Consider Lily Articles Gallery

NEW - I Have Purposed, and I Will Do It We struggle so much with being so out of control of ourselves and so far from the lives we plan for ourselves. And yet, we see here, a God who is perfectly in control. A God that has "declared the end from the beginning" and "will accomplish (his) purpose." He is in control. He is God. This "is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory." God gives sweet relief in the midst of a mess. Read on... Season of Hope I have heard it said that Christmas and New Years is the season of hope for us. Hope is a strange word, though. I hear people use the word hope for so many things--a child on Santa’s lap, expressing hope for a new toy or gadget. Hope for a young couple means that a troubled family member doesn’t burst onto Christmas dinner. Hope that perhaps next year will be better than the last for so many who have lost their jobs, their homes, their lives. Even Christians use the term hope to talk about the birth of Jesus, and how our hope should be placed in Him. Read on... Crucifed with Christ "I have been crucified with Christ." Paul wrote those words in his letter to the Galatians. You can find them in the second chapter. What was going through Paul's mind as he wrote those words? Whether he wrote them with his own hand or dictated them to a scribe, I imagine they were difficult words for him. In order to fully understand this phrase, I think we have to have lived during the time when crucifixion was practiced. We have nothing in our American culture to compare to it. We sometimes try to compare it to the electric chair because that is the cruelest form of capital punishment we allow. Read on... The Weight of Waiting Having just graduated from grad school, I am in a season of searching for what comes next for my life. I currently work a job that serves as my "in-between" while I apply for many jobs that struggle to seem like the "right fit." I find myself in a place of honest uncertainty about the future...while simply searching to find some answers. I am recently beginning to learn more about the weight of waiting on the Lord. Read on... Yellow Slides: Promise Fulfilled, Final in series Though it seems unlikely in the midst of it, college will not last forever. The day will come when the graduation caps are thrown, and your closest friends will scatter like the leaves from trees above you. You might be one of those leaves, burnt yellow and ready to fall, but still you find yourself clinging to your branch, unable to let go. Another yellow slide behind you. You may even feel alone. Read on... The Hiding Game I have this tendency within myself to hide the mess that I am and to disguise my imperfections from others. It's like this deeply ingrained "hiding game." I do not know how many others can relate, but I'm sure there are some. I'm thinking I’ve been at this hiding game for awhile. I started to see the extent to which I played this game over several different days in which I experienced such sadness of knowing the extent of my mess and brokenness before the Father. It made me completely sad to think about how broken and in need I am. The outward expression of myself does not match the inner reality of my soul. Read on... Certain Need In a world of uncertainly -- where do I go next? Where should I spend my time? What job should I take? What should my major be? Should I continue schooling? Am I where He wants me? Am I spending my time where it should be spent? Where and what do you want for my life, O Lord? -- with all these uncertainties, there are a few things that you can count on being certain. To name a few: God’s sovereignty, God’s grace through Christ Jesus, and our constant need of Him. One other certainty is God’s desire for us to pray. Read on... Know Truth What is sex? I realize that most everyone that is reading this article is currently a college aged woman, and therefore has been through sex-ed classes. However, I'm not asking for the biological or even dictionary cited definition of what sex is, I'm talking about and asking what does God and the Bible say that sex is. When does sex start? Does is start only when you enter into intercourse, or does it start in the restaurant when you make a small innuendo? Read on... Yellow Slides: Follow the Voice - 2nd in a series Flashes of color. Laughter. Running barefoot through the grass. My brother and I swiped kitchen towels and wrapped them around us, magically transforming them into capes. Old paper towel rings became swords or spyglasses. Swinging on the swing set became battling the crashing waves on an angry sea. We were pirates. The good kind of pirates that saved the distressed damsels and fed the poor with our riches. And as far as we were concerned, we would grow up to be pirates. It didn’t matter what anyone thought of our career aspirations in those sweet days. We were just living out who we believed we were.Read on... Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon - 2nd in a series I tried to focus on the ceiling but the imperious numbers on my alarm clock seemed to push their way through the darkness and dance in my peripheral vision, much like a childhood bully, teasing...no mocking me that the night had only just begun. I could not sleep; the sweet anticipation of 7th grade. No more recess, no more sitting in the same class all day and no more little boys! I was going to be in JUNIOR HIGH!!! I couldn't wait! I dreamed of the new friends that I would make, the dances, the parties, learning about politics and literature, and of course the older boys! Read on... Intro to Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon - 1st in a series "All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you...You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace. How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride." -Song of Songs 4:7-9 When I say that out loud I have this picture in my mind of catching my Heavenly Father’s eye and I struggle to find a breath. Instantly doubt whispers in my ear... "You? You have stolen nothing but the crumbs that have fallen from the Lord’s table." I live in constant fear that I must cling to even the slightest blessing I have received, as if it was meant for someone else. As if the Holy Sprit got the wrong address. I wait for the knock at the door to retrieve it and place it in the hands of its rightful owner.Read on... Yellow Slides: Who are you becoming? - 1st in a series The smell of baby lotion. Sunscreen lathered on 1-inch thick. The plastic bottoms of my purple flip flops melt to the Louisiana sidewalk. My towel barely hangs on to the chair. I throw it in a hurry. I have to meet the water. The banana yellow slide invites me. The metal staircase burns the bottoms of my bare feet. Scorching. Finally, the hose water is icy cold. A little squirt of water tumbling through a peel of yellow into the 3-feet deep blue. Read on... Garage Sale Treasures Garage sales are an interesting tradition that we have in America. Take all the junk from your house that you don’t want anymore, drag it outside to your garage or driveway, put price tags on everything, run an ad in the paper and then wait for people to show up and start buying your stuff. It is the perfect example of "one man’s trash is another man’s treasure." I have to admit that when I got my first apartment I furnished it almost entirely from garage sale finds...furniture, pots and pans, food storage containers, glasses, knives, and lamps. Read on... Amazing Grace I’ve been thinking a lot about grace lately. What does it really mean? Do I truly understand the grace that God demonstrates to us through His Son, Jesus? Do I sometimes take it for granted? Do we, as the Church, take away from the power of grace by adding things to the gospel? Can we rest secure in the grace of God, or do we still try to gain favor with God through our actions? Read on... Love in the Face of Fear Some people enjoy being scared. I readily admit I’ve never been one for scary movies or for hearing ghost stories around the campfire. In fact, I still sleep with the light on when I’m home alone! I’m not sure I will ever understand what causes people to enjoy being afraid. Fear is a thief, cunningly initiating relationship based on false realities and suspected possibilities. It siphons out the seeds of truth in our lives and steals our freedom to enjoy life, to love unreservedly, and hope for the future. It thieves capacity and ability in every form of relationship. John talks about understanding love and how it functions in our relationship with God. Read on... Life in Oz As a child, the movie, The Wizard of Oz, was both thrilling and terrifying to me. The colors of the magical land, exhilarating. The breathtaking beauty of the magical land, awe-inspiring. The acceptance of friends, though strange and different, comforting. But something strange happened inside of me as a young child, seeing Toto run behind the emerald green curtain to reveal a puny, pathetic man pretending. The Wizard of Oz was no wizard at all. It was a sham! Not only that, but I was shammed. There was something behind the curtain I couldn’t see. Read on... Do Over When I was a little girl I used to love to sit on the floor in my mom’s bathroom while she was getting ready for the day. On special days she would let me play with her make up. Usually, I made a mess with bright blue eye shadow and red lipstick; I thought I was the most beautiful girl ever. That’s what makeovers do, they make us feel beautiful and different. They change our outward appearance...but sadly, only temporarily. Read on... Best of the Best - Final in the series After everything that we have talked about for the past several weeks, I want you to think about where you are right now. Maybe you are single with no prospects in the future...are you OK with that? Maybe you are single with a prospect that doesn’t return your interest...do you believe that God is really all you need? Maybe you are in a relationship that you know is not growing you in your relationship with God...are you willing to do what you know in your heart you need to do? Maybe you’re one of the very blessed ones that has a godly guy and a healthy, Christ-centered relationship...can you hold to it loosely knowing that, until you have a ring on your finger, you don’t know for sure what God’s plan is? Read on... All Things New - 9th in a series After discussing the plans that God has for your future and how that may affect your relationships right now, there is one more thing that needs to be addressed--the past. What if you’ve already made poor choices about the men in your life (or are making them right now)? What do you do? At the camp where my husband and I worked the summer we met, I taught a girls’ class on relationships. It was always a joke at the end of each week to see how many girls I had convinced to break up with their boyfriends. Now whether or not God wants you to end a relationship is between you and Him. However, there are some definite truths that He wants you to know about the guys you have allowed to be a part of your life. Read on... Letting Go - 8th in a series We’ve talked a lot about waiting for the guy that God has for you and trusting that only He can make it happen. But here’s another curve ball that I need to throw your way. What if God wants you to just be single for a while or forever? What if it’s not His plan for you to get married at all? It may send a shudder down your spine...it did mine when I dealt with it. But the truth is that God uses the "in between time" to teach you and shape you and make you ready for what He has for you. If that is a guy then I trust He will show in His time, as we have previously discussed, but if it is singleness for a "higher calling" as Paul writes of it in the New Testament, then He will walk you through one as well. But the question is, how in the world are we as girls--emotional, clingy, relationship-obsessed creatures--supposed to be OK without a future relationship? Read on... God is Faithful I was in college the first time my heart was broken. Ok, in hindsight, it wasn't actually BROKEN, but it was definitely dented. The story is a familiar one, so I won't get into unnecessary details. As you might suspect, there was this boy and he was there with me and then there ended up being this other girl and he was sort of there with her too. Yeah, you get the point...agony. Read on... God is Knowing Today the sun’s beams warm me. The tall grass and yellow wild flowers remind me that spring has not forgotten the world, leaving us encased in icy cold. With the birth of new kittens and the blooming of baby trees into magnificent life, I cannot help but remember things lost along the way. Read on... God's Love Story - 7th in a series Have you ever stopped to think about all the love stories in the Bible? I think this is probably a difficult concept for us to wrap our minds around. The Bible is so hard for us to understand in so many ways. We are totally unfamiliar with the Jewish culture, which is absolutely necessary for relating to most of the stories. And many of the verses that we memorized as children are in a language that was written hundreds of years ago...I still get lost in the "thee’s", "thou’s", and "thy’s." But when we really dig to understand exactly what is happening, we can find it incredibly relevant to our lives today! Love stories are all over the place (the beautiful and the tragic). Read on... God is Sovereign Ruler God is the one and only Sovereign Ruler. A student once asked me what it meant to be "sovereign." I found myself using other adjectives to try and describe the sovereignty of God: all-knowing, all-powerful, ruler of everything that exists, ultimate-authority, omniscient (a word she also asked me about), etc. Pretty much, I sounded like a contestant on that 1980’s Pyramid game show where I was trying to describe something and get someone else to shout out the answer - "You’re talking about God!" Maybe, God is so sovereign and so above us and everything that exists that it is hard for us to understand what His sovereignty looks like. Read on... He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not - 6th in a series There are a lot of ways that we know, as Christians, we are different from the world. We also know that the way we handle our dating and relationships is different...to an extent. However, I can't help but wonder if there is a great deal of pain and heartache from which we could be saved if our view of dating and marriage was A LOT different from what everybody else was doing. I'm not saying that we need to lock ourselves in our bedroom and let our parents arrange our marriage (although there have probably been many more truly happily arranged marriages than what we would imagine). But I do think that perhaps dating and boys and all the drama that goes with it is way more "front and center" in a single girl's life that what God desires. Read on... God is Savior I once lived in darkness. I have never forgotten the aching in the pit of my stomach as a teenager, knowing that something wasn't right in my world. But what could it be? My grades were near perfect. I threw myself fully into a wide range of activities. My friends were loyal (enough) and certainly popular. Yet, I'd lie awake at night empty. Longing. Lonely. Read on... Remodeling Remodeling. Nothing is ever as easy as you think it will be when you start a remodeling project. I recently decided to do some remodeling in my house. I wanted new carpet in the living room and to replace the carpet in the dining room with hard wood flooring. I went to the local flooring store, picked out the carpet and hard wood and scheduled the day for the men to come install the flooring. Read on... What's That You're Wearing - 5th in a series My husband and I met while working at a summer youth camp. We spent 10 weeks together, but I was pretty sure that I was in love with him somewhere during week two. He was everything that God had shown me I would have in a husband...and then some! A couple of the "then some" moments happened during our first week. We were all sitting around talking about movies one night, and someone mentioned Titanic (I know I’m aging myself by naming that as a popular movie). Anyway, Dave said that it was good except for the couple of places where you had to "close your eyes and pray for your future wife." Then a few days later some of us were walking through a mall on our night off. We passed a Victoria’s Secret store, and he (nonchalantly) turned his head away from the store. Read on... God is Holy "Holy cow!" I said as my husband and I got to the top of the 11-mile trail and took in the jaw dropping vistas of the Alaska Range Mountains. It was our first time to the state; it hasn’t been our last ?. Both of us, being fans of the great outdoors, feel it’s impossible to miss the evidence of God’s power and majesty contained in the silent yet enduring giants of His creation. Yet, there is one trait of God that supersedes even His power, majesty, and His Name as Creator. Above all of these other magnificent ways to describe His character, the fact He is holy outweighs the others by a measure of significance. Read on... Virginity and Judgment I was surfing news reports recently when I came across an article from CNN. It was about a college student from California who was planning to auction off her virginity to the highest bidder to pay for graduate school. If that last sentence made your stomach turn upside down a few times, walk away from the computer and come back in a few minutes (or hours or days) when that has sunken in, your stomach has stopped doing somersaults, and you can see straight again. Read on... What is He Looking For - 4th in a series We talked about what we need to be looking for in a guy; now let’s talk about what a godly guy is looking for in a girl. Now, I realize that I am not a guy. However, I am married to one, and he has been quite informative over the years as I’ve tried to glean a little insight into the mind of the male species. Any guy that is truly seeking to know God more and grow in that relationship is going to want a girl who is doing the same. And there are several things that will be produced in the heart of a woman when she is enjoying her relationship with Him. Read on... God is Patient I am a very impatient person and in my own life I expect immediate results. I want to see things happen right away. Here is a great example from my life: I am 28 and still single. I never thought I would say that. When I was 20 everyone kept telling me just wait and pray and it will happen. Or they would say, as soon as you stop looking, he will come along. I have stopped looking...about 15 times...and, still, I am single. I kept thinking, God you said to wait and this is what I have done; I have been sitting here, waiting and doing nothing. What I have realized is that He did say wait, but it is not a "sitting still" type waiting that He wants. Read on... Sing Courage Strange how the sky outside can be blue, clear, cool, and I still feel as if I cannot face the day. As I lay still, watching the light dance through the cracks in the blinds and the birds sing their polite morning song, my mind wonders to the works of the mighty apostles. Those chosen ones, brave and certain of their faith, arose every morning to tell someone new of the work of Jesus, though they lived in a world hostile to their message. Did Paul ever awaken on a day like today, listening to the bird’s song and wondering if he had the strength to get up and push forward? Was it always easy for him? Read on... What Are You Looking For - 3rd in a series Before you start reading today, I want you to stop and think about what you are looking for in a guy. Seriously--stop and think of the five most important qualities to you (pause here while you do that). Now, first of all I want you to think about whether or not those "qualities" will still be an issue in 50 years. If not, maybe consider replacing them with some that, hopefully like your relationship, will actually stand the test of time. If things such as looks and money are at the top of your list, then what happens when you end up with a good-looking rich guy who treats you like dirt? Read on... God As Loving Bridegroom While I was home this past Christmas, I decided to flip through some old journals, still neatly stacked on the bookshelves of my "old" bedroom. I approached with both curiosity and fear to be reminded of what a 15 and 16-year old Erica had to say about life. Aside from the curly, girly dot-the-i-with-a-heart handwriting and a few glimpses into the "super awesome" media of my teenage years, I discovered a theme: I wanted someone to love me. I wanted to be thought of as lovely, to be pursued, and to be wooed. I cared deeply for my family, and I enjoyed my friends, but the desire of my heart was intimacy with someone who wanted me for me. Read on... Be Mine For a couple of weeks, I had been anxious about making an important decision and was really asking God for wisdom and direction regarding this situation. Then one morning as I prayed, I felt an incredible peace about this decision. I did not receive a clear answer or direction, but simply peace that God was in control and that He would lead me in the right direction. Being filled with this peace, my heart’s response to God as I prayed was, "I love you, I love you, I love you." Surprising myself a little, I felt like Will Ferrell in the movie Elf when he delivered his "Christmas Gram" to his father. Read on... Panama City Beach About 10 years ago I was led to what is now one of my "top 10" favorite Bible verses. I received a letter from a friend who was working at a camp in Panama City Beach (suffering for the Lord). When I opened the envelope, sand fell out EVERYWHERE. I thought he was just rubbing it in because he was in Florida and I was in Nowhere, Mississippi. Then I saw the scripture reference at the bottom...Psalm 139:17-18. I looked up the verse, and this is what I read. "How great are your thoughts, oh Lord, how vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand." Now try to imagine how many grains of sand there are in just one handful. Read on... Divine Planner Many times in my life I have been disappointed when events did not unfold the way that I had hoped or planned. Yet I have always found great comfort in knowing that my life is in the hands of God, no matter what. Even when circumstances seem unfair or I feel like the victim of someone else’s evil intentions, my life is never beyond God’s power and control. He reminds me, "I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11). Read on... Love Story With God I just finished reading a terrible book. No, it was really a good book, but it had a terrible ending! Why do people do that? Don’t we read books to step out of reality and into "happily ever after?" Anyway, we read a lot about these picture-perfect romances...where everything works out, and it leaves us with a fuzzy-warm feeling. But every once in a while, we read a book or watch a movie about a really deep, intense, passionate love. And that’s what this book was. My heart just longed for them to be together, and when they weren’t, it left me with the gut-wrenching feeling that something was terribly wrong. Read on... A Little Confidence - 2nd in a series I recently attended a high school pep rally at my sister’s (and my old) high school. As I sat there watching these teenagers dance and strut all over the floor, there were several thoughts that came into my head. First, it made me glad to be out of high school with all the pressure to be a certain way, fit into a certain group, etc.... But then as I watched the dance team and the cheerleaders, I found myself thinking how nice it would be to have that flat stomach, those tan legs, that coordination, etc.... And I am reminded that issues of acceptance and self-esteem have no respect for age. Read on... God's Beautiful Provision It has been almost a year since that morning my manager called me into her office to say, "We no longer have the budget to keep you." I was working as a floral designer, and even though I wasn’t crazy about the job’s long days of standing and the toll it took on me physically, let’s face it, it was a job. Read on... What's the Plan? OK ladies, I’ve been inspired...by my 17-year-old sister. She probably won’t feel like the source of inspiration, especially if I make her read this. She will most likely roll her eyes and say something like, "Oh, my goodness," that’s how she typically responds when her 31-year-old sister has advice for her. Anyway, we live right down the road from my family (don’t judge me...it works for us), so I get to see lots of teenage drama. As I am reminded of all the issues that a 17-year-old girl faces, I wish I could say that they are unique to this generation, and that my friends and I never acted like that. Read on... Fortress in a Time of Need We were warned by weather forecasts and news briefs last night that the sunset might bring with it some angry last breaths of Hurricane Ike. Our house backs up to a tree-covered hill that is sprinkled with trees whose life has left years ago but still remain standing. We always seem to say a little prayer and hold our breath whenever we hear reports of undesirable weather heading our way. I remember waking up several times throughout the night to wind howls and gusts and hurricane rains wailing on the roof and sides of our home. Read on... GOD is Creator God is Creator. He is not just a creator; He is the Creator -- first and foremost. In Genesis 1:1 and following, we are told that God created all that exists. He created everything in the earth and the universe, as well as each of us as human beings. We are further told that God saw His creation and declared it to be "good" (Genesis 1:31). In a sense, we could call God the ultimate "Designer" because His creation is, in fact, His design. Read on... Check out the archives for all of our other articles.