Open When: You Feel Like Complaining

My sweet girls,

     This morning in my time with the Lord I was amazed at the Lords grace. I get it so wrong sometimes. I fail 150 times before eight o clock every day. So many times the Lord has told me, Danielle stop! Just sit with me and I will take care of everything else. (Lord will you really be washing my dishes for me? Ha! How are you going to take care of that?!) Still he responds, “Give me your thoughts! You aren’t doing anything by playing them over and over in your head every day! Give them to me and I will fill you with what you need!”

     So here I am giving him my thoughts. Honestly they are thoughts of anger, discontentment, anxiety, and joy all at the same time. How can I get so overwhelmed by the expectations of others? Why can I not meet all their expectations? How can others be so effective at getting things done when I cant keep my head above water?

     My cousin Dana, is on my list of people I want to be someday. You heard me right, I want to be her. She is a woman full of God’s wisdom, working mom of four, and has the energy and productivity of the energizer bunny. When she sends me a book, I am going to read it! The book is called, “Calm my anxious heart,” by Linda Dillow. It’s the kind of book that you need to read at least once a year.

     In the book Linda shares of a woman she met named Ella. Ella lived 52 years in Africa as a missionary in 120+ degree heat with 4 children. She didn’t allow herself to complain and she made a rule of it.

Ellas prescription for contentment:

-Never allow yourself to complain about anything- even the weather

-Never picture yourself in any other circumstance or someplace else

-Never compare your lot with another’s. 

-Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.

-Never dwell on tomorrow- remember that (tomorrow) is Gods, not ours.

     This is so humbling because she had SO MUCH to complain about. I mean there was NO GROCERY STORE and she had to feed 4 kids! But as the book reminds me, “Let your eyes be fixed on eternity. Let all your tomorrows be nestled in God's strong arms.” I have had to write this on my refrigerator because its something I have to tell myself every single day.  

"Beware of what you dwell on for that you surely should become."

The book reminds us that we must take control of our thoughts. We are commanded to "be transformed by the renewing of our mind" - Roman 12:2 We renew our minds when we take negative thoughts captive and dwell on the positive- the promises of God. “We are to practice substituting prayer for worry, the positive for the negative- and the peace of God will be amoung us!” 

     My prayer for you is to live boldly, without fear, and free to live as Gods precious daughter put on this earth to do BIG things! Your attitude toward others will affect how you see them- and if you don’t see them as Jesus sees them, then you will miss what He wants you to do in their life. You will miss what you are called to do today. The way you love Jesus, will be indicative of how others see Him- and that is a big responsibility!

     As I pray for this over you today, I also pray for my modern day Ella, Kate. She was my first friend who reached out to me when I moved to Birmingham from Nashville- and what an amazing testimony she has. She has left her family, comfort, and basic freedoms to move to a place that has been declared the second worse place to live in the world. She chooses her limited time she is able to go out- to go to two schools. She teaches the children and has found a way to make a little money to invest in a project to make them feel loved. She is my modern day Ella that reminds me to choose to have joy even in the hardest circumstances. She encourages me to look at every thing through the lens of Christ. She encourages me to think that she could be the hardest season of her life and still be in awe of the Lord and his goodness! Lord give us all that faith!

    So my sweet daughters, take this and dwell on this. Know that the Lord is good and don’t allow yourself to look horizontally at others possessions or circumstances, but instead focus your eyes vertically on Him.“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things on earth will grow strangly dim in the light of his glory and grace.”Helen Howarth Lemmel (1922)

Love, Mom

The scripture behind Ellas prescription for contentment:

Never allow yourself to complain about anything, not even the weather.
*Philippians 2:14-15 ”    Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”

-Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.
*1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

-Never compare your lot with others.
*Psalm 16:5 “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot”


-Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
*Psalm 16:8 “I have set the LORD always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”


-Never dwell on tomorrow, remember that (tomorrow) is God’s, not ours.
*Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”


Update: Dana now is apart of a podcast for her church ministering to working moms. I never thought I would be a working mom but two three years later I am and I am so grateful to have a woman speaking into my life, helping me navigate the challenges that come with this season, and reminding me to look to God.