this have to do with peaceful pursuit? We must pray and seek his wisdom and encourage the ones around us to do the same. To find peace in all situations we must SEEK the Lord for all things, even the little things we think we have on our own, so we don’t melt what he is trying to form.
Peace comes when we let him in for all parts of our lives. What are you not letting him in on? Relationships, work, finances, parenting, bible study, dishes, laundry, yard work, car issues, health, etc. What do you hold control of that he can bring peace to if you just ask?
Philippians 4:6-7:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
We want to thank Janee Harrison for sharing this post.
Women's Ministry 