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I was backing out of the parking lot and looked to my side again and saw her there.  Another woman walking up to the store….somehow I had not seen her when I was getting ready to back up. In honesty, I probably wasn’t paying close enough attention to those around me.

But there she was….and she had stopped to wait for me. Once I saw her I stopped the car, rolled down my window, apologized for not seeing her and waved her by.

As I was driving away I couldn’t help but be struck by the thought that in some way or another, we all want to be seen. Do you know what I mean? That feeling of not wanting to be invisible. Of wanting to “matter”.

I know that there have been times in my life that I have felt that way. Now I am not craving undue attention. But there are those moments, when our hearts are heavy, that we feel invisible and yet just want to be seen.

And I wonder what kind of positive impact we could have on those around us, if we just started “seeing” them.

Making eye contact, waving at our neighbors, talking to people we don’t know….they have all become a lost “art”. We are so self-consumed,rushing to and from every place we go, eyes buried in our phones…

Trust me I am guilty of all of the above!

But today, I was reminded again that it takes very little action on my part, and I might just make someone’s day better.

It can be little things, smiling at the Wal-mart greeter and saying hello, letting someone with less items than you go in front of you, being kind and respectful to everyone you come in contact with….even if they don’t repay the same kindness. 🙂

I am going to try and be more intentional as I go about my day….watching for opportunities to pay someone a kindness. To see them, acknowledge them…even if to make just a little difference in their day.

How about you….are you seeing those around you?

In my last post I shared about one of my darkest times. During the month that I lost my job, my mom happened to be in Greece on a trip with one of her best friends, as a nursing instructor for a group of nursing students, touring Greece and the healthcare system there.

Both of my parents were very worried about me. I wasn’t acting sanely and I was so depressed about everything. At one point my mom shared a story with me about the friend she was traveling with. Her friend had also been through some very difficult personal situations in the past few years. Apparently one day the friend was out on a walk, praying for God’s provision, and asked if He could just please give her a sign that things would be ok for her.

She looked down and on the ground at her feet was a coin. She picked it up and saved it. For her it was a reminder that God was with her. Random, probably….but what that coin represented to her was HOPE.

Over the course of days and months she continued to walk and pray….and she always found a coin of some sort on her walks.

She shared this story with my mom when my mom was telling her about our situation. So on one of the days that my mom was in Greece she was out walking alone and was praying for us. Praying that we wouldn’t have to continue to go through hardship, praying that God would lead us to calmer waters….

And then she asked God to please give her a sign that things for us would be ok.  And she looked down and found three coins.

What was significant to her about these coins was that there was more than one…and the less traveled spot where she was walking, made it unusual to find something like that there.

She picked up the coins and brought them back home with her and gave them to me in this pretty bag.

I will be honest, at the time I was still feeling quite cynical about God. I didn’t want to believe anything good about Him, because I was too comfortable wallowing in my own self pity.

I didn’t want to believe that these coins were a sign that things would be ok. I mean a couple of coins from Greece were not going to provide us with the financial security I felt we needed. I wanted, I needed, a change in our circumstance….and of course I wanted it right now.

Don’t we all??

I mean who of us willingly raise our hands and say “yes, please, some more hardship”? In fact, I have yet to develop the character in me that finds joy and contentment in the middle of suffering. I am afraid that I will have to continue to “practice” that over the years! 🙂

So here I am a year later, and interestingly enough, my mom and dad are back in Greece together. My mom said that she was excited to be back there and was talking about the three coins.

And what I realized about the coins, at least for me, was that they represented the faithful people that had supported us and lifted us up last year. Well and not just last year….for many years before that too.

My mom is what I would call a prayer warrior. She says she will pray for you…and then she does. She prays at red stop-lights…and keeps praying until the person she is praying about doesn’t need it anymore. (Needless to say we have been at the top of her list for a LONG time – and good thing that there are a lot of traffic lights where they live!) 🙂

And not just my family…but friends prayed for us, followed up with us, celebrated in our joys and carried a portion of our burdens when we struggled. I am amazed at how lucky we are to be surrounded by such a wonderful group of believers.

These three coins remind me that I am supported and prayed for all the time. From family to friends….so many people have lavished us with their prayers….and God has heard every one of them.

Friends, I hope that you also find yourself surrounded by people that encourage you and pray for you. It is a blessing to be prayed for and it would be an honor for me to lift you up if needed.  If you have a prayer request please leave a comment and let me know how I can support you!

May you have a blessed start to your new week!

In 2010 our family experienced numerous changes. I was pregnant with Karlena, Dominic had taken a new (and much prayed over) job in MN and for 8 months, through the worst winter ever, we lived apart during the week.

In May of that year we sold our first home, bought another in a neighboring state and dove head first into what I believed was “the reason God brought us here“.

While things were always (putting it mildly) tough at Dominic’s new job we felt like there was a “reason” he was there. I was allowed to work from home with the Bank I had been employed with for 13 years….it felt like, for the most part, we were finally coming to a stable place.

And then in late 2011 the bottom dropped out. And in a BIG way I might add.

In the matter of a few short months we went from 2 high-paying jobs with wonderful (and cheap) benefits….to both being unemployed, uninsured and facing the real reality that we might have to walk away from our dream home, our dreams here and move into the basement of one of our parents.

Trust me….these were dark times.

Dominic handled it better than I did. He would just keep telling me that everything was going to be ok. He didn’t know how…but he knew that it would. Even if it meant giving up what we thought we “deserved” here.

I on the other hand didn’t handle it well at all. I sunk into a fast, and dark depression. I was convinced that things would not be ok. I believed with my whole heart that we had followed what we thought was God’s path, and it wasn’t, so we were reaping the results of that.

And I didn’t know how, and didn’t want to deal with it.

I was embarrassed about what we were going through and I wanted out. I started thinking that if something “happened” to me…and it was an accident, then Dominic and the kids could collect on my life insurance and everything would be better.

I am not proud of how I dealt with everything, how I allowed myself to believe the lies that “death” was an answer or how much my faith slipped during this time….but I share it here because I want you to understand the depths of my hopelessness.

I couldn’t see how it could possibly turn around. I didn’t want to accept help from others. I was stubborn and prideful and my family suffered and worried because of it.

But God was bigger than my lack of faith. He knew the path we would be walking….and He loved me through my time of anger and questioning.

While things didn’t play out as I thought they should….because of course I know what’s best for my life…. 🙂 Things that have evolved over the past 8 months are MORE than the dreams that we thought we had!

Did you hear that? What I thought was the “dream” for our family….was so small in comparison to what God had planned.

Today my husband is running his own business, a dream we thought wouldn’t be possible for many years. It is so busy that he asked if I would join him and help out around the office. I spent the past 2 days working along side him….and my heart is so full.

I have seen God take my hopelessness, my mistrust and my lack of faith…..and turn it into something that is a blessing to our entire family. He IS good….He always was….I just couldn’t, wouldn’t choose to see it.

Friends, I don’t know where you find yourself today. Maybe you are facing a job loss, a broken marriage, a lost dream. I want you to hear me on this….even when it feels like God isn’t there, in the thick with you, He IS. If you are struggling with this truth right now, please let me know so that I can lift you up in prayer.

While I know that things will never be “perfect” in this lifetime….I do know that God has been faithful and will continue to be faithful to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Don’t give up friends….don’t give up.

I don’t seem to allow myself the time to blog as much as I would like…but Lisa Jo’s 5 Minute Friday is the perfect way to write a little and get those creative juices flowing!! 🙂  The idea is easy “Set your timer, clear your head, for five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.”

This Friday’s word is Opportunity…and Go!

Opportunity should be my “word” for 2013…it is what God has opened my eyes to this past year and I am so excited to see what adventure He will be taking me on.

My husband always says we “get” to do things…we don’t have to. We are provided with so many opportunities every day and we are blessed to be a part of them. But at times life takes its toll on us and we can begin to feel burdened and stressed about all the things we have to do.

But if we can look at everything as an opportunity instead, maybe it would feel less like a weight and more like a blessing.

I have the opportunity to be a mother to 4 amazing kids.

I have the opportunity to work with my husband at his new business and learn new tasks.

I have the opportunity to reach out to others and share the Hope that I have found in God’s love for me.

I have the opportunity to be involved in my community and try to make a difference in this world.

Each day presents a new opportunity…..how we see them, how we respond to them, is our choice.

Today I choose to see each new opportunity as a new blessing. How about you?

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One of the things that I like most about blogging is reading other people’s “story”.  Hearing how God has worked in the lives of other women, changing them.  We all have a story to tell.  Even those of us who aren’t professional writers need to be open to sharing our stories…..our lives can have meaning to someone else.

It is important to share those stories. Even if it impacts one person…it was worth it.

So I wanted to take some time, at the end of another year, to reflect back and share a bit of my past with you. Each new year is, in a sense, a fresh start….and I think it is important to consider all the ways we have grown.

But I can’t really just start with the happenings of 2012….I need to first begin with how I started the journey to where I am today. And that journey starts as a young girl.

I grew up in a Christian home. We went to church, and family Bible camp in the summer. We had picnics and gatherings with other church families. God was an important part of my growing up. I feel blessed that was the case.

When I was maybe 10, my mom started taking me to these Christian Women’s brunches. I felt pretty special to be going. It was held at the local country club, and we dressed up all fancy and had a nice lunch and registered for door-prizes :), and during lunch we listened to a woman get up and tell her story.

These women came from different backgrounds, upbringings etc….but they all had one thing in common. At some point in their lives they came in contact with God in a way that changed them. A God that was more than the “being” we learned about in church….a God that became a friend, a guide in times of trouble.

Oh how I wanted to know God that way.

And at the end of their talks these women would say a prayer. They would ask those people listening in the audience to pray silently with them if they were interested in starting that journey of faith and trusting God as their personal Savior.

The first brunch I went to I said that prayer. I meant it with everything in my being. I wanted what they had. And I was sure that once I said the prayer, my life would dramatically change.

But it didn’t. Not really anyways.

And so each month we would go I would pray that prayer again….because maybe I hadn’t done it “right”….or maybe God hadn’t heard me. I had this expectation of some magical feeling or a major change in my popularity. (This clearly was NOT God’s plan for my life) 🙂  But never quite got what I thought I should,

And while I didn’t walk away from those meetings changed in the ways I had hoped…a seed was planted. And THAT would stick with me in years to come. I can look back now and see how even then, God was working in my heart.

As a woman who has walked through some major valleys in the past 20+ years, I can confidently say that today I could see myself speaking to women, sharing my story and asking them to pray a simple prayer with me….asking them to open their hearts to a journey of faith.

Because He has always been there. Every step of the way.

And I would tell them that they may not see and hear bells and whistles or angels singing, their lives may not change at that instant….but not to be discouraged….because the hope, the promise is that God will be right there walking with them.

In the valleys, on the mountain tops. Every step He is there.

And some day they too will be grateful that they decided to take that leap of faith because in those times of difficulty, God was the One thing that stays constant. And I am so grateful for that today.

Stories. We all have them. Some stories we hide because they are difficult to share. Some stories are painful and dark and others filled with hope. But each story has the potential to impact another life.

And so as we look into another year of story making….I hope to use this place here as a home to story telling. God has been in the thick with me, and His story of redemption and grace in my life is a story that must be told.

How about you? What part of your story can you share with me? I’d love to hear how God has been working in your life too!

God, give me Your words here, so that You receive the glory….and thank you for giving me a story to tell.

Welcome and thank you for stopping by my brand new .com!! 🙂  Some of you may be thinking “doesn’t she have enough on her plate that having a second blog is just too much?!”  You may be right…but I wanted to share how and why I came to this point.

I have been blogging, mostly about my family, over at The Smith Family Journey since 2008.  When I started I barely knew what a blog was….I was first introduced to blogging by Angie Smith and her sweet girl Audrey. Once I started reading her blogs I was “hooked”….I used to journal as a young adult – but had given that up. I didn’t have time, or patience to scrapbook and blogging seemed to accomplish all that I wanted to remember in a quick and easy way.

I love writing. Over the past 5 years I have written hundreds of posts in my head and yet published very few of them. I have followed numerous blogs and been so encouraged by so many faithful women.  I always wanted to do more with my writing – find ways to encourage others – but it has become increasingly more difficult to find the time to do it.

I was not feeling “inspired” and had a tough time deciding what I should write about. The truth is I spend too much time on various social media outlets and not enough time in God’s Word.  I found that when it came to my “faith walk” I didn’t feel like I had a lot to share.

Then came an invitation…..

Holley Gerth, a blogger and writer over at (in)courage sent out a invitation to be considered for a “dream-team” of women looking to understand and pursue the God-sized dreams in each of us.  I was interested and filled out the application and assumed that I probably wouldn’t be chosen.

I love how God works though….whenever I say “it will never, or I will never”….He makes my impossible, possible.  Because of Holley’s passion for encouraging women – a group of 100 beautiful women will be walking together in 2013 on a journey of discovery. And I am honored and thrilled to be able to be a part of it!!

I read one “dreamer” say that it feels so good to be “chosen”.  Funny how much I want to be chosen in this world, and how quickly I forget that I was chosen long ago, by One who had some very special and specific plans for me.

The very start of this process has lead me to the place that I think God wants me to be. A place where I am seeking out His Word, His plan and direction AND being willing to step out in faith in whatever way that might mean.

I felt like one small part of this journey would be to have a place where I could just focus on my writing, focus on my faith walk and be able to be transparent.  To start to seek and discover those dreams that God has in store for me!

I am so excited to begin this journey. To reflect and see all of the ways that He has blessed our family. The riches He has given us are many and I take much of it for granted.  Hopefully part of this discovery will be a renewing of the gratitude I have for all the places He has walked with me and all of the ways He has made beauty from the ashes in my life.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me…..I can’t wait to see what God has in store for all of us!