In two days it will be 2011. I can hardly believe we are entering into another year. So much has transpired this past year. As I reflect back I think of pivotal moments that stirred or changed things in my heart. The first starting with me practicing blogging and then the list of life events began: my grandmother passed way, our middle son graduated from boot camp, I started a new job, my second book was published, I went to Mexico with 3 of my 4 children, our oldest son enlisted in the army, my dads health began to fail, my youngest turned 16, my daughter changed colleges.
These memories are frozen in time inside of me. I can recall each day clearly and I can summon up the emotion that is attached to the event as if it were yesterday. The tears of loss, the goodbyes and fears along with the joys of success, victories and triumphs. I rejoice in prayers answered and new roads taken and I tremble with the unknown for my soldier boys in these uncertain times. There are periods it feels as if my heart will cave in with all the worries I carry for my children but then God will swoop in and lift the burden and give me a measure of peace that I will almost feel guilty.
One year has captured the color of change so perfectly. In the famous words of Walt Disney “If nothing changed there’d be no butterflies”, I think on all the changes and can see the butterflies that have come from cocoon like times. Dark, silent and way too long seasons of waiting but the beauty of the breaking-forth’s outweigh all the pain. And if it brings my Savior glory in the end, then I am willing to have my cocoon time.
I can only imagine what this next year will bring. I expect I will be spending a lot of time on my knees as my boys serve overseas. And I also predict God will cover them with His mighty hands and keep them in His perfect will.
As I inspire to finish my third book I try to concentrate on what God has for the year. I always start the year with a Daniel fast and partner with God for what He has in store for our family’s lives and ministry. This will be my fourth year of beginning this way and I have to say it has been incredible seeing the power of God increase with each year. A freshness falls like snow and a warmth of His presence is felt like the summer heat.
I look forward to writing the new things God brings in our lives. I anticipate pain along with joy for our coming year and if I may be so bold, I feel God has given me a word for 2011.
There will be a new construction to take place in peoples lives. He is going to build on what He has started as well as change and remodel a few things. Some will experience add-ons, some renovations, some new foundations and some brand new areas of growth. I see powerful acts of God happening in people’s lives that only can be explained “miraculous” I also expect to see reinstatements in peoples lives. I see fruition coming to those who have been in barren places that is so abundant it’s almost freighting. Due time is coming this year.
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I truly believe this is the year for the lifting up and the season of due time! Wait for it though it tarries wait for it.
May this year bring you all that you have wept for and prayed for. May it be filled with the presence of God and the Power of Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly all that we ask.
Happy New Year and resolve to make it great!
Holly
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Merry CHRISTmas
We are on the final leg towards Christmas. It is only 4 days away! I pray your home is brimming with family and friends.
As we take time off school or work let’s keep our minds and hearts set on the true meaning of the season. I love the rush of the malls and smells of all the baked goods but without our Savior these fabulous perks are hollow and meaningless. They are just another average day filled with busyness and calories.
As you finish your final stretch, I encourage you to bring to remembrance the very reason we celebrate this “Holyday”. As families travel and gather, let us remember the first travelers that started the journey towards celebrating this glorious day. As gifts pile under the tree, keep in mind the gift that was poured out for us on a criminal’s cross. As we congregate around the table for fellowship and food, recall the gathering in an upper room where His gift of the Spirit fell and empowered the church.
Taking this time to delight in our Savior’s gifts of acceptance, grace, peace and invitation to relationship with God, will bring back the Christ that many are trying to leave out of the season. Say it with conviction when you leave a store, greet a stranger with the fervent message, bless the needy with the hope of what it truly means to proclaim the words “Merry Christmas”. Be the Jesus people need to see, and deliver the gift that the lost need to receive.
It is with a bold heart I say Merry CHRISTmas!!!
Holly Ruddock
As we take time off school or work let’s keep our minds and hearts set on the true meaning of the season. I love the rush of the malls and smells of all the baked goods but without our Savior these fabulous perks are hollow and meaningless. They are just another average day filled with busyness and calories.
As you finish your final stretch, I encourage you to bring to remembrance the very reason we celebrate this “Holyday”. As families travel and gather, let us remember the first travelers that started the journey towards celebrating this glorious day. As gifts pile under the tree, keep in mind the gift that was poured out for us on a criminal’s cross. As we congregate around the table for fellowship and food, recall the gathering in an upper room where His gift of the Spirit fell and empowered the church.
Taking this time to delight in our Savior’s gifts of acceptance, grace, peace and invitation to relationship with God, will bring back the Christ that many are trying to leave out of the season. Say it with conviction when you leave a store, greet a stranger with the fervent message, bless the needy with the hope of what it truly means to proclaim the words “Merry Christmas”. Be the Jesus people need to see, and deliver the gift that the lost need to receive.
It is with a bold heart I say Merry CHRISTmas!!!
Holly Ruddock
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
giving up
“Just give up” was whispered to me in my sleep. For weeks I had been waking up in the early morning with my heart racing in fear. The enemy had been harassing me in my sleep and this was just one of those times. “Give up your dreams and the call” seemed to be his verbatim.
I would contemplate the thought of throwing in the towel during those midnight hours. To just give up on my writing and give myself to work. The temptation was to lay the dreams down because the pipe was getting longer and life was getting shorter. As a working mom and an author I have often wondered when I would get to be strictly a writer. With the constant pressure to just give up and give myself to work and forget about my dreams, I could feel discouragement trying to be my advisor.
Last Saturday the Lord reminded me of a sermon I had preached four years ago. It was titled “The Destruction of Ignorance.” The heart of the message was about close friends brining disaster to our home and for an example I shared the story of my palm tree being destroyed by a new dog we had just adopted from a shelter that had separation anxiety. Out of a panic, he destroyed a palm I had for years and in minutes took it to its roots. With one small remaining stem sticking up out of the pot. After I cleaned up the mess, set it back on its right end, packed the dirt back around its roots and trimmed off the broken pieces it was quite pathetic. To look at it you would have never known that it was a majestic palm; it looked like a new seedling in a big pot. But underneath it was a great root system that declared it was a mature palm.
In church a couple weeks ago one of our pastors gave a word of encouragement. He said, “I sense there are some people in here who feel like giving up. They have been feeling hopeless and discouraged and struggling with the thought of giving up.” I squeezed Joe’s hand as the tears ran down my face. Then last week in church during worship, I had a vision of a giant root. It had once been a great tree of fruition and it was about to bloom again. Then my mind went back to the sermon of the palm tree.
As our senior pastor took the pulpit to preach he was having everybody turn to Psalms 103, I grabbed my bible but my bible landed on Psalms 92. (Don’t you just love it when your bible knows where it needs to fall?) And in my own writing I had bracketed and underlined verses 12-15
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.
God was reminding me and encouraging me to stay the course and to not give up. He was using my words and sermons I had preached. He was using scriptures I had underlined years ago and He was causing me to recall what I believe in and believe for.
Living an average life of work, bills and food has never appealed to me. However for a time, it seemed easier to let go of the dream and just become another person who once had one but grew old. Of course I want to mature and become wiser but I want the years that God is seasoning me in to be complimentary to the dream He has placed in my heart. As a mother my first dream is to instill in my children to dream and aspire and pursue the things of God. And As a mother I need to lead my example.
I would contemplate the thought of throwing in the towel during those midnight hours. To just give up on my writing and give myself to work. The temptation was to lay the dreams down because the pipe was getting longer and life was getting shorter. As a working mom and an author I have often wondered when I would get to be strictly a writer. With the constant pressure to just give up and give myself to work and forget about my dreams, I could feel discouragement trying to be my advisor.
Last Saturday the Lord reminded me of a sermon I had preached four years ago. It was titled “The Destruction of Ignorance.” The heart of the message was about close friends brining disaster to our home and for an example I shared the story of my palm tree being destroyed by a new dog we had just adopted from a shelter that had separation anxiety. Out of a panic, he destroyed a palm I had for years and in minutes took it to its roots. With one small remaining stem sticking up out of the pot. After I cleaned up the mess, set it back on its right end, packed the dirt back around its roots and trimmed off the broken pieces it was quite pathetic. To look at it you would have never known that it was a majestic palm; it looked like a new seedling in a big pot. But underneath it was a great root system that declared it was a mature palm.
In church a couple weeks ago one of our pastors gave a word of encouragement. He said, “I sense there are some people in here who feel like giving up. They have been feeling hopeless and discouraged and struggling with the thought of giving up.” I squeezed Joe’s hand as the tears ran down my face. Then last week in church during worship, I had a vision of a giant root. It had once been a great tree of fruition and it was about to bloom again. Then my mind went back to the sermon of the palm tree.
As our senior pastor took the pulpit to preach he was having everybody turn to Psalms 103, I grabbed my bible but my bible landed on Psalms 92. (Don’t you just love it when your bible knows where it needs to fall?) And in my own writing I had bracketed and underlined verses 12-15
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.
God was reminding me and encouraging me to stay the course and to not give up. He was using my words and sermons I had preached. He was using scriptures I had underlined years ago and He was causing me to recall what I believe in and believe for.
Living an average life of work, bills and food has never appealed to me. However for a time, it seemed easier to let go of the dream and just become another person who once had one but grew old. Of course I want to mature and become wiser but I want the years that God is seasoning me in to be complimentary to the dream He has placed in my heart. As a mother my first dream is to instill in my children to dream and aspire and pursue the things of God. And As a mother I need to lead my example.
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