About How To Bless

How To Bless is not a prescription, or a recipe, or a solution.  How To Bless is a question.

It’s the question that first came from a tear-stained face, and a fearful heart, and shaking hands, and drove this wife and mama to her knees, that cold Tuesday night five years ago.

It’s the question I ask still when I see these beautiful words that are lovingly scrolled across a photo of my children on my wall: “She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue” (Prov. 31:26).

Isn’t that what every Christ-following woman wants?  Wisdom?  Kindness?  To be a blessing in her own four walls?  To show the love of God in tangible ways to the people that are in her care?

The Proverbs 31 woman might feel close enough on the easy days, on the days when our circumstances bring out the best in us.

But what about on the disappointing days?  The more-month-than-money days?  The caring-for-sick-children-with-no-end-in-sight days?  The lonely days?  What about the days when voices from the distant past try to sneak up and bite us and whisper… You are not enough.  You can’t do this.  Lies, I know.  But marriage, and motherhood, have a funny way of bringing up the aches that are inside us that still need to be healed.

It’s been said by many that marriage can be hard.  That parenting is hard.  But here at How To Bless, we won’t just acknowledge that it’s hard.  We’ll take a look at the why behind the hard.  And we’ll ask the question, what does Jesus have to say about our hard?

As we ask those questions, we’ll take a look at these three things:

Real Life.  Because it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.  And we can bring our real messes, our real stresses, to the One who’s walked in our shoes.  He is not afraid of our weaknesses.  In fact, those real-life days, those I-don’t-think-I-can-do-this days, are the perfect days to come to Him, to lean on the One who said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

Simple Faith.  Because it doesn’t have to be complicated to change your life.  And on those real-life days, complicated is the last thing we need.  How To Bless is simple, it is applicable on your toughest day, just as any how-to should be.  For example, we’ll share stories that draw from wisdom like “Do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matt. 7:12). Believe it or not, this easily-understood verse has the power to change a life, to save a marriage.

Lasting Love.  Because His Love is the Cross-carrying kind, the burden-bearing kind, the Hope-giving kind, the Healing kind… the Never-Giving-Up Kind.

His Love is the kind that has led me to believe.  His Love is the kind that meets us in the darkness, so that now, when I ask that same question that plagued this mama’s heart five years ago, I can honestly say:

I believe there is Hope
I believe there is Healing
I believe that a kind wife and mom can come from anywhere.

Not a perfect wife and mom…
And not in a I’ve-got-it-all-figured-out kind of way;
Definitely not in a guarantee-it’ll-all-work-out kind of way;
But in a take-a-deep-breath kind of way.

 

Thank you for visiting friend.  I hope we can connect here often, and we’ll learn together to trust in the Love of our Hope-giving Healer.

Laura Jane

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.” (John 15:9)