I learned from my mama how to host a meal. When I was growing up, my mom opened her home for showers, birthday parties, Christmas Eve dinners, graduation parties. You name it, she did it. She even hosted my wedding reception in the middle of COVID and you never would have known the world was shut down. 

And you’d better believe that I was enlisted to help her execute every party she had growing up; whether it was folding cloth napkins and setting the table for Christmas Eve, or setting up tables and chairs for a pig-pickin’, or setting up decorations for a theme party– I was there. And I learned a lot.

“Don’t be a yente.” 

That’s how my mother would scold me when I was a child and being meddlesome or a busybody. It was always a funny word that made me giggle, but the rebuke was there even if it was made in jest. ‘Yente’ is a yiddish word for a gossiper, which from what I can tell, became a more popular term from the play Fiddler on the Roof, the actual name of the matchmaker in the show that arranges the marriages for their small, Jewish village in Ukraine. 

This should give you a better picture if you’re unfamiliar with the term: a yente is a meddling gossip, a known busybody, or a tale-bearer. She always has a story and always has the latest word on who’s who and what’s what.

We have a beagle/jack russel mix named Archie. When we got him, he was only about 8 or 9 weeks old. At first, whenever we got in the car, he was always skittish, probably expecting that he was either going back to the shelter where he was trained and cared at before he came to us, or going off to another family.

Every time we left him home alone, he would have anxiety; crying and crying and chewing up objects in a blind panic. Probably because he didn’t trust us to come back. Eventually, Archie got used to the idea: He was staying with us. We were his people.

At the start of the year, I tackled the task of being a sourdough mom. I purchased a dehydrated starter and set about trying to wake it up. After about a week, it was time to tackle actually making bread. There is so much that goes into it, but the best way to understand it is to jump right in, see the finished result, and then keep making tweaks from there until it’s exactly the way it should be. 

One of the tweaks I had to make was to start using warm water when I fed my starter and when I mixed the dough. Warm water will help the fermentation process much better because the temperature agrees better with the bacteria that causes the dough to rise. The warmth encourages more growth. Pair this with putting the dough in a warm place when it’s set aside to rise? Those are two tweaks that make for a more fluffy, delicious loaf of bread.

“Suddenly [the unwise man] went after [the adulteress], as an ox goes to the slaughter [not knowing the outcome], or as one in stocks going to the correction [to be given] to a fool, until an arrow pierced his liver [with a mortal wound]; Like a bird fluttering straight into the net. He did not know that it would cost him his life. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her [evil, immoral] paths. For she has cast down many [mortally] wounded; Indeed, all who were killed by her were strong. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs 7:22-27, AMP)

Back when I used to be a youth leader, we would spend the summer nights out in the church parking lot. Kids would bring their skateboards, scooters, and bikes and ride all around the property. We’d set up big firepits and volleyball nets for some good, old-fashioned goofing off after the meeting was over.

One night, I remember I was talking to a couple people by the backdoor of the church when I heard a scratching sound that would not stop. I looked all around the back stoop until I realized the scratching was coming from the gutter downspout of the church. This downspout went from the eave of the roof and continued underground and must have gone into some sewer system with the town. 

Quickly, me and a couple other people worked to get the piece of downspout disconnected from the pipe underneath. The pipe went down a couple of feet, so dark that we couldn’t see anything but a pair of panicked eyes at the bottom and lots of squeaking. Shining a light down, we realized it was a squirrel. He must have been on the roof of the church and fallen down the gutter into what was a sure death if we hadn’t came along.

We tried a few ways to get the little guy out of the hole, and we ended up feeding a piece of rope down the hole for the squirrel to climb up.

Our sin will entrap us in the same way. Like a little squirrel falling down a pipe that was hidden under leaves, or a bird in a net, or an ox to the slaughter, we often don’t realize the depths of our sin until we have been caught in it. To follow it to its end is certain death and without a Savior is as inescapable as that underground pipe. 

In Proverbs 7, Solomon depicts a young and inexperienced man that lacks the wisdom to turn from an adulteress. This adulteress tempts his every sense and beckons him to be with her. She lays her trap with a luxurious home and a sumptuous bed perfumed with oils and made with comfortable cushions and linens. She smoothly speaks to him and makes him feel desired. She tells him that their encounter will be full of love and delight– until morning. By the end of her invitation, the young man is completely allured and is persuaded inside. Solomon himself ends the tale saying, “He did not know it would cost him his life.”

Our sin separates us from God. It’s not a small thing. We can try to excuse it away or minimize it but if not confronted and given to Jesus, it will ensnare us. If not repented of and turned away from, it will consume us. We cannot claim to walk in righteousness and yet cling to our wrongs.

Solomon begs his son to listen to him and heed his warnings: Don’t let your heart turn to evil. Don’t allow your foot to even step in that direction. Remember, whatever is in your heart, your feet will eventually go. If your heart allows the temptation of sin to be entertained, if you do not guard yourself to be quick to identify the persuasions of the immoral, you will inevitably fall short. A mouse doesn’t usually sense the trap closing over its neck, they only see the bait. A crab doesn’t know it’s in a trap until the doors swing shut and the cage starts to rise off the sea floor.

If we lack spiritual, Godly knowledge, we will walk straight into the trap of our temptations. But if we gain God’s insight and listen to His word, we will be better equipped to be on guard against the sin that beckons us. Solomon warns his sons that the adultress’ home seemed inviting and promised delight, but that seemingly alluring home is the way to death. She’s led many others to it with the same smooth talk; that comfortable bedroom is a chamber of death.

Maybe today’s devotion doesn’t seem so encouraging. Maybe it’s blunt and a little heavy. But we need to be reminded of the egregiousness of our sin. Sometimes, we need to soberly take stock of where we fall short. Be encouraged. God’s Spirit desires to help you fight your sin. His wisdom is designed to help you root it out and live in a way that pleases Him. 

If our ultimate goal is to be spiritually wise and walk the path of righteousness, then we need to be quick to point out our struggle and allow God to transform it. The wise lean into instruction and correction so they can become more wise. The fool bristles against correction so that they can continue to ignore the ways they still need to mature.

Think of Godly wisdom as the rope we hung down into the hole to fish the squirrel out of the pipe. We had to try several times, feeding it in and out over and over before the squirrel finally caught the hint and grabbed onto the rope and climbed out. If we cry out to God for help and wisdom– if we seek the Lord and grab on to His understanding– we will find that wisdom is God’s hand extended to pull us up out of the trap of our sin.

It’s never too late to begin confronting the things we know we fall short in, to turn our direction back to a walk of faith and live a life in service and in the name of Christ.

Do you see God as a friend, or as a distant entity? Do you see His commands as necessities to your life, or as guidelines often ignored? 

The mark of a maturing Christian is the one who embraces the Lord’s teachings as life-giving guidance and turns to God in joy and exuberance in communion. When you see God’s counsel as if it were trusted advice from your best friend, you know you’re in a good place. You’ve drawn near to the Lord not as a wish-fulfiller or a militant box-checker, but as a sister or a faithful companion. 

If you put the ingredients together for a pie and put them in the oven, you won’t end up with a roast chicken. If you throw together a batch of cookies, you won’t ever take out and serve a 3 layer cake out of the same ingredients.

What you put in is what you get coming out. This is a foundational idea in the Bible: what you take into your heart is what will end up coming out of you– in word, in deed, and in the fruit of your life.

‘If the sun is not awake, then you aren’t allowed to play yet.’ That’s the rule in our house for our three year old. A few months back, we were going through a phase where she would wake up in the middle of the night and wander the house– usually hiding somewhere so that when we figured out she was out of bed, we would have to search to find her before settling her again. Once she realized that didn’t work, she started coming to our bed every night, which also grew old fast. 

That was when we taught her that when the sun goes down, we go to sleep, and when it rises again we can start a new day of playing. But if she wakes and the sun isn’t up yet, she has to try to go back to sleep.

Wisdom comes with experience. For the most part, that’s what we believe– that the longer you live, the more wisdom you have. It’s not a wrong line of thinking, as throughout our lives, the things we go through teach us something; so experiences hone wisdom because the knowledge was gained through living. 

But Godly wisdom isn’t just this passively gained thing as we go through life. It doesn’t happen by osmosis. Godly wisdom is something gained through active pursuit. It’s an intentional process that costs us something in order to receive and apply it.

My daughter got a Pretty, Pretty Princess game for Christmas this year. The premise is simple, there is a game board, a spinner, and a bowl full of different color jewelry in the middle. The goal is to go around the game board and gather all the pieces of jewelry in your color: necklace, bracelet, ring, a pair of earrings, and a crown. The first one to have all their jewelry wins.

Me and my husband have played this game with her about two dozen times since she got it, and no exaggeration: she wins every time. She loves it. Dripping in jewelry, her smile is as big as a billboard when she realizes she won; she is the pretty, pretty princess.

What does it mean to be completely devoted to someone or something? 

Even marriages have the “honeymoon phase,” where the couple is totally enamored with each other. Everything is new, and precious, and exhilarating. There’s something similar when you become new parents– “the bubble” as it’s now affectionately called. Where you bring that child home and they are so agreeable, so cute, so new and wonderful, that the world just feels novel and sweet.

Almost a couple years ago, Sam and I went to Arizona for him to interview for an opportunity to work with a church planting organization. We went into the long weekend with high hopes and were praying that God would provide– Sam was looking for a job at the time.

Long story short, they didn’t offer Sam the opportunity, but they wanted us to see their “innovative” way of doing church so that we could experience God in the way their quickly growing congregation was. We went in, sat down, and worshiped through a carefully curated worship, a neatly-packaged sermon with four, easy bulletpoints, in an auditorium of people that were in and out within an hour and twenty minutes.

There are many things people try to prepare you for when you’re becoming a parent for the first time. There are big things and small things; from warnings about the looming sleepless nights and allowing yourself to get rest where you can to the savoring of every moment. Between bottles, diapering, feeding, sleep schedules, and keeping up with baby’s milestones, there’s a lot to learn and focus on– and that’s just the first stage of a child’s life!

A river runs through our town, and at this time of year, it’s partially frozen. The thing about a river is that for it to be totally frozen is rare. The temperature has to be way below freezing for an extended period of time in order to overcome the constant flow of water and freeze it solid. If you look at a river that is starting to freeze though, you’ll notice that the ice is primarily on the banks, where the current is the slowest. 

I’ve lived in some interesting places with some cool history. 

I’ve lived on Long Island, where the Revolutionary War was fought and lots of that history is still being preserved. I’ve lived on the coast of North Carolina, where Civil War and pirate history is kept, including the wreck site of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which was infamously captained by Blackbeard. I’ve lived and studied in Cape Town, South Africa, which still remembers Apartheid and is a melting pot of many different cultures.

I am sitting down writing this devotional in Starbucks with a grande coffee next to me and an overwhelming to-do list bouncing around in my brain. Yet, in the midst of all my unchecked tasks, my mind longs for is some much-needed rest. If you know me you know I love my sleep, so when I say I am longing for “rest,” I am talking about 12 hours of deep sleep. I have gotten to the point in my life where I am used to the fast pace world we live in, and I can tell you honestly, I am not a fan. It feels as if is there not enough silence to rest and hear the Lord.