He Clothes the Grass and Establishes Our Steps

"But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:30 & 33

"As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. . ." Psalm 103:15-17

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9

Lord, help me to seek your ways and trust in your steadfast love for my days on this earth knowing that you will complete what you began in me.

Identity Crisis

"This overarching story [the story of redemption throughout the Biblical narrative] reflects the fact that our problem as human beings is deeper than the individual sins we commit each day, creating the specific problems that complicate our lives. Our deepest problem is that we seek to find our identity outside the story of redemption. If the entire goal and direction of our lives are wrong, we need much more than practical advice on how to do the right thing in a particular situation. We need a message big enough to overcome our natural human instinct to live for our own glory, pursue our own happiness, and forget that our lives are much, much bigger than this little moment of life. Every day, in some way, we buy the lies of autonomy and self-sufficiency, worshiping the creation rather than its Creator. . . Lasting change begins when our identity, purpose, and sense of direction are defined by God's story. When we bring this perspective to our relationships, we will have a dramatically different agenda. " -- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands.

I started reading this book this week because I had always heard about it, my roommate had it (and every other book you can imagine!), and it's summer and I finally have time to read what I want!

The truth that Tripp points out here is so hard to remember during our day to day activities. It's so hard to look beyond the moment and realize our purpose is to worship God and give Him glory --not to make ourselves happy. I am not Lane Brown the Mississippi girl with feathers in her hair, seminary student, and Nanny of 3 girls. I am Lane Brown daughter of the King placed here during this time to worship God and tell his story. That is true whether I am in Mississippi, North Carolina, Peru, Ecuador, or the Ends of the Earth.

Lord, please help me to learn this. Remind me daily. Teach me your ways.

My life verse: "Teach me your way, Oh Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name." Psalm 86:11

La Casa de Fe and other ramblings

The thing I love about blogging is that you can write whatever you want and it's up to the reader to decide whether or not it is worth it to wade through all the laborious musings of the author. This may be one of those blogs that ya'll only make it a few paragraphs into. . . :)

I will begin with Ecuador and a few of the things that God showed me, taught me, and challenged me in.

I went with my home church, First Baptist Church Brookhaven, MS, to Shell, Ecuador to work at the orphanage Casa de Fe. Patti Sue Arnold started the orphanage about 10 years ago with 3 special needs children in her home and it has grown to 63 children in a nice multipurpose building that has been built only by God's grace and provision. She takes in abandoned and special needs children. She now has a school within the orphanage and classes are taught mostly by American volunteers although the Ecuadorian government has provided one teacher for the pre-k children.

God taught/is teaching me that without Him we are all orphans. We are all fatherless and have no way to be at peace with our heavenly Father without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This truth and the numerous commands throughout Scripture that tell us to take care of orphans have really impacted me as of late. I do not know how God is going to use all of this in my life in the future (in terms of future career/ ministry), but I know for now that I want to be an advocate for the fatherless.









"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary (lonely) in a home. . . " Psalm 68: 5 & 6a

Next I would just like to ramble a bit about something that God is teaching me at this stage in my life--His sovereignty and steadfastness. I had a wonderful mentor remind me of Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will." It is so comforting to realize that we do not have to manipulate or create situations in our lives. God is the one who makes things happen. He has called us to share the gospel, love Him, and love others. When we devote our lives to this purpose (when we seek first His Kingdom and righteousness all else will be added to us) he will provide every single thing we need. If we have a concern then our first response should be to pray to the God who turns man's heart wherever he wills. This requires us to trust God. In our humanity we try to control things and make them happen the way we see fit, but God sees things from a higher and holy perspective. We should seek his wisdom and follow his guidance instead of expending needless energy on creating "what if" scenarios.

So, those are my thoughts for the evening. There is so much more between my time in Ecuador and the things that are on my heart and mind as graduation approaches in December, but I wanted to make this post short and get something on here before my Ecuador experience faded into the background.


p.s. In case you haven't noticed I like to post at least one flower picture and one verse on each entry since the blog title is "faith and flowers". ;)