{"id":266,"date":"2015-07-23T01:55:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T01:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplymeandjeans.wordpress.com\/?p=266"},"modified":"2015-07-23T01:55:42","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T01:55:42","slug":"he-leaves-the-light-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/?p=266","title":{"rendered":"He Leaves The Light On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christmas<\/a>I heard about a book the other day called \u00a0\u201cWhat Your Childhood Memories Say About You . . . and What You Can Do About It\u201d by Dr. Kevin Leman. The premise, as far as I can tell from the little I heard, is that you can tell a lot about a person\u2019s main\u00a0 struggle in life by the first memory that they have. How intriguing? I didn\u2019t have a hard time travelling back in my brain and pulling out my oldest \u00a0memory .<\/p>\n

I must have been around 3 or 4 because we lived in Cherokee Park, LA.\u00a0 I remember walking out of my bedroom into the dark living room and noticing that I was alone. \u00a0I remember feeling small, insignificant and alone.\u00a0 I can remember what nightgown I was wearing, that it was a cool evening and that the light was on in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what Dr. Leman \u00a0would say about that but I can look back over my life and give it a good guess.\u00a0 It seems that there are a few common themes.\u00a0 Feeling alone, even in a crowd.\u00a0 Feeling insignificant.\u00a0 Feeling like no one noticed me or wanted to hear what I had to say. Feeling like I had to make noise or become what people wanted me to be in order to be noticed.<\/p>\n

I know it isn\u2019t true.\u00a0 I know my family\u00a0 loved me.\u00a0 I know my parents believed in me.\u00a0 But, nevertheless,\u00a0 we all have our demons and more often than not, we don\u2019t see them until much later in life.\u00a0 What a shame, because so many things could have been different if I could have let go of that weight long ago.<\/p>\n

Thank God that He is faithful and persistant.\u00a0 As I think through my life and how these unspoken \u201crealities\u201d effected me,\u00a0 I realize that it isn\u2019t my only vivid memory.\u00a0 I have many others after that.\u00a0 Memories of\u00a0 God breaking through and touching my world.\u00a0 I can still smell and feel these memories just as vividly as I can feel that long sleeved flannel night gown touching my feet.<\/p>\n

I was 9, walking down an isle in an open air church on a hot summer night at Mt. Lebanon camp.\u00a0 Tears ran down my face as I was desperate to give my heart to Jesus.<\/p>\n

Sitting in a metal chair on another warm September night at a tent meeting in Waco, Tx. \u00a0I heard a message that woke something in my heart.\u00a0 There was more to this thing called faith and I wanted it.\u00a0 All of it.<\/p>\n

It was a black sports car that we sat in, me and this boy that made my heart jump.\u00a0 I clutched the cross pendant around my neck and cried as I heard God speak to my heart that he wasn\u2019t the one and I had to end it.<\/p>\n

I talked on the phone while I sat on a bed in a one bedroom apartment that\u00a0six\u00a0flight attendants shared in Boston.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019d just started my new job but this two\u00a0hour conversation about God, what scripture was teaching us\u00a0and what we wanted out of life was better than traveling the world.\u00a0 He said \u201cI love you\u201d and I knew God was saying, \u201cYep, that\u2019s him.\u201d<\/p>\n

I whispered to the most precious baby girl I’d ever seen, \u201cI love\u00a0you\u00a0so much that it hurts.\u201d\u00a0 And without missing a beat,\u00a0 I heard God say to my heart, \u201c And I love you infinitely more.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I led worship one Sunday morning I felt like God wanted me to share something.\u00a0 After the service, a tearful woman hugged me and said\u00a0 that God spoke directly to her situation through me.<\/p>\n

Sitting with my husband one evening after we had been struggling with the thought of planting a church.\u00a0 We realized at the same time earlier that day, \u00a0we had separately been talking to our dads who both gave there encouragement and suggested a name for the church.\u00a0 The same exact name.<\/p>\n

A stranger during a youth camp prayer time walked up and said, \u201cI feel like God wants me to tell you that He has something for you\u00a0 to do and you don\u2019t feel qualified.\u00a0 Know that He has given you everything you need to accomplish the work ahead of you. \u201c<\/p>\n

Feeling led to encourage a stranger in a mall,\u00a0 I told her that God loved her and that she was precious to Him.\u00a0 In fact, she was like a Rose to him.\u00a0 Beautiful\u00a0 and sweet.\u00a0 She smiled really big and said,\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what my grandma use to call me. \u201c<\/p>\n

Praying with a friend and seeing a picture in my mind.\u00a0 I shared it with her only to realize it was a scene from her childhood.\u00a0 \u00a0God wanted her to know that He had been with her and seen her\u00a0 pain all along.<\/p>\n

So many vivid, tangible and powerful memories \u00a0reminded me that I was not alone.\u00a0 I never was.\u00a0 God walked with me when I didn\u2019t know it and even when I didn\u2019t deserve it.\u00a0 Memories that encouraged me along the way to believe that I have gifts and that God wants to use them.\u00a0 Memories that broke the power of those lies I began to believe so many decades ago as my Father chipped away at their grip on my heart a little here and a little there.\u00a0 With such patience and such love.\u00a0 Watching and protecting me,\u00a0 blessing me with encouragement and reminders of his presence and his power, always drawing me back to the truth that I matter.\u00a0 I matter because I am His and I have something to say because my message is His message.<\/p>\n

Among the\u00a0details of that night when I was so young, two stand out. \u00a0It was cold and \u00a0the light was on in the kitchen.\u00a0 That\u2019s so poignant to me.\u00a0 This world and the lies we believe are so cold.\u00a0 They leave us paralyzed and afraid.\u00a0 But God is faithful to keep the light on for \u00a0us.\u00a0 He is always saying \u201cThis way my child\u201d and whispering truths into our hearts and minds.\u00a0 Over and over He speaks until we can make our way to Him and to the truth.\u00a0 None of the dark lies of the enemy can hold us once we bring them into God\u2019s light.<\/p>\n

Think back for a while.\u00a0 What has God whispered to you over the years?\u00a0 Are you still believing the lies?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it time to step into the light and live out of the fullness of His love and purposes for you?<\/p>\n

I hope today is a memory that you hold close as the day you realized how very special you are and what incredible plans God has for you.<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Karen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard about a book the other day called \u00a0\u201cWhat Your Childhood Memories Say About You . . . and What You Can Do About It\u201d by Dr. Kevin Leman. The premise, as far as I can tell from the little I heard, is that you can tell a lot about a person\u2019s main\u00a0 struggle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-just-some-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}