Oh, this is exactly the word my week needs!  The awesome, busy and always-sparkly Kristen Lunceford is letting us peer into her week-before-Christmas cacophony, and I’m so relieved to find it looks a lot like mine.  Enjoy this post and visit Kristen’s fantastic blog (details below):

 

Kristen LuncefordWord of the Week: Resolve

 

 

 

I’m perched on my tiptoes this morning, craning my neck to see Christmas. It’s just up ahead, but I can’t quite make it out because Joseph is blocking the view. He’s out there on the road, readying the donkey and pausing every now and then to pinch the bridge of his nose and let out a resigned breath. He has no idea that the stars are taking their places or that the choir is doing vocal warm ups. All he knows is that he has to go to Bethlehem.

 

 

 

As he slings his Diaper Dude over his shoulder and watches the pacifiers and onesies tumble out across the road, he bends down to retrieve them and traces a word for me in the dirt.

 

 

 

R-e-s-o-l-v-e.

 

 

 

Then he grits his teeth, rises to his feet, and calls for Mary. Together they begin putting one sandal in front of the other for 70 or so dusty, daunting miles—not because it’s ideal for them, but because it’s what’s required of them.

 

 

 

This is the scene in my mind—and resolve is the word on my lips—as Luke 2:4 meets me at the start of another full-to-the-brim week. If Mary and Joe didn’t get to skip the week before Christmas because it looked hard and felt overwhelming, then I guess I don’t get to shimmy around it either.

 

 

 

Instead, I resolve to:

 

 

 

1)      Accept the mess. I have three young kids and a brand-new puppy. The number of Pinterest-perfect scenes in our home on any given day equals the number pacifiers Joseph packed for Bethlehem: zero. There’s flu season and holiday hoopla carnage everywhere, so my path to ‘O Holy Night’ looks more like a Slip ‘N Slide to ‘O Holy Moly.’ Our season of life isn’t sparkly so much as it is scuzzy, but there is grace for this, too.

 

 

 

2)      Finish what I start. Mary, Joseph, lend your aid! I am all over the place right now, but I resolve to finish that load of laundry, that task for work, that blog post for Bo, that present wrapping for my in-laws, that bottle of wine for (oh, wait)…because I belong to a savior who finishes what he began, amen?

 

 

 

3)      Know that He sees. The tiredness, the challenges, the fits and starts of parenting, church planting, and kindergarten homework folders—he sees and commissions all of it, and he will not waste my faith or overlook my obedience. It will not be for naught.

 

 

 

Mostly, though, I want to be found moving my feet like Mary and Joseph—one determined stride at a time—believing that I’m being made more faithful in the stepping, in the persevering, and in the following through.

 

I’d love to have your company as I go. So tell me, how will you resolve to move toward Bethlehem this week? I know for some of you the road looks dusty and treacherous, but I promise it’s leading to somewhere wildly magnificent.

 

 

 

The choir is ready, and I’ve heard there’s going to be a jubilee. Let’s get there together…and let’s leave right now!

 

 

 

To moving our feet,

 

Kristen

 

 

 

P.S. If you want to make “resolve” your word of the week, too, you can download this desktop wallpaper from Design Love Fest. It’s kinda sparkly even!

 

 

 

 

Kristen and her family live in Las Vegas, NV, where, in 2011, God called she and her husband, Ryan, to start the first English-speaking Evangelical Covenant church in the state of Nevada. Advance Church began in their living room with five adults, a golden retriever, and a vision to see thousands of lives altered by Jesus and mobilized for his glory through a network of churches in the Las Vegas area and the Western United States.

 

In addition to supporting Ryan and the ministry of Advance Church, Kristen also has the privilege of raising three young children, including a daughter who they adopted from Ethiopia in 2009. She documents it all in words and photos on www.kristenlunceford.com.

 

 

 

One Comment

  1. Great JOB KRISTEN!!! LOVE it..