Okay, so I know that it's not Sunday now for most of you but for those of us here on the West Coast we still have about an hour left and I am determined to get this post in before midnight so I can still call it SUNDAY Night Inspiration. Ha!

 

I know, it's really okay...I can give myself grace when I don't get these written early enough to schedule a post but to be quite honest, as much as I would like to plan these posts, they don't always work that way. Sometimes when I think I know just what I want to share with all of you, what's really on MY heart is not really what's on God's heart. Since this is the reason I write these each week anyway {to share God's heart for you, me, to inspire and empower you} I wait.

 

I wait until the very last minute sometimes just to hear it. A word...

 

Tonight it was just one...CAPTIVATING. Wait. What? What does that mean?

 

I was sitting and thinking...well, actually kinda freaking out that I hadn't posted this just yet and it was already after 12 noon.

 

Maybe I just wouldn't post this today? Maybe it would be okay to just leave this one blank and let the one from last Sunday soak in a bit more? What would people think? Would they think I am an inconsistent blogger? That they couldn't follow and trust to find the series here, right here, each Sunday? Come on Lord...I need to share my heart and I need you to GIVE ME a word for your girls {and some of your guys} right NOW.

 

So there I sat, all stressed out when it came.

 

Now, I know I probably say this each and every week...but I will do my absolute BEST to keep this one short and sweet.

 

You are captivating. And not only are you captivating but HE is captivated by you. Not because of your beauty {but you are beautiful}, not because you're a good dancer {but I am SURE you are}. Not because you have the best outfits or your hair is JUST right or because you didn't yell at your kids today {thank you Jesus} but because you are made in His image, created with a great purpose to fulfill.

 

Now this may seem like a little thing. It may seem like something that really just doesn't matter...all of this "captivating" mumbo jumbo...but, here's the deal:

 

Another word for captivating...capture. Can you believe that God is SO in love with you that you capture his heart? And that His love is so big, so deep, so wide that He wants to capture yours? And in the midst of your life and day-to-days and all of your working and doing, His love is so magnified that it captures others.

 

I know this is a lot of captivating and capturing and I really don't want to make this complex. So, simply put...God wants us {His girls} to be SO captivated, so caught up, so CAPTURED by Him and what He has placed in us, what He called us to do whether it be for a season or for a lifetime so much so that it overflows into all that we do until people begin to take notice.

 

And then before you know it, God working through you...through your gifts, through your smile, the gift of a free coffee to a stranger, through that change of a diaper and a spontaneous convo in a public restroom {come on I know I am NOT the only one} CAPTURES another one's heart.

 

She {that stranger, that friend from years ago, fill in the blank} is then raptured, wrapped up in, swaddled and captivated by you and the God shining through you.

 

So, it all starts here...with knowing that you are LOVED by your Creator and that He loves YOU and is captivated by YOU. You are captivating. You are loved. You are worth it.

 

Praying for you this week {and for myself} that we KNOW it, feel it, sense it, experience it...the captivating love of Christ. There's nothing like it in this world.

 

 

Kim Walker is one of my faves. Please take a moment to listen to the words of this song. Really sums up the heart of this post.

 



 









Hi Friends!

Welcome back to Sunday Night Inspiration! If this is your first time joining us, I welcome you to join me each week for an evening read filled with encouragement and inspiration to get your week started off right!

 

I began this series a couple of months back after feeling led to do so and each week it is SO refreshing to get feedback from all of you that you've been encouraged and your cups have been filled up! My mission in this series is to empower you along the way to be the wife, husband, friend, sister, daughter, son, PERSON you have been called to be...one post at a time. My desire, and more importantly, God's desire is to see you walk right smack dab into your calling and purpose in life with arms wide open.

 

I've been thinking a lot lately. {You know, right? LOL} One of the things I've been meditating on is my life and how over again God has never failed. Never. Even when I thought He did...I am reminded, HE DID NOT. And He never will.

 

Are you guys catching a theme here in this series? I sure hope so!

 

Phillippians 1:6

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. NLT

You see that? Paul writes to the believers in Philippi a note...an empowering, encouraging note. His first words are "I am certain...". And further into the passage there's the word "continue".

God's work in you and in your life is CERTAIN to CONTINUE. Let's look more closely at that word continue:

1. keep going: to last, or make something last, beyond the present or throughout a period of time
2. not stop: to keep up an activity or state already begun
3. start something again: to start doing something again after an interruption or pause

Originally I was only going to post one of these definitions but they are all just too good! 
Continue: keep going.
Continue: to last
Continue: beyond the present
Continue: not stop.

Come on guys! Ya gotta get excited with me, friends! He {our God} who began a GOOD work in all of us...is faithful to CONTINUE: NOT STOP, KEEP GOING, MAKE IT LAST until the VERY END. Until COMPLETION. Until the end of the end.

 

And for those of you who wonder if you've messed up that work He began...continue also means to start again. {see definition number 3}

 

His faithfulness...continues. His goodness...continues. His love...continues.

His mercy and grace...continue. IN YOU.

 

Don't give up. He's doing something great. Promise.

XO,

 

Hi Friends! Thanks for stopping by this week for Sunday Night Inspiration! If this is your first time, this series is a once a week post where I get a little more personal and attempt to inspire and encourage you to be the YOU God has called you to be while sharing more of my personal journey and life.

 

Last week I shared about a photography session that sparked the revival of a dream that I had long forgotten. In a sense, I was awakened in that moment. I realized, once again, that God was not finished with me. That my days and my life will not forever be consumed by diapers and homework, taxi driving and sports. That I was meant to dream and that those dreams and visions had been placed in my heart by God, for His purpose and glory.

 

I also mentioned that some girlfriends and I attended the Women of Faith Conference last weekend where we were all inspired to live just a little bit bigger and reach out a little bit further. It was such a refreshing time with friends but even more with our Creator.

 

We heard speakers like Christine Caine, Jen Hatmaker and others who are so full of so many great gifts. I was amazed to see how freely they flowed in those gifts. There was just such an ease that came along with what they shared and as I listened, I knew (as well as others attending, I am sure) that they were doing just what God had called them to do. At what point, I wonder, were they awakened? When was that aha! moment that God spoke to them that "This is where My power will flow freely in you. This is what I have given you to share with the world. Go. Run. Be free."

 

Isn't this the story of most of our lives? We search from the time we are born for purpose and meaning and as we are raised whether we have a healthy upbringing or not, we hope to find it in parents, mentors or friends. We search for it in music, activities, drugs, clothes...fill in the blank. Many of us find it in Jesus and some, still search...while He waits to awaken.

 

I mean, we know that He has created all things, He is the beginning {and the end} of all things. He came to bring life and meaning and purpose to all things.

 

His word tells us:

 

Genesis 1:1-2 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.

 

He was there, at the beginning to bring purpose, to create, to bring life and to awaken the earth even to its calling and if you read on you find that it wasn't just about the earth, of course but it was and always has been about us.

 

This idea alone has been one of the overwhelming themes of my thought life over the past few months and the last couple of weeks, even more intensely. God has used people around me, His word, events to breathe life into a once dead dream.

 

This week I was reminded of the scripture from Ezekiel where God gave Ezekiel a vision of a valley full of dry bones. I felt it necessary to share the entire scripture and not just an excerpt so you can get the full picture of what happened there in that valley with Ezekiel.

 

Ezekiel 37

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³ He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

 

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

 

⁴ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath^[a] enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

 

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

 

⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

 

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

So this, week I am here to encourage you. To bring you hope. To help you see again with your FAITH EYES and not your human eyes. To let you know and to remind you that just because something looks dead, doesn't mean that God cannot, will not, and does not desire to breathe life, once again, into it. To awaken it...to awaken YOU to fulfill your calling and purpose in life.

 

 



XO,

 



 

Okay, ya'll...so I am already over here waving my hankie and getting all excited about sharing with you this week for Sunday Night Inspiration! OMG. This past week has been SO amazing. Not because life has been perfect but because God is SO amazing and perfect and so is His will for me and YOU! Such a full week. Some friends of mine and I attended the Women of Faith conference this weekend. I'll be sharing those details with you next week but...

Last week a photographer friend of mine texted me to let me know that she'd rented a lens for her camera and wanted to know if I wanted to shoot. Specifically, she wanted to know if my daughter and I wanted to do a session together. She had this whole idea in her mind of doing a "street hipster chic" style as she called it. Of course, I obliged. I was down. I mean, I had to help her get those ideas she'd envisioned about this shoot out of her system, right? Not to mention, she is a pretty amazing photographer with an amazing eye...or two. {sorry, couldn't help that one} So, anyhow, um...yes. We did it. No regrets and this is why...

 

I really am beyond pleased with the way these photos turned out and Tiarra has such a special way of capturing moments and personalities in her photography. Just a note...she travels. And you can see more of her work or inquire about a session here.

 

Now, let me just put a little disclaimer out there...I don't normally think I look all that amazing in photos. (Sorry, just being honest) However, this photo shoot was different. And, somehow, these photos were different.

 

Immediately following the session, as my daughter and I were getting in the car, I was reminded of my flight to Europe this summer and a vision that God gave me while reading the most amazing book ever by Lisa Bevere called Nurture . You can read more about John and Lisa Bevere here.

Sidenote: BEST. BOOK. EVER. If you are a woman. Read it. Period. Commercial over.

Back to the story...

 

So, as I was sitting on the plane I had a lot of time for reading. There is a chapter in this book that talks about women as mentors, moms, sisters...etc. and the role that each of those play in our lives and in the work of the Kingdom of God. It shook my world. I remember my heart began to race as I read Lisa's words and then...God spoke through a vision.

I was typing like crazy...the thoughts were coming almost too quickly for my brain to even process them into words for my notes. It was fantastic.

 

Since Sunday nights are our personal nights here and a way for you to get to know my heart, here's the deal...

 

I have a passion and a heart for women. Of all ages. Broken, needy, weary, worn, torn apart...those who need a word of encouragement, a good laugh, a coffee, a smile...I have a desire to FEED THE NEED.

 

Moreover, I have a heart to see dreams and visions revived in these women.  

It gives me great pleasure to see a woman who has forgotten who she is and be reminded once again of her purpose and calling in life.

 

I believe that is just a small part of my purpose for being here on this Earth.

To encourage, empower, enlighten, lighten the loads of, see the release of and help women break free into their dreams. The God-breathed, bigger than life, impossible without Him...dreams.

 

And in that very moment right there on the plane, I saw it. A room packed full of women and my daughter standing by my side...in ministry. Together. It was just a snippet but it was enough to reignite a fire within me that had long burned out.

 

I stuffed it...tucked it away for when I wasn't the mom who was needed as much.

 

For when I wasn't the wife who had to square up meals for the family or have as much "couch time" with the hubby.

 

That was a lie.

 

My time is now.

 

My heart beats and hurts for the lost...now. My daughter, my kids, my husband need me...now.

 

And God is calling me...now.

 

Who told me to stop dreaming? Who told you? Who told you that you couldn't?

 

Another disclaimer, I am a mom of four. I get that our lives are full of lots of things, commitments, etc. Trust me. Am I talking about doing your own thing and following your own desires? No. What I am saying is that if God has given you desire, a dream, He has placed it in your heart for His purpose and YOU have a special part to play and a purpose to fulfill that no one can do the way He created you to do.

 

What I am sure of  is that even in the midst of motherhood, marriage, friendships and life altogether God gives us opportunities to "seed" into His Kingdom and our purpose for His glory. It really is quite spectacular. You know, that thing called grace...we do it all by Him and through Him anyway, right?

 

It's with His authority and His grace that we empower and encourage one another. We FAN THE FLAMES of passion and desire that God placed in our hearts since the beginning of it all. And we do it because it gives us LIFE. Real, pure, true...LIFE.

 

May I encourage you to keep dreaming?

 

You are a link in someone's chain.

You are hope to someone who's lost it all.

You are here to serve a purpose and to fulfill a destiny and calling that is specific to your individual God fingerprint.

 

 

 

Cheering you on,