Stitched in Stillness

“For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”-Matthew 12:34

    These are A FEW Of My Favorite things

    Latest Posts

    • Free from Santa

      This morning, in the midst of our morning routine, as we were getting out of the house and into the car, my oldest looked at me and asked if we could listen to “our Christmas playlist”. I obliged, dug out my phone, clicked Bluetooth, and set up Spotify. I had the playlist playing yesterday on my way home from work; the violin soundtracks are my go-to music for decompressing during my commute home. I let the playlist pick up where it left off and play on shuffle by itself.

      My boys and I usually use our drive to school as our praise and worship time, the best way to start our day. It helps lessen the bickering and grumpiness of such an early start. Tis the season, so we have recently been listening to “The Grinch”, “Hey Santa”, “Little Drummer Boy”, and all of the other classics. But this morning was different.

      About 2 months ago, we sat down with our boys and told them about Santa….and the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, and their elves. At the time, it broke my heart to tell them. I felt like a part of their childhood had passed and now it was just mom and dad to put the presents out. Maybe the “magic” was gone.

      But this morning, I realized I had been misplacing my focus. You know how we always tell our kids, “Christmas isn’t about the presents.”, “Remember the reason for the season.”, and so on. So often, I remind my boys to not focus on the gifts that they receive, it’s Jesus’ birthday and we need to celebrate Him. But do we REALLY celebrate Him?

      This morning felt freeing and deep. “O come, O come Emmanuel,” came on the soundtrack as a suggested play. The car fell silent as we all listened and I believe my boys felt the presence just as I did. It was a sense of awe. All of a sudden, I realized that I was free, but the boys were free from Santa, we all were. By them knowing the “truth” about Santa, it took a distraction out of the way. Every year we talked about being good for their elves or for Santa, but now it goes much further for them. They have to listen to mommy and daddy, as expected every day of the year. Gifts are given from love and hard work, not because you acted a certain way. God’s son, his baby boy (those words hit me different with being a boy mom for sure), came to this Earth, lived the life of man, died, and rose again. But before each step, he was raised by a mother and Earthly father that sought God’s will for his life. That is the only focus this year.

      Yes there will be gifts, there will be yummy food and family memories made. Those are priceless moments that we are gifted with. But above all, it’s Jesus.

      Please note, I am not criticizing Santa or telling your kids about him. He was a great man with a powerful message of loving others and spreading joy. But I never thought that I would feel a spiritual freedom once we told our kids the real story behind Santa. I see that Santa, or should I say, being Santa, was a distraction to me in teaching my children the beautiful and heavenly side of Christmas. And I don’t mean them learning the meaning of the day, I mean a relationship, the magnitude.

      This year, we are free from Santa. We are not distracted by what everyone if getting. We aren’t distracted by where the elves moved. It’s singing the Christmas songs, knowing the true meaning, and finding the classics like “Joy to the World”, “Little Drummer Boy”, “Silent Night” (the list goes on) to be another form of worship. All of these being a way to thank God for sending his son, allowing him to be raised into a man here, and for saving us. It is truly a season of reflection.

    • Running on Empty

      When I got in my car yesterday morning, my gas light was on. I had 40 miles to empty according to the digital gas gauge. I only had to drop the kids off to school and cut up the road and get to work and then straight back home after work. Certainly, I could do it, it would be close, but my math was telling me that I could do it.

      So there we went, school drop off was smooth and I began my travels to work.

      Red lights began to glow in the distance ahead, not what I needed with such little gas, but what could I do.

      I finally made it to work and at that point the digital gauge told me I had 14 miles to empty. A quick panic settled in me and I contemplated on what I could do. We were negative in our bank account already, credit cards are all maxed due to circumstances out of our control (that is a story for another day). I just needed to get home, we have some gas in a can in the garage for the lawnmower that I can use to get to and from work tomorrow, but today, I just need to get home.

      I continued with my workday, setting this deep worry aside. I busied myself with tasks of the day until 5pm hit. Then I walked down to the parking lot and got in the car. I prayed, “Lord, please clear the traffic, please open the roads where I can get home.” I plugged my address in the GPS just to see how far I had to travel. 15 miles. I began thinking to myself, slightly panicked again, “there is a reservoir right? Zero doesn’t mean the car is just going to stop…right?” All I could do was begin driving on a prayer. Normally at this time of the day traffic is terrible so I lacked all confidence that I would make it home, but, God! 

      I entered the main road and tried to get over, that didn’t happen.

      People seem to lose all sense of courtesy and kindness at 5pm and rush hour traffic (I have been guilty of this too). So I had to take a slight detour because I wasn’t going to make my turn.

      GPS had me getting home in 22 minutes vs the normal 35-40 min drive.

      If you’ve ever been out of gas, you know that every minute and every mile counts. I was a bit discouraged when I had to take this detour, although it wasn’t long, it was longer than what I needed.

       Here I sit at this red light, that only lets out what seems like two cars at a time, and I look at my dash….11 miles to empty….GPS says I still have 14 miles to go. I turned off the AC, made sure the car was in ECO mode, rolled down a window, turned off the radio (I’m not sure if that really helps, but I needed to preserve every drop of gas).
      “Lord, I give this to you. I need you to get me home. Father, I need you to rescue our finances. Please give us a glimmer, we are drowning. Please give us….Peace.”

      That gauge kept dropping, but, despite the rain, despite the construction, despite the 5pm, despite the detour, the roads were clear.

      God heard me.

      I knew he did.
      Often the slow down, the detour, the traffic, the circumstances, all of it seems so frustrating and so heavy. But in that drive home, I was fully relying on God, I didn’t have a choice. And it’s sad that sometimes we get to a point of no other choice before we hand it over to God, but it happens, and He is always there patiently waiting on us.

      My gas gauge zeroed out well before I got home, but, I did get home.

      It was like the gas was never ending.

      And this reminded me of in the Bible when the oil never ran out. The widow in this story too was in a financial crisis (2 Kings 4:1-7). But because she was obedient, she had enough oil to not only fill all of the vessels, but to also sell and pay her debts. 

      God is over our situation and I know it’s going to be an exciting testimony to share. Just like the day I got home with no gas in the car! God is good all the time! If we fully surrender, even when there is other options, He will bring us to the best solution. 
      I pray for you today and that no matter how small or how big your “drive home” may seem, I pray that God pours his presence and peace over you. 


    Hello World!

    Thank you for coming here to read my thoughts. This is almost like my “online journal”. I am allowing you into my heart by sharing these thoughts, and I am thrilled to share whatever God may lay on heart. Please don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts and if I can send a prayer for you. Have a wonderful day!

    -Lauren Leedy