Sacred Mundane: The Blog

• Picking strawberries with my man.
• Elijah’s heart.
• Reflecting on nine years of marriage. Looking through old scrapbooks, photo albums, remembering the early days. Seeing that crazy do-anything faith we had. Asking God to renew our faith.
• Gift card to Urban Farmer. Oh. My. Best meal ever.
• Our 24-hour anniversary dream-date. Grand Total: $8. Thank you, Lord!
• Long run with my man. Learning to trust and follow him even when he leads me 6 miles up and down hills and I want to pass out!
• So many life-lessons.
• Our road trip ahead, SO excited!!!
• Planning.
• Preparing.
• Cleaning.
• Laundry.
• First day of raspberry season!
• Strawberries for dessert.
• BBQ.
• Seeing the thread of God’s gracious hand throughout our life.
• Learning to trust, learning to follow.
• Jumping off the cliff.
• Quiet.
• Sound of the river rushing.
• Lazy afternoon by the water, throwing rocks.
• My little man in his cowboy boots.
• Free rodeo tickets! SO excited to take my little cowboy to the Molalla Buckeroo!
• Pioneer books. Many.
• A child’s biography of Paul Revere read over and over and over to my little historian.
• Child’s precious prayers: “Thank you for dying on the cross and rising again and showing us how much you love us.”
• Seeing seeds of faith begin to grow.
• Trusting.
• Clean house.
• Drop-in friends.
• Texts that make me beam.
• Towering firs, cedars.
• Garden flourishing.
• Being on the same page.
• Dreaming the same dreams.
• Unity.
• Grace.
• Hope.
• Love.
• Perseverance.
• Anticipation.
• Afton Field Farm fresh sausage for breakfast!
• Still-warm chocolate chip cookies.
• Falling asleep with Heidi.
• Warm rain.
• Everything abloom.
• Changing seasons.
• Knowing for everything there is a season.
• His timing, perfect.
• Rest.

After yesterday’s news, I kind of don’t want to do anything but pray! I want to just walk around asking people what they need and PRAY for them. Wow, seriously.

But in the few spare moments when we are not praying for miracles, it’s also helpful to have meetings with our spouses. Truly, I believe this.  The reason being, unless we are purposeful about setting aside time to download, plan, and get synched with our spouses, the weeks turn into months turn into years and next thing we know we are just constantly reacting to the day’s events without every turning and looking toward the future with purpose and intentionality.

Also, at least for us, when these “business” meetings don’t take place, what usually happens is that date night becomes a business meeting. Business must be taken care of, so if it’s not during a meeting designed for that purpose, it will creep in all over and the fun will be kicked to the curb.

We were so blessed last night to have a special anniversary date. The kids were sent to my parents’ house and we had all evening and this morning to talk, catch up, pray, just be together. So good! Wives, we must pray for and work to make time for this!

A few thoughts:

• Plan a time each week when the kids are in bed but you aren’t completely wiped (some of you are raising an eyebrow wondering when on earth that is?). For us it’s Sunday nights. Jeff is usually home from work around 8pm, so we meet then. I like having it as the start of our week so we’re on the same page with our schedules, plans, goals.
• Pray together.  I dare say we are all convinced that God hears our prayers, yes? (6 minutes to a better marriage here)
• Synch schedules and share expectations for the week.  One thing that has been helpful for us is setting mutually-agreed-upon deadlines. That sounds harsh, but sometimes we ask our spouse to do something, and then get frustrated when it is not done. So we specify: “Can you please have the car serviced by next Sunday?” Yes. Or, “If these things are not sorted by next week may I please do it myself?”  Or, “I understand you are tired and don’t feel like talking about this issue right now. Can we plan to talk about it when we meet on Sunday?” Having a weekly meeting enables you to keep short accounts with each other and talk through any things that arise during the week.
• Ask how you can serve your spouse that week. Does he have any special dinner requests? Are there stressful meetings on his docket and he needs special grace? Does he need prayer for something specific?

Obviously this meeting can look however it needs to for you. But the important thing is having it. (BTW, the same is true for a roommate!)

So tell me: How do you and your spouse remain connected and on the same page? Do you have weekly meetings? How do you maintain great communication? I’d love to hear your tips and ideas for staying on the same track. With just 9 years under our belt, we are still newbies and craving more and more wisdom! Thanks so much. Have a great weekend and thanks for reading.

Tears are streaming down my face.  At 1pm, we all, hundreds of us gathered virtually heart-to-heart and prayed for Elijah.

At 1:20pm today my phone rang.

It was his mom.

HEALED.

Elijah. Is. Healed.

The cardiogram revealed that Elijah’s heart has been completely healed. Her words: “Right and left atriums still a bit enlarged but healing. Pulmonary function normal! COMPLETELY HEALED.”

Pulmonary function NORMAL.

And they said he only had a few months. 

HEALED.

Friends, God is able. HE IS ABLE.

Can we all please get on our knees right now and praise the God of the universe? He may not have instantly healed you today, or instantly done what we wanted today, but He is ABLE, and He loves us, and as we press in and SEEK HIM and love Him and know Him and make our whole lives about bringing Him praise, HE WILL MOVE in our lives.

Let’s rejoice and worship and believe Him today.

THANK YOU for praying! Father we worship You and praise you. 

{Thank you for reading.}

Early this morning, on our 9th anniversary, as I open my Bible:

Back in Job.

The memories come flooding back. When God broke my heart He spoke directly to me through Job’s words, used them to crush me before the real crushing ever took place. It was the most clearly-prophetic and profoundly God’s ever spoken personally through His Word. So every time I open to his place I smile and remember, like looking down at scars, tenderly fingering their once-wounds and remembering when they were fresh, how much they hurt, how I thought they’d never heal. But they have and I smile, shake my head at the reality that Jeff Patterson is asleep beside me. Had I known back then…

But at the time we never know.

All we know is pain. All we see are wounds, open. We reel, thrash, grope in the darkness.  And in the darkness, Job whispers these words and we make them ours:

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

This is all we know. No rhyme or reason or explanation. No moral of the story or redemptive purpose. We know He has given, we know He has taken away:

And we bless His name by faith. And then we hear:

“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive adversity?” (Job 2:10)

Yes, I suppose. Will we exalt ourselves over our Creator, deciding what is doled out? We embrace this.

And it is still dark. But we have heard His voice and we respond:

“For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.” (Job 3:25-26)

We are honest in the darkness. No, this is not a place of warmth and comfort. Not a place of rest and peace. It is a place of reeling, thrashing, groping. But quiet resolve comes, we hear our self say,

“Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.” (Job 13:15)

And by barely perceptible measure, there comes a hint of peace. Of trust. Of resolve.  Strength rises slow and we are gripped, moved,

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And though my flesh may be destroyed, yet with my eyes I will see God.” (19:25-26)

Without knowing it, we have somehow stood. Where there was fear, there is faith. It is still dark, but could there be a glimmer of Light far off in the distance?

We tremble now not because of darkness. But because of the Light.

He has come. He speaks,

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job. 38:2) Who is this that speaks of what he does not know?

We were fetal ball, writhing, then slowly stood, believing …

Now we bow, submitting.

And speak our worship,

“I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” (Job. 42:5)

He has come, darkness gone. We had heard His whisper in the darkness, butnow we see Him in the light.  Reeling, writhing, groping gone. Now in the light we see our wounds; they are but scars.

Beautiful scars. 

Some flesh, it is true, is destroyed, but with our eyes we have seen God.

So we go back to Job. We revisit. We return not glibly, but gladly, because we know the reward:

God.

~

{Edited from the archives}

Almost every year God uses Job to help me navigate pain. I pray this word-picture can encourage you as well: Reeling, writhing, standing, bowing. The gift of pain: We get to see God. I am so grateful that my greatest heartbreak turned into my greatest joy–my husband. Happy Anniversary, my man! I love you beyond words, even though you broke my heart! Thanks, all, for reading.