Thank you for joining me in my series 31 Days of Finding God. Each day I am going to use a prompt from Kate and incorporate that into how I am finding God in my everyday!

Today’s prompt is Visit!

As many of you know I have spent the last several days in South Carolina at the Allume conference. The entire theme this year surrounded the idea of hospitality.

I would like to think that I have the gift of hospitality…but I have been thinking about it this weekend and while I do think I have that gift, it is conditional.

If my house is clean enough or I can present you with the perfect meal then you are more than welcome to come and visit me.

But what would I do if someone just showed up? Even more would I ever be willing to invite a stranger in?

I don’t know why I have to associate good hospitality with having it all together?!

A few months ago we were approached by a friend from church asking if we would be willing to host a small group each week in our home. This is the first time since we moved here that this was a opportunity for us and I was excited. We have been blessed with the perfect home for entertaining, with plenty of places for people to sit/gather. Dominic and I both agree that God gave us such a gift with our home and we should share it with others.

But the Sunday afternoon before the first meeting I was running around like a crazy person. Vacuuming (which is truly a MUST with 4 children and a dog), dusting, cleaning toilets in the bathrooms that people may use, washing all the mirrors and appliances down.

Oh and then about 2 hours before everyone showed up I thought that spot cleaning the rug in the family room was something that HAD to be done, so I cleaned about 6-7 bad spots….and realized about 20 minuted before everyone came that the spots had not dried. So when everyone walked in the room there was the risk that they would step in the spot and wonder if they had stepped in dog pee.

Ah yes, the life of a crazy women with the gift of hospitality.

I had lost focus on the real reason that I wanted people to come into our home. The heart connections that were possible when they all came to visit. We sat around the table, a mix of ages and backgrounds and talked over tough issues and laughed over good treats.

The spots on my carpet didn’t matter. I don’t believe they matter to them…why did they have to matter so much to me?

I want my home to be a welcoming place for people to come and visit. I want to always be open to swing wide the door and offering an invitation to life with someone else.

If other people can look past the dust and the stains, the handprints on the wall, why can’t I?

If we want to build community, be hospitable, we have to be willing to let people see the imperfect parts as well as the clean. This is easy to write and more difficult to implement for me but I am willing to try.

So you are all invited, I don’t need advance warning. I may have dishes in the sink and dog hair on my floor….but if you come and visit, I promise that I will spend my time cherishing the guest and not stressing about the mess.

In Him, Kristin

Photo Credit: WaywardShinobi

Thank you for joining me in my series 31 Days of Finding God. Each day I am going to use a prompt from Kate and incorporate that into how I am finding God in my everyday!

Today’s prompt is LOOK!

Today my view is different than normal.

I started my journey early in the car headed 3 hours towards the Minneapolis airport. My destination? Greenville, South Carolina and the Allume conference.

I am so blessed to be able to travel to Allume again this year, but this time I attend with a different focus. Last year I went so that I could learn more about blogging, and to potentially grow in my understanding about how to make money from this writing gig. But the reality last year is that God grabbed ahold of my heart in a big way and showed me that all of this was so much less about me and so much more about what I can do for others.

It was and continues to be a gift.

So today as I start the trip again I am filled with anticipation about what God will do. This time around I am excited about the community. I am anxious for long talks with the women who were strangers last year and now have become close friends. Excited to pray over and encourage dreamers that come to our God-sized Dream meet-up.

As I drove I couldn’t help but take in God’s beauty all around me.

The clouds were pink-tipped as the sun started to rise. The outline of the tree banks glistened and it was all I could do to not stop and just take picture after picture.

My journey went quickly and I rested for a few moments in MSP before we boarded the flight. Even the view from an airport waiting room chair can be beautiful if we are able to take in the blessings all around.

Can you see them…whatever your view today, can you count the blessings?

In the air I thanked God once again for the opportunity to travel, for my family that supports me and handle all the things while I am gone. For a safe flight, with a beautiful view.

If I look, I always find the blessings.

I can be a negative Nelly. I really struggle against it. But if I look, if I am just open to seeing with God’s eyes, the gifts abound.

I don’t know what God has in store for the next few days. I am praying once again that my agenda will be left at the door and His will come through loud and clear.

Help me to see Your will Lord. May I always be open to looking for You in each moment.

In Him, Kristin

Thank you for joining me in my series 31 Days of Finding God. Each day I am going to use a prompt from Kate and incorporate that into how I am finding God in my everyday!

Today’s prompt is Second!

I have struggled all day to come up with what to write about in regards to the word prompt for today. I had a few ideas but the felt so forced. I thought that I might have to skip a day…and then God opened my eyes once again.

Today Dominic and I went to pick up Karlena from dance. As we were leaving the parking lot Dominic told me to stop. Behind us was a women who was attempting to back up and as she started to move he noticed that she had a terribly flat tire.

He jumped out of the car and went over to her. She didn’t speak english well, but he pointed out her tire and she said she would just drive to a gas station and fill it up.  He told her that  she shouldn’t drive on it or she would risk ruining the tire completely. We have a portable compressor at home so he offered to go get it and come back to help her.

I hadn’t even noticed her there. If I had been alone at that pickup  I would have driven away, completely unaware.

How often are we given opportunities to see and yet we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we miss it?

We came back with the compressor but it became apparent that the tire wouldn’t hold air. So he offered to put on her spare tire instead.

Changing a tire isn’t an easy job, but even Karlena got in on the fun.

Of course, as it seems with most jobs, things didn’t go as planned. One of the lug nuts was stripped so he couldn’t put them all back on.

Once it was on as best as he could make it, he offered to follow her home so we made sure she made it there safely.

I was so proud of him.

And I don’t write this post just to brag about him. (Even though I think he is pretty awesome)

Even more than that I was so aware of how in that moment Dominic put his plans, his time, second to help someone else in need.

God gives us opportunities to do this all the time.

But how often am I too busy, too rushed, to self-consumed to notice that there might be someone in need?

Today by my husbands simple actions I was reminded once again that I need to live my life with my eyes open. Watching, seeking, and praying that God would put people in my path so that I might have a chance to be a light.

We have been given so much, and of whom much has been given, much is required.

I don’t want to miss it because I am so focused on me, me, me. Lord help me to put my needs, my wants, second and to focus on shining Your light to those around me.

In Him, Kristin

Thank you for joining me in my series 31 Days of Finding God. Each day I am going to use a prompt from Kate and incorporate that into how I am finding God in my everyday!

Today’s prompt is Fear!

I have struggled with fear for longer than I can remember not struggling with it.

It takes on different shapes and sizes, both rational and irrational.

It might be the fear of something terrible happening to my children, believing the “worst case scenario” when Dominic can’t answer the phone when he is travelling, fear that I will fail, or our business will, fear that I don’t and won’t measure up. Most of these are pretty crazy, but all something that I have dealt with over time.

So what can we do? I know that the enemy uses lies to manipulate me into being more fearful and it has to stop!!

When we are filled with fear we need to respond by arming ourselves with the truth! (<====Click to Tweet)

The best way that I have found to arm myself with truth is to look to the Bible for what God says about fear.

Deuteronomy 31:6 –  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

God goes WITH us. ALWAYS. Even when we are afraid and feel alone, God IS there.

Psalm 27:1 – “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Having an understanding of who God is, how great His power and majesty is…knowing that He is the stronghold of my life should bring comfort shouldn’t it?!

Hebrews 13:6 – “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Yes we will have troubles in this world, the Bible says that too. But ultimately I should be putting my faith in what I know. God has redeemed me through the blood of Christ. No one can take that away from me. People may slander my name or bring harm to me or my family…but in the end I WILL spend eternity with my Savior, my helper and stronghold. The God that goes before me is with me until the end.

Today that brings me peace.

 –

In Him, Kristin

Thank you for joining me in my series 31 Days of Finding God. Each day I am going to use a prompt from Kate and incorporate that into how I am finding God in my everyday!

Today’s prompt is Taste!

Can I be honest with you for a moment?

I REAAALLLY don’t like difficulty. I know, who does right?! But oh how I struggle most in my faith during these times.

I read stories of women who’s first response to crisis is “God is good, He is still the same…I will trust Him.”

My typical first response is “Why me God?!”

And then as I was reading on  Psalm 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”, I was challenged by a idea. “Make a trial, an inward, experimental trial of the goodness of God. You cannot see except by tasting for yourself; but if you taste you shall see.”

You cannot see except for tasting yourself. (<====Click to Tweet)

As I ruminate on those words I can think of many times in my life that I did face a struggle and in hindsight I was able to see every.single.place where God was working, involved.

Yes it is usually in hindsight, because my natural response has been “why me?!”, I don’t always see and feel God’s presence with me in the thick of the struggle. It isn’t because God is not there, it is likely because my focus is on the problem not the solution.

My faith has grown BECAUSE of the trials I have gone through. (<====Click to Tweet)

I had to taste God’s hand in my life to be able to fully see His goodness.

So while I don’t always appreciate the struggle, I have found more about God through those times than other times in my life. And for that I am grateful.

In Him, Kristin