Hungry? A Hidden Surprise Feast for Your Heart

William Foley, Unsplash

One of my favorite short animated films is “Piper”, from Pixar Films. It tells the story of a sandpiper chick urged by its mother to leave its safe warm sandy nest and begin digging for clams with the rest of the flock down by the shore.

At first, the reluctant chick assumes its mother will still feed it. When the mother instead shows the chick to search for clams in the wet sand, the chick looks askance, but hesitatingly tries – without success.

Completely oblivious to its surroundings, the chick suddenly realizes that the rest of the flock have retreated… and by itself, is knocked over by a wave of cold seawater.

Shivering, sodden, scared, the chick huddles back in its nest, when the mother gently encourages it to come out and try again. Its growling belly shows the growing need to find food.

This time, almost incapacitated by fear and dread, the chick cowers higher on the shore – when it meets a little hermit crab stolidly making its way down to the water. 

Following, curious but still cautious, the chick watches as the crab spies a wave coming. Instead of running, it simply burrows down to create a safe nook to hide from the sweep of the water. Unable to escape in time from the wave, the chick quickly copies the crab’s methods, digging itself down into the wet sand just as the wave rushes over the pair, engulfing them both.

The chick hunkers underwater, eyes closed tight, trying to survive till the water recedes. Unexpectedly, the crab taps on the sandpiper’s beak. The chick opens its eyes and to the piper’s astonished gaze, the sandy floor under the water is rich with many clams, each having risen to the surface. As the wave washes back out, the clams begin to retreat below the surface again, digging down deeper, hidden once more.

This little underwater glimpse is electrifying to the sandpiper chick – and the change is extraordinary!

Gone is the little cowering, shivering, fearful chick who hides in the safety and warmth of its nest and is fed by someone else. Suddenly, the chick is energized, knowing where to find the largest clams! Running and piping with delight, it even brings an enormous clam to its mother, so large that several other sandpipers join the feast.

The little piper is still soaking wet. It is still being hit by incessant, cold waves. But now the piper is joyful, revitalized, and is no longer hungry. Instead of avoiding the waves, it realizes that they are rich opportunities for nourishment.

I can relate so well to that little sandpiper. I too often long to stay in the safety and comfort of a warm, sunny nest. I am perfectly content to avoid the cold of suffering and challenges – even while I grow hungry.

Yet when God, like a loving mama sandpiper, nudges me out of my comfort zone and I somewhat uncertainly (and often reluctantly) follow Him down to the shore, I still often expect to be completely coddled, expecting warmth, ease, and safety… 

Then when frustrations, disappointments, and difficulties smack me down like chilling salt waves, I too want to give up and run far, far away, back to the shelter of the dry nest and comfortably starve. 

Yet, God keeps encouraging me to start living as I was meant to be, growing in maturity and wisdom, learning how to find and consume what is most nourishing to my soul – and it’s down by the water’s edge, not up in the barren nest.

Then, in a time of apparent hardship or difficulty, completely certain that I am unable to breathe or survive in the suffocating cold flooding my senses, He also gently helps me to open my eyes in the middle of it… and reveals a feast of strength and plenty that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible to me unless I was there under the water.

In the time of hard there is nourishment. In the experiences of difficulty there is fulfillment, and in the times of loss God provides for your heart. He knows what is best for us, and He knows what we need. In His care, “even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.” (Psalm 65:11, NLT)

In our experiences that knock us over and threaten to overwhelm, if we open our eyes to Him in trust instead of fear, we will discover an entirely new strength – and even though we might still be outwardly wet, cold, bedraggled, and look a little crazy, we will have deep joy and full hearts, with plenty to share for others.

A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.

Proverbs 27:7, NLT

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Why a Bible-Shaped Life is Vitally Important to Any Parent

If you truly want to have a lasting impact and raise your children for the Kingdom of God, the Bible must have a foundational, central, and overarching role in your home and heart life.

Read it, speak it, sing it, pray it, write it, discuss it, study it, and memorize it.

“And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.”

(Deuteronomy 6:6-7, NLT, emphasis mine)

Look for ways to honor and invite Scripture into your life and thoughts and routines until it becomes like second nature, your native language, completely familiar and beloved.

Because it’s going to be hard to tell your kids how crucial it is to them if it’s not essential to you, first. Kids are smart. They won’t buy hypocrisy, and they’re watching to see if it’s the real deal to you. So make it real!

Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to make it so addictive to you and so attractive you can’t miss it without missing it. Ask Him for creative ways to include it in your daily routine. Ask Him to help you with memorizing it. Ask Him to help you love it. Ask Him to help you make time to read it.

Then obey. Make time for reading it. Even if you start with only five minutes in the morning.

Busy moms still snatch a few minutes to eat throughout their day. (I know because I’ve been doing it for years.) Even if it’s later than everyone else, I still find a moment to eat something so I can keep going. I still make time for those two minutes of making my small cup of espresso each morning (and oh, the joy that creamy, deeply-rich-and-dark coffee brings my heart), so I know that I can also choose to take a couple minutes to crack open my Bible, quiet my heart, and let the words inspired by the Holy Spirit wash over me and feed my soul before I get into the flurry of a busy day with many little children. And often at the end of the day, I choose to spend a few more minutes with Scripture, as a comforting grace to hold in my mind as I drift off to sleep.

Time with the Bible shapes my thoughts and sets my heart in the right frame to handle my day with grace, courage, and intentional choices that lean toward righteousness. In parenting, I need this. (I’m guessing you might, too.) I can sure tell the difference on the days I miss my Bible time!

If you truly think you can only manage five minutes, perhaps start with just one chapter of the Gospels a day. Begin with the Gospel of John. When you get to the end, start Matthew, then keep moving through them. 

If you make more time, read one Psalm a day as well. If you accidentally skip a day, ditch the guilt and pick it up again the next day without hesitation. Keep going. Don’t stop – if you don’t feed your soul with the Word of life, it will starve. What this world has to offer is temporary and unsatisfying at best. Nourish your heart with what will truly sustain you, grow you, and transform you.

Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

(Hebrews 11:6, NLT, emphasis mine)

The Bible should so permeate our thoughts, words, and behavior that we are known for being people of the Word anywhere and everywhere we engage with others. It should carry a certain lingering fragrance and presence that wherever we go we are noted for leaving the undeniable tang and strength of a life steeped in and shaped by the Scriptures.

The Bible is our tangible link to knowing and understanding who the stunningly loving, all-powerful, glorious, terrifying, and holy Spirit-Being who created our universe and our human race is – and why He deserves our adoration and obedience:

Because He, in spite of His perfect power and glory, became a man, and suffered and died a horrible criminal’s death to bring us life – demonstrating His love by paying the cost of our wrongdoing. Then by rising again, alive forevermore, He once and for all broke the power of sin and death, demonstrating His power, authority, and worthiness of our love and allegiance.

And this story and revelations of His character, as well as clear guidelines for how to live our lives as well, are found in the inspired Holy Bible. This is not something to hold with little esteem.

  • Here is where the Holy Spirit can speak to us each day.
  • Here is where we can find hope for our lives and the future to come.
  • Here is where we recognize the beautiful kindness of God’s love that suddenly seems to gleam from so many aspects of our own lives.
  • Here is where we see the mercy of God in the histories of other broken people, and find inspiration and courage for our own.
  • And here is where we find the wisdom to teach and lead our children in a way that truly points them toward God and a life lived in His love.

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

(Hebrews 4:12, NLT)

Time spent prayerfully with the Bible is time allowing God to transform us into the godly people He desires us to be. It is time that gives us the strength to overcome the long-term sins and temptations we struggle with. It is time coming to know and love more deeply our One, Truest Love. And that will give us the deepest, most delightful, pleasurable joy we can ever experience this side of Heaven.

I may daily come short of adequately demonstrating the holiness and beauty of my God, but His Word never will. And I would rather faithfully stumble toward Him and daily fight to pursue Him than carelessly dance on my way in a life full of shallow pursuits, low standards, and vain regrets. He is worth my all, and His Word is worth every moment spent with it.

How many minutes will you spend reading the Bible today? Will you commit to reading it at least five minutes a day for 30 days? (If you miss a day, just keep going on the next!)

May a love and a desire for the Holy Word of God be ignited in our hearts, and an earnest pursuit of time with it be vibrantly evident in our homes and lives.

Walking with you in this!

– Maria

How to Change When You Hijack Your Own Progress

If only they would always sit this still… I love cuddles!

Shoulders hunched, discouragement and defeat on his face, teary eyes lifted sadly, my little son told me he wanted to quit.

It was just too hard for him, and he couldn’t do it, he said. His math book was just too difficult and he needed to go back a grade level.

Then he cried.

I looked at him, too astonished to speak for a moment.  This is a child who is precocious, intelligent, and studies eagerly. He had achieved the level he was in by his own efforts, not because of my expectations or any pushing.

For him to suddenly collapse with defeat was startling, especially when he had been doing really well!

What had happened?

Then I discovered that he had been flipping through his book to the sections near the end, when his current lessons are still in the first third of the book. When he had seen problems and difficult questions he was unable to answer or even understand yet, he had collapsed in overwhelm, discouragement, and defeat. He told himself he just wasn’t able to do it – he wasn’t smart enough. And then he believed it.

But he was nowhere near ready to take those problems on yet – he had a lot of lessons in between where he was now and what he would need to know by then!

And then it hit me:

How many times am I like that? How about you? 

I can look ahead and see in the future the outline of a difficult problem or situation, and I freeze in fear. I have no idea of how to solve that problem! I don’t even know the first thing to do to cope with it!

And depression, discouragement, insecurity, and overwhelm set in. I listen to the story that I will never be able to overcome the challenge, or that when it comes I will drown in writhing defeat.

What if looking that far ahead in my current perspective was actually a major detriment to my progress? 

Like my son, I am self-sabotaging my own success by comparing my abilities NOW with what I will need THEN – without factoring in my own significant change in the process.

He who began a good work in me is FAITHFUL to complete it (Phil 1:6). He will unceasingly work in my heart and life (so far as I allow Him to have the authority), and He will not allow me to skip any lesson that He knows I will need for success later on!

My task for RIGHT NOW is just the next lesson. That’s it.

What is God teaching me in THIS moment, THIS day, THIS season?

That alone is all I need to work on for now.

He is the most patient and best of Teachers, the most thorough and kind of all Guides and Counselors. His loving wisdom to know exactly what I need when and in what timing is something I can absolutely trust in. 

And so can you.

I encourage you to look ahead – it’s what gives us inspiration and excitement! And carefully plan and excitedly dream and hopefully purpose.

But bring your wise and loving Teacher along with you in these moments. When you’re tempted to flip ahead too far and what you see overwhelms and scares you rather than inspires you, shut that flipping book. 

Grab your Father’s comforting hand, climb up and listen to His heart, and trustingly ask Him what it is He wants you to learn NOW.

Ask for the faith to believe He will teach you in the way you learn best.

And ask for the teachable, soft heart to learn it well!

Then ask the same thing each day, for the rest of your life.

And I think by the time we each get to the thing that looked so scary, we will have an entire assortment of experiences and lessons and understanding that will give us a more solid foundation for facing the challenge well.

And so we can hold onto hope!

Our God is filled with tender love, kindness and patience. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out (Matthew 12:20).

And I am certain that the next lesson He gives us is one that is one that He knows we are ready for. We can wholeheartedly look in His face and smile, trusting Him to walk us through it well. 

I hope you are well, my lovely friend. I will be praying that whatever lesson you and I face in this time finds us both with soft and teachable hearts, open hands, and trusting and uplifted outlooks.

Take a moment right now to tell God you trust Him. Ask for that teachable, soft heart. And thank Him for being such a patient and wise Teacher to help you learn what you need for today. 

I’m so excited for us! Best school day ever.

– Maria

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