Peace is important

Agatha Christie once said, 

“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”

I can not tell you how much I relate to that quote; some of my BEST writing ideas come when I am at the kitchen sink, with the soap suds. The topic of this blog post was given to me while I was washing up the dishes from making pancakes this morning.

The topic of this post is drum roll: DATING. 

I’m not dating anyone right now, but my brother is. I’m just having fun on the single train. If you are like me and riding this single train, it’s good to have company. Everything is easier when you have a friend. I wish I could just wrap my arms around you and tell you, it’s all going to work out. Someday this train will come into a station, and you will find the person that is meant to complement your life. Until then, just enjoy this season of freedom. When you are single you have the freedom, you won’t EVER have again. You are given the rare opportunity to seek God like no other time in your life. 

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”-Jeremiah 29:13 ESV 

When you start dating someone your heart becomes divided, your attention is now torn between God and this girl or guy. 

I dated someone last year, for three months and I learned some lessons and found out what it means to jump ahead of God’s plan for your life. 

When we jump ahead of God in our life, it’s kinda of like that pancake I made this morning that I pulled out of the pan too early. I wasn’t ready for that relationship, like that pancake needed to cook longer. I needed more time with the Creator. 

“And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to do.”-Jeremiah 18:4 ESV

I needed more time to get my demons conquered, yet I jumped ahead of God’s will and the lessons are timeless. 

I believe there is a lie in the Christian community that once you find a guy, who wants to date you, you must marry said man and have kids. First, let me talk to all the girls dating someone right now. If it’s not working for you anymore, you have the option, the prerogative to end things. Let me say it again if you don’t like him anymore throw him back. 

I know, I know it sounds hard. It was hard, but we can do hard things. 

It seemed hard that Wednesday morning, that FaceTime call was uncomfortable and a little awkward. How do you tell your boyfriend we’re done? It was more than a little rough, but it showed me what I am made of. I have done something hard and survived. My decision to breakup with him has been the right choice for me. 

“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold-though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”-1 Peter 1:7 NLT 

I don’t believe that there is one person for you. We can be compatible with different people. I found the one who wasn’t right for the next season of my life and I am waiting on God to show me who the next man for Mary Hannah needs to be. While waiting for that day we meet, I’m enjoying this single train and having fun. **insert train whistle**

My best friend told me to follow the peace and that is my challenge to you, FOLLOW THE PEACE. 

“Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”-Philippians 4:7 NLT 

If there someone in your life blocking your peace GET RID OF THEM. Nothing is worth risking your peace and joy for. You are worth fighting for. It might be time you start fighting for yourself. When God is fighting for you, no one can stand against you. 

“…If God is for us who can be against us?”-Romans 8:31 ESV

The answer to that question is no one. There is no one who has enough butt in there britches to fight God. 

Fight for your peace!!! 

I also think we as women think that men need to be the one to end things, that’s not true. If you wait on a man to do anything, you may be waiting for a while. I know this is true I was raised in a house with three men (my dad and two brothers). We, women, can end things too. We have a voice, and we need to use it. My first boyfriend was in my life for a reason and a season and in the right season I will find the next man, but this time I am waiting on God’s PERFECT timing. 

“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”-Psalm 27:14 NLT 

I want to close with one of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite authors, A. A. Milne, 

“You are stronger than you seem. Braver than you believe, and smarter than you think you are.” 

Until next time, 

Fight for your peace. Do hard things and stay strong! 

MH

Present

Instagram is a hamster wheel. 

We are on it running to post the most perfect, filtered picture of our selves. I’m as guilty as anyone. My IG is mostly selfies and dogs. 

I would spend most of my days on Instagram, the most used app on my phone, I knew I needed an intervention. When Ash Wednesday showed up on my calendar, I knew what I needed to give up for Lent. 

I grew up going to a Methodist church, where the Christian calendar is part of our lives. I was raised giving something up for Lent and even though I don’t go to a methodist church anymore I still observe Lent. 

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the day after Mari Gras(or fat Tuesday) and continues on until Easter Sunday. The idea is to give up something to remind you of what Jesus did for you. 

“He was despised and rejected- a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be made whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”-Isaiah 53:3-5 NLT 

I lasted forty days without Instagram; it did become a challenge the last week, but I would tell myself,

‘If you gave up your life for me, I can give up Instagram’

There are some of you that can’t imagine going a day without checking to see how many likes your selfie got and you can’t believe I lasted FORTY days without it. 

It was freeing. I didn’t have to snap that picture, so my followers would know what I was doing. I was more present. I didn’t have to keep up the race to bigger and better. Sepia or Black/White. Those forty days showed me what was important. Hanging out with my folks. Playing with my nieces. Being there for my friends. Being fully present. 

Easter was last Sunday, and I have downloaded Instagram, but just as quickly I deleted it again. I have about twenty notifications and it was to much. I felt overwhelmed and panic. Jesus did not come for us to experience panic, but peace. A peace that surpasses understanding. 

“and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”-Philippians 4:7 NIV A couple years ago I wrote a devotional called Peace over Panic. One piece of it is, 

‘Breath out panic, breath in peace’ 

Peace is something we should follow in this crazy world and that is why I am giving up the hamster wheel. Instagram, that comparison trap no longer controls me! Instagram is fun, but living a more present, peaceful life is where its at. 

Until next time, 

Stay strong. 

MH

Lost but found

Sheep without a shepherd will run aimlessly about. 

I can remember many times going outside the barn, trying to entice a lamb back to the barn with a pan of feed. 

My first 4-H project-and quite possibly my favorite-was working with a market lamb. It was hard work but holds some of my favorite memories. With market lambs, you work/show the sheep until they go to market. Working a market lamb included, teaching them to walk with a halter/person next to them, teach them to stop and square up (set up) and then brace. Bracing a market lamb means kneeing them in the chest and having them flex their upper leg muscles. 

Before going into the show ring, your sheep need to be washed and that is one of my favorite things to do: wash a lamb. I haven’t in probably a decade, but I would jump at the chance to revisit my past. Whenever I went in the show ring my goal was to come out of the ring with anything above a participant’sribbon. A participants ribbon to me meant thank you for the months of sweat you put into working your lamb, but we found a winner and it wasn’t you. that was the goal, but more often than not, I came out of the ring with the cursed participant’s ribbon. 

Now we can relate participant’s ribbons with our relationship with God. Aren’t we glad He doesn’t give out the thank you for coming ribbons, no He interjects Himself into our lives. He leaves the ninety-nine to look for those lost lambs. Those of us who ran aimlessly and got stuck in the mud and mire, but in His love and mercy He reached down and picked this lamb up and set my feet on solid ground. 

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
    out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
    and steadied me as I walked along.”

Psalm 40:1-2 (NLT) 

This past week, I was on vacation to middle Georgia, more specifically Dublin, Georgia to visit my aunt. While I was there I read Luke 15:3-7 and I was overwhelmed with the Love of God. 

“So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! “Luke 15:3-7 (NLT)

I was washed over by the reckless love of God. He left the ninety-nine to find me! He found me at the bottom of my pit of despair, struggling with pornography, insecurity, and depression.

God became real to me in 2014. When my friend invited me to a worship service at the University of Georgia. What I didn’t realize when I walked through those doors was that Wesley would be my home for the next five years. I only left when God told me I needed to leave to grow. That was a hard time in my life, but I am stronger for coming through that. Wesley had become my comfort zone and I needed to leave to grow. I am a firm believer that God gives us comfort zones to pull us out of them.  

As Jesus followers, we are called to be different and sometimes that different can be uncomfortable. 

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”-2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (ESV) 

At one point in all of our lives we have been the lost sheep. And if you are still running aimlessly around in this world I pray that you will cry out to the Shepherd for help. 

He will not turn a deaf ear to your cry. In joy and mercy, He will carry you back to the flock. 

“In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”-Luke 15:7 (ESV)