Author Archives: Amanda Manney

About Amanda Manney

Hi friend, thanks for stopping by! I'm Amanda. I am a pastor's wife and a homeschooling mom who has a passion to encourage women to faithfully step every day into what God has for them.

Can You Really Find Hope In a Crisis?

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two people in masks sharing a drink during a crisis — photo credit: cottonbro

Whew! What a week! Does this picture say it all or what? As everything seems to be falling apart around us, I just wanted to remind us of three truths that can bring hope during this crisis.

God Hasn’t Forgotten You

I am here to remind you that God hasn’t forgotten you. He sees what your family is going through. Knowing the future, He can see how this loss of income is going to set your family back. He knows that you are fearful for your family member with the weakened immune system.

Remember Hagar, from Genesis? Hagar was Sarah’s servant. When Sarah saw she couldn’t bear any children, she told her husband Abraham to sleep with Hagar. Hagar gets pregnant, and Sarah gets mad. Hagar experiences her own crisis. Sarah sends her out into the desert, and Hagar fears she and her son are going to die there. So Hagar sits down and cries. God comes to Hagar and tells her to go back to Abraham and Sarah. He tells her that He is going to bless her and her son. Hagar responds, “You are the God who sees me.”

She answered God by name, praying to the God who spoke to her, “You’re the God who sees me! Genesis 16:13 MSG

Hagar was amazed that God saw her in her time of need. El Roi is the Hebrew name for God meaning, “the God who sees me.” In the midst of this crisis, be reminded that God sees you. He hasn’t forgotten you, and He will see you through this difficult time.

God is Still Good

One of my favorite songs right now is I Know by Big Daddy Weave. Here are the words to the chorus.

I know that you are good
I know that you are kind
I know that you are so much more
Than what I leave behind
I know that I am loved
I know that I am safe
Cause even in the fire to live is Christ, to die is gain
I know that you are good
I Know by Big Daddy Weave

The lyrics don’t do it justice. You need to listen to it! When life goes crazy all around us, we are tempted to look around and question God’s goodness. We think thoughts like, “If God were good, He wouldn’t…” Consequently, this just makes us more discouraged. Don’t let your mind go there. Instead, choose to focus on God’s goodness.

An easy way to focus on God’s goodness is to take five minutes each morning in the days and weeks to come to write down three things you are thankful for. After a few days of this, you will begin to remember that God’s goodness is interwoven into every area of our lives.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13 KJV

If we choose not to believe in God’s goodness, we will give up and feel powerless to move forward. We have to focus on God’s goodness. Remind ourselves of who He is, and focus on Him, not our circumstance.

This Will Come to End

The coronavirus crisis won’t last forever. Soon enough, we will be wearing t-shirts that say, “I Survived the Coronavirus of 2020!” Just like everything else in life, this will pass. Peter reminds us of this in I Peter.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: I Peter 1:6 KJV

The three words for a season reminds us that nothing is forever. Trials and hard times come and go. Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes that there is a season and a time for everything. Just as God has gotten you through trials in the past, He will carry you through this crisis.

When we understand that God hasn’t forgotten us, choose to focus on God’s goodness, and remember this won’t last forever, we can find the hope we need to get through this crisis.

Othe Encouragement

If you enjoyed this post, check out my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God Is No Longer Blessing Your Life. This book is an encouragement for anyone going through a difficult season, and that includes all of us right now.

Start Pursuing Your Dream, Part 1

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A Little Girl’s Dream

As a young girl, I dreamed of being a writer. I loved to read, and I thought it would be so amazing to be an author when I grew up. Then life happened. I grew up. That dream became just a little girl’s dream and I moved on to real life.

Fast forward thirty years later. In the past several years I have really wanted to do something to help bring in an income for our family. I dreamed and journaled and brainstormed what that could look like. I tried my hand at lots of different things. First, I got on a cake and cupcake kick for a little while. I learned how to make fondant and experimented with that. Then I researched gift baskets and how I could make those and sell them. After that, I tried sewing for a while and made bags. I loved them and had fun making them, but it took more time than I had to give. Eventually, I stopped.

My Dream Came True

I started my blog a few years ago. My dream was to have a business with products to sell. I had my blog and wasn’t sure what else to do with it. Somewhere along the way, the dream I had as a little girl made its way back to my thoughts. I started thinking. What if I could write a book? What would that look like? How would I do it? Would anybody buy it? I finally sat down one day and wrote the first chapter.

Last year, I rolled out my first book, Red Rose Rising. I followed that up with a Christian inspirational book, The Hidden Pain. Now in just a few weeks, my third book will roll out. On the one hand, it was amazing because my dreams were coming true. I was finally an author. But can I be honest? It didn’t make things perfect. This is the first of a two-part blog post. In the next post, I will talk about continuing to pursue your dream. It’s awesome to establish your business, create your first product, and make your first sale. But then reality sets in. You have to keep creating. Then you have to figure out sales tax and income tax. You have to put money back into your product or business. You have to deal with people who don’t care for your product. Sometimes, it’s too much and we are tempted to give up on our dream. I will talk about all this in part two.

God’s Gift to Us

I am doing a study in the book of Ecclesiastes right now. Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books in the Bible. These verses stood out to me this week.

After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 MSG

God gives us the ability to work hard and enjoy the profit from our work. It’s His gift. So why shouldn’t we enjoy the work we are doing? God didn’t create us uniquely with a combination of personality, abilities, talents, and interests that are different from anybody else so that we could just show up at work and punch a clock. Nor did He design us to just exist. I believe God gives all of us a dream too big to accomplish on our own. He does that so we are forced to depend on him.

What’s Your Dream?

What dream do you have? Is there something God has laid on your heart to do? Is there something you have always wanted to do? If money and time weren’t a factor, what would you do? What would you create?

God gives each of us a free will. He gifts us with abilities and talents and passions. Why? So that we can use them to glorify Him with what we do or create. If God didn’t want us to be creative, he wouldn’t have given us the abilities he has. If God has given you an ability or talent or a passion to pursue something, it’s not so you can sit back and not use it. God does everything for a reason. If He gave you a talent, he wants you to use it.

Do you feel stuck at your job, frustrated with your life, or just feel like you’re missing something? Maybe it’s time to put your hand to whatever you know God is leading you to do.

If you want to want help discovering your own dream, read my post Six Steps to Finding God’s Purpose for Your Life. Sometimes you just need help to get pointed in the right direction. You can download a worksheet in that post that helps you work through a process to determine how God’s gifted you so that you can find and start pursuing your own dream.

It’s time to start pursuing that dream of yours!

When God Finds Us

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a girl sits alone — photo credit: Brooke Cagle

Almost every morning, Matt gets his Bose speaker and turns it up to play this song as we start our day- Alive and Breathing by Matt Maher. Whenever that song comes on, I start smiling. Here are the words to the chorus.

Joy still comes in the morning
Hope still walks with the hurting
If you’re still alive and breathing
Praise the Lord
Don’t stop dancing and dreaming
There’s still Good News worth repeating
So lift your head and keep singing
Praise the Lord- Matt Maher

The words are such an encouragement and the music is upbeat. It’s the perfect song to start your day with. It puts a smile on my face and reminds me today is a new day. It’s another chance for God to work in my life and in my circumstances.

Where God Finds Us

As I think about those words, I think back to the verses I read in my morning time this week. I read the book of Hosea. Hosea writes a few verses about Jacob, the twin of Esau.

Brought to his knees,
    Jacob wept and prayed.
God found him at Bethel.
    That’s where he spoke with him.
God is God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    God-Revealed, God-Known. Hosea 12:5 (MSG)

Where did God find Jacob? God found him on his knees weeping and praying. God often meets us in our darkest hours, when we’re brought to our knees. When everything in our life has fallen apart, and fear and desperation drive us to our knees, that ‘s where God finds us.

When God Finds Us

When God found Jacob, He spoke with him and revealed himself. We know the full story. God wrestled with Jacob. Jacob refused to let God go until God blessed him. God will find you in your time of need. He will speak to you, and He will reveal Himself to you. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but God will find you and reveal Himself to you. How do I know this? Because that’s what God has done for me time and time again.

How God Finds Us

There are so many different ways God can find us and reveal Himself to us. Here are just a few of the ways God has revealed Himself to me over the years.

Through His Word. God has encouraged my heart innumerable times through reading His Word during my morning time. There have been so many times that I read a verse during my morning time that brings tears to my eyes and reminds me that God loves me and is for me. Read My Best Tips for an Effective Morning Time to get your own morning time started.
In church. So often, God will use the words that Matt says on a Sunday morning to bring a sense of peace and comfort to my heart. He will say a phrase or explain a verse that God knew I needed to hear that day.
Through the words of a book. So often, someone else’s story will remind me of God’s unfailing goodness and faithfulness. Sometimes the book reminds me that I have life so good and reminds me to be thankful for my life, my health, and the blessings around me.
Through a blog post. I subscribe and get lots of emails from bloggers in my inbox. Often God uses the words of a particular blog post to encourage me.
Through a podcast. Many times I have found myself crying while washing the dishes as I listen to a pastor preach or someone tell their story of God’s faithfulness to them during a trial.

**Click HERE for my book, blog, and podcast recommendations**

He Will Find You

In the hardest seasons of my life, I have fallen on my knees and prayed and wept. God has found me there and wrapped his loving arms around me. It may be through His Word, a sermon, a book, a blog post, a podcast, or some other form; but he will find a way to remind me of his goodness and faithfulness.

I don’t know what you are going through today or what may be in your future, but I know that God will come to you when you need Him the most. When you find yourself on your knees weeping and praying, that’s where He will find you. Then He will reveal Himself to you. He will remind you that He loves you and is for you, and He hasn’t forgotten you.

Digging Deep and Developing Grit

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Fourth-Grade Math

My fourth-grade son was sitting next to me at the table today, working on his math. His math for the day wasn’t anything new, it was all review. As he worked hard, he could hear his sisters playing upstairs. They had already gotten their schoolwork done for the day. He was miserable and kept giving me an attitude. I finally set down what I was working on and looked at him. We then had a conversation about grit. I explained to him that sometimes, you just have to push through. You have to dig deep and grind it out until you are done with school. “Just finish,” I told him. Our conversation reminded me of what I had read the last few days in Bible reading for my morning time.

boy doing school at the table — Malachi doing his math

Plenty of Hard Times

In the book of Acts, we read about Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas traveled and taught people about Jesus, that He was indeed the Messiah. They made converts everywhere they went, but they were always careful to fully explain to these converts what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. They told these new believers that anyone who chooses to follow Jesus will go through hard times. Paul says “plenty of hard times.”

After proclaiming the Message in Derbe and establishing a strong core of disciples, they retraced their steps to Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch, putting grit in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn’t be easy: “Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times. Acts 14:21,22 MSG

Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and, offered up by their friends to the grace of the Master, went to Syria and Cilicia to build up grit in those congregations. Acts 15:41 MSG

The Cost of Following Jesus

Paul understood better than anyone about the cost of following Jesus. He wanted others to know the truth about what they were choosing to do. Why? So they wouldn’t turn their backs on their faith when times got hard. Paul wanted those converts to develop grit. Webster’s dictionary defines grit as “firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.”

We have lost this part of teaching in our lives as Christians and in our churches today. We quickly forget that God never promised easy. He simply promised his presence. Jesus himself told His followers to pick up their cross daily and follow him.

Developing Grit

Sometimes, it takes good old-fashioned grit to stick with it. It takes determination to show up when we feel unappreciated, to keep loving people when they have hurt us so deeply, to continue ministering when we have been wronged, to serve in a ministry that doesn’t seem to be “successful” to the world’s standards, to love the spouse who is unloving towards us, to comfort the child who has been pushing us away, to love the unloveable people in our lives, to continue to care for someone who is ungrateful, and on and on the list could go. Most times it’s easier to throw in the towel and move on or start over. Find a new job, choose another church to minister in, let that friendship grow dormant, leave the spouse who has hurt us so deeply.

Paul reminds us that this life is going to be full of difficulties, but Jesus gave us help in the form of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t leave us alone to try to make it through this life on our own.

Standing with Heroes

We get knocked to the ground and kicked while we are down. Life comes at us from all directions, and sometimes it just seems like it’s all too much. Satan whispers to us that it’s all because of following Jesus. If we just walked away from our faith, from the person or people who hurt us or chose to no longer minister to others, the pain would go away.

We have to choose to dig in our feet, stand strong, grit our teeth, and say, “I am not quitting. When we do, we align ourselves with some of faith’s greatest heroes. Paul, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Stephen, Noah, Daniel, John, and of course Jesus. That’s a pretty impressive group of people to stand with!

More Encouragement

If you were encouraged reading this post, I wrote a book that talks a lot about this concept. It is called The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. It’s available on Amazon. Click HERE to order a copy today. If you do, be sure to let me know what you thought of it. You can also read my post Stick It Out: 3 Daily Choices to Prevent Quitting.

Every Stage of My Life, Planned Out

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God Saw Each and Every Stage

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day. Psalm 129: 15,16 (MSG)

I read these verses in my morning time this week. I couldn’t stop thinking about them all week. These verses have the potential to change our lives when we realize the amazing concept behind them!

A Beautiful, Full Life

When you were conceived, God saw you growing inside your mother’s belly. Just as you open a book and flip through the pages, God saw every stage of your life play out before Him while you were still in the womb.

God saw the family you would be born into. He saw the school you would attend, the friends you would make. God saw how each and every moment of your life would play out. He saw the choices you would make, both the good and the bad. He saw who would influence and impact your life. He saw if and who you would marry, the kids you would have, the job you would work, the dreams you would dream.

He beamed with intense happiness when you accepted His love and sacrifice for you and smiled when you experienced incredible moments of joy. Then He watched in sorrow as you endured trials and hardships. He saw the events and people that would break your heart. Anger resonated in His chest when He watched Satan twist things in your mind to make you think that He didn’t care and didn’t love you anymore. He watched as every scene of your life unfolded before Him. He thought for a moment. It was an amazing life He had planned for you. Now it was up to you to choose Him and let Him direct you each step of the way. If you did, you would look back on a beautiful, amazing life. Then God smiled and closed the book. Everything was prepared for your life. Now you just had to be born.

Trusting God

When life gets crazy and we can’t see up from down, we can choose to remember these verses. Nothing in your life has taken God by surprise. He saw the stage of life you are in right now when you were still in the womb. Sometimes, we need to just Trust that God Knows What He is Doing and leave our situation in His capable hands.

P.S. I was looking for a baby picture to go with this post and couldn’t find a good stock one I liked. So I chose one of my favorites instead. This picture is from eight years ago when Madison was born.

Boy holding baby — Malachi at eighteen months holding baby Madison

Living Loved

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Eugene Peterson and the Message

A few years ago, Matt and I listened to a podcast interview with Eugene Peterson, who is best known for giving us The Message translation of the Bible. We heard his story of being a pastor and why he translated the Bible into modern language for his people. We loved hearing his story and spent time learning all about the amazing man that he was. Sadly, he died in 2018, but the legacy he has left this world is undeniable. For a while, I have been wanting to get a copy of The Message Bible to be able to study as a part of my morning time. If you want an idea of what my morning time routine looks like, read My Best Tips for an Effective Morning Time.

My Christmas Present

My wish came true. Matt bought me a beautiful purple soft leather Message translation Bible for Christmas. I feel like I have been reading the Bible again for the first time. It’s been a nice change-up in my Bible reading. I have so enjoyed my mornings! I love comparing these new verses with the ones I have been familiar with for years in the King James Version.

Changing my Thinking of God’s Love

This past week, I read a verse that totally changed my thinking about God’s love. I was reading in the book of John. Chapter seventeen records Jesus’ prayer in the garden. He spends the bulk of his prayer praying for the disciples and followers he was leaving behind. The last verse in the chapter really caught my attention. Here is the verse as found in The Message, then in the King James.

I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them. John 17:26 MSG

Isn’t that an amazing verse? Pay close attention to the words I darkened. Remember the context. Jesus is talking to God his Father. Jesus says, “So that your love for me might be in them.” Here is the same verse in the KJV translation.

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. John 17:26 KJV

Struggling with the Concept of God’s Love

A lot of us struggle with the concept of God loving us for a myriad of reasons. Maybe we didn’t grow up with a father who was good to us. That gave us a bad picture of our heavenly Father. Maybe we don’t feel worthy of God’s love. We know in our heads that God loves us, but feeling it and believing it in our hearts is a different story.

When we talk about God loving us, we struggle to comprehend and understand it. So then we don’t live our life feeling loved.

When we read in John that God loved his son, we understand that. We can comprehend that. Jesus says to God, “Let the love that you have for me be in them.” That is so much more understandable and relatable. We get that kind of love. It’s a parent’s love for their child. We accept the fact that God loves His Son so much! That same love is the love that is in our hearts as children of God.

Living Loved

That thought makes me lift my head a little higher and puts a smile on my face. It’s an amazing concept! That makes loving other people a little easier too.

When I walked into church this past Sunday, I reminded myself that God’s love for Jesus is the love that’s in my heart. That thought makes it so much easier to open my heart and love other people. When we fully begin to grasp the concept that God’s love for Jesus fills our hearts, we can live knowing we are fully and deeply loved. What does living loved look like practically?

Inviting someone into our home for a meal.
Writing a note of encouragement to someone going through a hard time.
Making a meal for someone who is sick or has been in the hospital.
Taking cookies to our neighbors.
Listening to someone pour out their heart to us.

When we live loved, we no longer worry about doing things because we want a pat on the back or someone to notice us. We simply do it because of the overflowing love found in our own hearts, the love that God has for His Son Jesus.

God’s Gifts at Christmas

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‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the Season… the season where we threaten our kids if they don’t obey, they aren’t getting any presents for Christmas! Ha! Maybe that’s just at our house. The honest truth is, we are going to give presents to our kids, whether they deserve them or not. Sure we threaten them, but when Christmas Day comes, there will be presents under the tree. Why? Because we love our children and want to do good things for them, even if they don’t deserve it.

Jesus Talks about Good Gifts

Jesus was talking to his disciples about prayer, and He talks about them giving gifts to their children.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13

I love how blunt Jesus is. Remember, He is talking to his disciples, not the Pharisees. Yet he calls his disciples evil! He says even you, who are evil, choose to give good gifts to your children. How much more does your Heavenly Father want to give good gifts to those who ask of Him?

Surprised at God’s Gifts

So many times we don’t expect God to do good things for us. We are surprised when He sends a good gift our way. Why? Probably because we don’t think we deserve it. Yet, God says repeatedly that He loves giving His children gifts.

Sometimes it feels like God isn’t sending any gifts our way. Maybe it’s because we aren’t looking for them or we’re looking for them in the wrong places. We are looking for His gifts in our bank account, at our job, from friends. Maybe He is showering us with gifts, but we are too busy and consumed to notice them.

God’s Gifts All Around Us

God has given us so many good gifts, and Christmas time is a good time to purposefully look for them. When you do, you will see they are all around you.

It’s the family that sits around the table with you on Christmas day. It’s the warm home and bed that you will sleep in tonight. It’s the joy on your kids’ faces on Christmas morning when they open their presents- presents that God provided the money to buy. It’s sipping hot chocolate while looking at Christmas lights. It’s setting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house while Christmas music plays. It’s the joy of seeing friends at the holidays that you haven’t seen in a while. It’s the break from the busyness and stress of work to enjoy time to relax. It’s in reading the Christmas story and being reminded that we have all of this because of a baby in a manger.

Looking at lights as a family…with hot chocolate.

Christmas is full of God’s gifts to us. If you choose to look, you will find them all around you. During this Christmas season, let’s choose to look for these gifts and thank God for them. Enjoy the small blessings of His favor all around you. If you want a great Christmas book to remind you of the wonders of Christmas, grab a copy of Matt’s book Chase the Wonder: Stories of Christmas to Fill Our Hearts with Hope. I am enjoying reading a chapter each morning after I finish my Bible reading and journaling.

If you want some inspiration to create Christmas memories with your family, check out these posts- Family Christmas Series: #1 Reading Basket or Family Christmas Series: #2 Looking at Lights.

Hello, Mornings!

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My Morning Time Routine

I love mornings! Do I always love getting out of bed? No, but I have never regretted the mornings I get up early. Mornings set the tone for my day. A successful morning for me is any morning I get up early and complete my morning time routine before my kids wake up!

My morning time routine consists of lighting a candle, making a cup of coffee, and getting out my Bible, journal, and a pen. In my journal, I complete the prayer section- gratitude, confession, and requests. Then I spend time reading my Bible and writing down anything that stood out to me or a verse I want to remember for the day. It’s simple but effective. My morning time puts my heart and my mind in the right place for the day. For a more detailed description of my morning time, you can get a free copy of my ebook, Better Mornings, Better Moms by clicking HERE or you can read My Best Tips for an Effective Morning Time HERE.

Why Does Journaling Matter?

It’s common knowledge that we remember better when we simply write it down. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember what I ate for lunch an hour ago, let alone something I read this morning! Just spending a few moments writing down something from our morning time will keep it with you throughout the day. I see a huge difference in the days I read my Bible and journal and the days I only read my Bible.

Journaling also helps to develop consistency. I can see how many days I have read my Bible each week. It also helps with consistency in prayer. If I don’t have a list in front of me, my mind often wanders. Having the requests written out in front of me helps me to stay focused.

Another benefit of writing something down is that I can come back to it later on in the week and look back and be encouraged or share it with someone else. My journals are my life-line.

Faithfully Stepping Journal

Matt and I developed a journal years ago that we have printed for ourselves personally and for our church family, but I am so excited to announce that they are finally available for purchase. Matt created three beautiful covers! I love all of them. They will be available on Amazon on Black Friday. Each journal contains six months of journaling pages and uses the system that Matt and I have used in our morning time for several years. If you want to take your relationship with God to the next level, these journals are the answer!

A Second Chance in Life

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A Second Chance for Maggie

My children and I were doing chalk art as part of our homeschool today. We follow Nana from You Are an Artist, and absolutely love her! Today, in honor of Frozen II coming out in a few weeks, she did a drawing of the characters from Frozen. A few of my children are perfectionists and get frustrated when they don’t get it perfect. I try to do these art projects with my children, so they can see that I am not perfect either. Actually, I am downright terrible at art.

Today, we were following along when suddenly my five-year-old, Maggie crumbled her paper up and threw it away. She cried in frustration because she couldn’t get her paper to look just like Nana’s. She ended up not finishing the rest of the lesson with us. My older two children and I completed our chalk drawing. While they were not by any means perfect, they were finished.

I tried to explain to Maggie lovingly that a finished project is better than none at all. Our art papers weren’t perfect. There were smudges, coloring outside the lines, and things were lopsided and not proportionate; but they were finished. We proudly showed our papers off to Matt. The kids were so proud of their papers. Teasingly, I told Matt that if writing doesn’t take off for us, it’s okay. I got us covered; I think I have a career in art. Ha! After Maggie calmed down, she asked for a second chance. Of course, I was all too happy to give her one.

The Picture of Our Lives

I think our lives are kind of like our chalk art papers from today. They’re not perfect. They’re messy. We color outside the lines and get dirty and marked with smudges. It’s messy and doesn’t look anything like we thought it would. We look at it in disgust because it’s a hot mess. Yet just as a parent looks at their child’s artwork and thinks it’s amazing, even when it’s not, that’s how our Heavenly Father sees our lives. Jesus looks at the picture of our life and sees a masterpiece because he loves us.

Peter’s Second Chance

When I think of second chances, I think of the story of Peter. Could there be any better example? I was reading this week in the book of Mark. Chapter sixteen tells of the resurrection of Jesus. An angel appears at the tomb and talks to the women who are searching for Jesus.

And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. Mark 16:5-7 (KJV)

I love that phrase, “Tell his disciples and Peter…” Peter, the man who just betrayed Jesus gets a shout-out. Jesus gave him a second chance. Jesus knew Peter’s greatest moments would follow his greatest failure.

Those Who Have Been Forgiven Much

I think of the story of the woman who wiped Jesus’ feet with her tears. The Pharisees criticize Jesus. They say, “If Jesus really knew what an awful sinner she was, he would never allow himself to be near her.” Jesus rebuked them and responded to them saying, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” Of course, the opposite is true. To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much.

People who have been forgiven much are capable of great love for others. These people are the ones who help the hurting and the down and outers in life. These are the people who really make a difference in this life.

A Masterpiece

So to you, your life looks messy and nothing like you thought it would. But God looks at it and he sees a jewel in the making. He sees all the crooked lines and the mistakes coming together. He’s the masterful artist creator who can take anything and turn it into a beautiful showpiece. Remember, sometimes we have to choose to love the life we have, not the one we want.

If you don’t feel like you add up to anything today if you feel like you’ve made too many mistakes, know this- Jesus loves you and hasn’t given up on you. If you’re breathing, you still have a life to live and a picture to paint with your life. God’s given you a second chance. Let’s make the most of it. When you let God be the master artist, he makes a masterpiece out of your life.

New Books Revealed, Our Trip to Colorado, and More

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You may have noticed, I haven’t been blogging for the past month. We have been crazy busy at our house preparing books for launch day! Blogging has taken a back seat the past few weeks. Let me fill you in on what we’ve been up to.

Family Photo with my parents in their church.

Our Trip to Colorado

My parents moved to Colorado during the fall of last year. We haven’t had a chance to make it out there to visit yet. We decided this fall was the perfect time to rectify that. So in the middle of October, we made the twenty-five hour trip to Colorado. On the way, we stopped in Illinois to see my two sisters and their families. We had an awesome time together for the few short hours we were there.

My sisters and I and our husbands and kids.

After that, we drove the rest of the way to Colorado. We were able to be out there for a week. We got to see my Grandparents and our other family out there. On Sunday, we got to visit the church my dad pastors and spend time meeting all the amazing people who make up their church. I finally got my husband to Estes Park. I’ve been wanting to do that since we’ve been married- 13 years. We got to experience Rocky Mountain National Park as a family. My older kids were not fans of the mountains! They were too scared to walk around at the higher points of the park. All in all, we had an amazing trip and can’t wait to get back out there.

Macey was the only one brave enough to walk around up high in the mountains.

Matt and I finally getting to Estes Park.

My Fantasy Fiction Book

I am so excited to finally be able to announce my new fantasy book, Red Rose Rising. I’ve been working on this book the past several months and am entering the final stages for this book. It will release on Amazon on Black Friday. I can’t wait! For a look at the book, teasers, and quotations, check out my Facebook page A. J. Manney Books.

Faithfully Stepping Journal

I have also been working on my Faithfully Stepping Journal, which will also release on Black Friday. This six-month journal uses an easy format to help you grow in your relationship with God using journaling, Bible reading, and prayer time. Matt helped me design three amazing covers that I absolutely love! I will be revealing the covers soon, so stay tuned!

My New Book: The Hidden Pain

I will also be releasing my new book The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. This book took me a lot longer to write than I thought it would. I share my story about church planting looking nothing like I thought it would. I also share about the season of difficulty that we have come through this last year. This book is for anyone who is going through a season of difficulty and questioning God’s goodness.

The book is finishing the editing stage. I will be revealing the cover soon, so keep an eye out for it.

Black Friday

Black Friday is going to be a huge day for us as we will be rolling out multiple items. Along with my journals and books, Matt’s newest book, Chase the Wonder will also be rolling out that day. This Christmas book is one you will want to order for friends and family for a Christmas present.

Black Friday is only 17 days away! Watch your inbox for cover reveals for all our new books, and stay tuned for giveaways as we hit black Friday and head into the Christmas season!