Tag: summer

A Little bit of Soul Food for Summer Changes

July 1, 2022 /

Summer has officially arrived! That means change! Kids home, different pace, trips to the lake…

Changing Hospitality Rhythms

Summer is a time for easy outdoor entertaining where it’s all about the fun and connecting!

Hospitality hack: Pre scoop vanilla ice cream and put it in cupcake liners in muffin tin. Serve root beer floats for dessert.

I have a free resource of Easy Summer Go-to Menus, recipes, and More if you’re interested! Just click here!

Changing Seasons

Summer may mean a shift to casual, play, and outdoor fun. But it may mean other transitions too. A move, a job change, a loss, a diagnosis…

If you’d like to get a free resource to help you reflect on the changing seasons of your life with God and prepare to flourish, just click here!

Changing Church

Speaking of change…How has your relationship with the Church changed over the past few years? We’ve had terrible scandals, racial tension, Covid…Were you engaged in church before, but not now? Check out sermons every once in awhile, but aren’t attending in person anymore? What have you learned?

My friend Nancy Beach wrote a great book with her daughter Samantha, called Next Sunday about the good, the bad and the ugly and what may be next for the Church. They take an aspect of church for every chapter and each of them write from their experience and perspective, raising questions to consider.

This would be a great book for your small group to discuss! Here are a few questions my small group has used:

  1. What was your experience of church growing up? Positive? Negative? Non-existent?
  2. What draws you to church now?
  3. What keeps you from fully engaging?
  4. Have you been injured by the church?
  5. If the following are qualities of genuine community, which do you think we/you need to work on most:
    • forgiving one another
    • showing up for one another
    • listening to one another
    • believing the best about one another
    • creating safe space for one another
    • being committed over the long-haul

6. What is one experience of community or inclusion in the church that has been powerful or inspiring for you?

7. Is there some way a challenging aspect of community has formed you more into the likeness of Jesus or taught you something?

Have a joy-filled week and let me know in the comments what’s on your summer fun list!

I hang out mostly over on Instagram. I’d love to see you there!

Road Trips

June 1, 2015 /

 

Adventure starts where plans end.-3It’s June 1st – the start of summer, and for many of you that means VACATION!

Every year when I was growing up, our family took The Big Vacation. We conquered a different region of the United States each summer. Planning for these extravaganzas began in the freeze of Chicago winters when the July road trip was just a tiny glimmer of warm light at the end of a cold, dark tunnel.

I’ve been thinking about those family adventures and decided it would be fun to do a summer blog series on Bible “road trips”. I’ll post once a week and include questions so you can use this for personal study or with a small group. Because these are a little more substantive, and because it’s summer, I’m just going to commit to one post a week. My small group is going to be discussing this IRL and you can join virtually. Sound ok?

In addition, I‘d love it if you’d post pictures of your road trips on Instagram (https://instagram.com – lauracrosby) or on my Facebook page with the hashtag #roadtrip and what you’re learning with a link to the blog.

Some of the things we experienced on our family vacations are consistent with what I see in biblical road trips:

  • Packing up – Abraham
  • Provision – Moses
  • Promise – Joshua
  • Pit stops – Elijah
  • Peter
  • Perspective – Paul

But today, just one thought…

No matter what road trip we’re on with the Lord, no matter where we go, our home is in Him.

They will ask the way to Jerusalem
    and will start back home again.
They will bind themselves to the Lord
    with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten. Jer. 50:5 NLT

Questions (We’d love to hear any of your thoughts in the comments below!):

  1. What’s the most fun trip you’ve ever taken?
  2. How would you describe this leg of your journey or “road trip” with God? You may want to take a look at this Discipleship Map for help.
  3. What are the biggest challenges and fears as you look at the road you’re on?
  4. What promises do we have for our road trips? Exodus 33:14, Deuteronomy 31:6, Psalm 16:11, Hebrews 13:5b. Which means the most to you?

One Thing I Want to Know When Life is Hard

June 30, 2014 /

It’s summertime, and if you’re anything like me you’re drinking deeply from the cup o’ awesome.  The smoky smell of barbecue and friends gathered on the patio, an icy drink after a sweaty bike ride, boating on the lake as the sun sets (EVERY lake in Minnesota is THE lake), the smell of fresh cut grass, and kids running through the sprinkler… This is my neighborhood.  This is my summer.IMG_2316IMG_4309

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But this Norman Rockwell and Mayberry picture exists in stark contrast to the conversations I’ve been part of the past few weeks.  Conversations permeated by the aroma of despair and disappointment, a thirst for redemption and healing in hard situations where spouses aren’t showing up, and parents grieve over the choices their kids are making and people can be just plain mean.  And we want to fix it all, using our plans, our timeline with a little bit of God sprinkled on top.

Isn’t that THE story of all of us, starting way back with Adam and Eve?  We want to be God.  Period.  We want control, but we’re not capable. And so God brings us to the end of ourselves time after time  And we once again bow down, draw close, seek Him…and submit to a plan better than ours – a plan that we may not see clearly this side of heaven.

In all of these conversations, hearing so much heaviness, I’ve been asking myself, if not to fix, what IS our role in community?

One small inkling from the Holy spirit came from an unlikely place.  We decided to host a backyard bbq for our neighborhood.  DSC00423Now, as someone who hosts a lot of gatherings in her home, let me tell you, these things are always messy and never turn out the way you plan (much like life).

It rains, or people don’t rsvp and then show up, or come at the wrong time, or you remember about their peanut-gluten-dairy-banana allergy as they walk in the door.  You can’t “fix” it, you just have to show up and welcome whatever comes. Continue reading

First Days

September 4, 2013 /

Today (Tuesday) is the first day of school in my neighborhood.  The leaves are sounding a little different – a little drier as the breeze ruffles through, and already they’re giving up their valiant effort to hang on.  The green of summer is surrendering to autumnal shades.

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Change.  Sometimes we fight it.  Sometimes we embrace it, like these two little girls ready for school.

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As I jogged past the kids and parents gathered on each street corner, I paused to wave and yell “Happy first day of school!”

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I thought back to all our first days as a family.  Sure, the marking first days of school when we had “adopted” family members, Sue and Heather over for dinner (always homemade chicken pot pie) to hear a recap of every high and low, every “he said, she said” of K and M’s six hours at school.  But there have also been first days of new jobs, first days of marriage, first days of grad school, first days in a new home or apartment for each of us.  New seasons.

And each first day means there’s been a last day.  A last day of summer.  A last day of being single.  The last day in a familiar city that’s been home.

As I jogged and reflected, I was reminded of two things.

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Filling Your Bucket

August 27, 2013 /

The Minnesota State Fair started last week.  The unofficial mark to the beginning of the end.

The end of the glorious season of going “up north”, going to DQ, and not going inside til neighborhood kids stop playing tag when the sun finally fades at 9:00.  Biking the lakes, going without shoes and without makeup.

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We estimate church attendance goes down by 30-40% in the summer and we get it.  We live in a state where the only month that hasn’t had snow in recorded history is July.

People in MN play hard in the summer.  There’s a concerted effort to fill up.  To fill up with family time, sunshine, hide-n-seek playing, tubing, and kayaking.  We do summer big.

And then all of a sudden it’s school time again and we’re all about busy and schedules and no margin.  And sure, there’s a part of us that craves the order, but with it comes the stress of too much stuff and too little time.  

It’s got me thinking about the rhythms of our lives.

Bill Hybels says, “As a leader, the best thing you bring to the table every day is a filled up bucket.” 

I’m thinking you could substitute “parent”, “teacher”, “”boss”, “coach”….or just “person” for “leader”.

As a person, the best thing you bring to the world every day [of the year!] is a filled up bucket.

So how do you do that?  If you think of some the different areas of your life – spiritual, physical, relational – what rhythms do you have that keep you replenished so that you don’t just deplete, deplete, deplete, and then madly try to fill up?

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Fear and Filling

June 7, 2013 /

It’s Fearless Friday, so as I was running yesterday I was thinking about what the total opposite of fear would be.

I’m sure there’s more than one answer, but one thing that squeezes fear out is the exuberant filled-up to overflowing joy of the with-God life.  Joy doesn’t leave room for fear.

Kind of like pushing back from the table at Thanksgiving stuffed with deliciousness so you can say “no thanks” to a piece of fear pie.  You’re already full.

We fill up in different seasons in different ways, but Summer just seems made for “tasting and seeing that the Lord is good”

Continue reading

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