Category Archives: My story

About Sheila- A Woman Found

I am a redeemed, 30 something, wife and mom working as a school nurse.  

Sheila’s experienced the pain of divorce, the fragileness of reconciliation, and the loneliness of being unequally yoked in her own marriage. She knows first hand that though giants loom in the land of marriage, our God is bigger, able, and willing to walk us through in victory over them all.
Because she’s been there, Sheila has a heart for all women to know that their worth is found in Christ. She also has a passion for God to be honored in marriage, and for wives to find great satisfaction in their part in displaying God’s glory.
Sheila clings to God’s Word like a drowning woman and has a desire to draw others to God’s word. She does not consider herself a writer, but has a need to write, feeling “woe is me” if she doesn’t share her life and what she’s learning from God’s word through writing. You can find her doing just that here at her blog.

For more about Sheila and her testimony visit these links:
So glad He found me ,

Isaiah 51:3

I’m just a regular irregular gal

My friend Kristen made a good point commenting on a recent post of mine about how she lives real, everyday life like the rest of us, but wonders if others who read her blog really get a taste of that “real-life” woman.

I’ve been concerned that anyone who reads my blog doesn’t get the impression that I think of myself as some Bible scholar. I don’t want to come off as some spiritual snob. I wrote about that here. But I also want to let you all in on the everyday “real” me. I think that’s why I started posting short videos here and there. A little real-time video clip is sure to bring me down to my regular-irregular gal status real quick!

In case you don’t see the videos (I’m secretly hoping no one watches the videos 🙂 Here’s a little about me and day-to-day life:

This blog is a part of the real me, cause I thoroughly enjoy writing and especially sharing my musings over God’s word, which I cling to desperately. It’s a form of Christian fellowship for me and it’s a piece of the ministry I offer with joy and thanks as part of the body of Christ. I’ts important to me and I find myself thinking in terms of blog post ideas all the time. But blogging/writing is only a sliver of my days.

Like I said, I’m desperate for God’s Word, and cling to it like a drowning woman, but I have a really hard time letting go of my pillow early in the morning in exchange for my lifesaver!

I usually wake up early, without an alarm clock, before the rest of my family does. I’ve just been programed that way I guess. But don’t think I get up all chipper and ready to tackle the day. I’m a slow riser. I usually get up, go turn on the coffee, don’t turn on a single light, mosey over to the couch, curl up with my favorite afghan, and wait for the coffee to stop perculating.

Some days, I fall back to sleep while the coffee’s brewing and wake up only minutes before my kids do. I usually give out a Simpson’s style, “Aaahng!” when that happens, cause like I said, I’m desperate for God’s word to light up the darkness I step into each day, but I have such a hard time letting go of the comfort of a warm spot on the couch!

The days when I do, like today, manage to relinquish the afghan for coffee, my Bible, journal and pen, I usually make my way to our office (spare bedroom), where, if I’m not careful, I can get sucked into checking email, reading blog posts, posting blog posts, updating Facebook, looking at websites for my kids, and running computer errands before I let God’s word light my path.

Usually I wake up with a song in my head and when I respond by singing it out loud… those are the best starts of days for me.

Once my family wakes up my day is full of making meals, responding to my 4 and 5 year old’s requests for “a snack” (which often starts the minute they wake up and continues throughout the day… Note to self, make designated snack times), verbal instructions and multiple reminders to the kids, “What do you want to eat honey?”s (directed at my husband), laundry, dishes, spills, meltdowns 4 and 5 year old style, times on the front lawn watching my boys ride bikes in the street, lots of corrections… I could go on and on.

I’m not an organized person, but I’m always trying to be. My kitchen has a little desk, nook, thingy. I have my large desk calendar there which is often covered by recent projects and notes of to-do lists and blog post ideas written on various note papers.

I feel good if I get my bed made right after my husband gets up and off to work, but that doesn’t always happen and I hate it when I look in our room and it looks neglected.

If you walked through my day with me I think you’d find I’m very much a regular irregular woman. I definitely have my quirks and idiosyncrasies. I don’t really know how to assess those for myself so I’ll tell you what others have told me about me:

  • You’re motivating
  • You’re not a good multi-tasker
  • You’re analytical
  • You’ve got the gift of mercy
  • You’re emotional
  • “You’re always thinking of me”
  • “When’s the last
    time you cleaned the furniture?”
  • You’re the best mom ever mom!
  • You always forget that mom
  • You can’t do everything Sheila!
  • You’re so optimistic
  • You bring up a good point
  • You’re a good cook
  • You’re concerned about what the kids learn
  • You want Jesus to be the foundation of your life
  • How come you never excoriate your heels?
  • You have thick eyebrows.
  • You need a goal and you’ll get it done

Those are just some of the things I’ve heard. I think they’re mostly true. And my first to rise just walked in here to start my day, so I’ll wrap this post up.

This blog is a very dressed up window into my life. But I pray you’ll see past the pretty decor to the real me. Even more than that I pray you’ll see a woman desperate for and delighting in God’s love and salvation, and a woman who points you to Him. I pray this little blog-window into my life magnifies Christ not me. I picture a magnifying glass, bring into focus a more close up image of what you’re looking at. I pray that image is my Redeemer.

Redeeming the time

What’s on my mind- I’m not all my blog makes me out to be

I’ve got this blog-image thing on my mind!

I’ve been sitting here looking at my blog. I looked at it through the eyes of a person who doesn’t know Jesus intimately, or hasn’t been around church, or just doesn’t really believe in all that Bible stuff. I thought, “Would they think I was a spiritual snob? Would they think I’m so “religious”? Do I come off holier than thou?”

I wonder about this sometimes. It’s easy, especially on a blog, to come off one way but not really be that persona.

I truly do love God’s word. It lights up my way. It cuts me to the core and keeps me from deceiving myself into thinking I’m good or better than someone else. It encourages me when I feel like no one understands. It gives me hope and direction. It reminds me of what’s really real, what’s really forever and what’s not. It helps me to know the Saviour I love but have never seen.

I do love God’s word and I chew on it, wrestle with it, fight it, soak in it, surrender to it, disobey it, obey it innocently, and chew on it some more, all day long.

And I love writing about what I read and hear when I’m mulling over scripture… I feel like God speaks to my heart more when I put pencil to paper, or finger to keyboard in this case, than any other time. But I’m by no means a Bible scholar or even a faithful student.

I’m no spiritual superwoman. I curse, and grind my teeth, and get angry at my kids, and yell at the person who cut me off, and complain about the marks on the carpet, and huff and roll my eyes at my husband, and worry about my kids’ decisions and future, and many other things all of which I’m ashamed of… I’m a mess! But I’d be even more of a mess if I didn’t have God’s word, and I wouldn’t have any courage to get back up again after my millionth fall short of His glory if I didn’t have His promises of redemption and faithfulness to complete that which He started in me.

So if your a person in my life who doesn’t go to church, or read the Bible, or isn’t really sure if you know Jesus or God; or if you’re a total stranger and you have any of the above perspectives or otherwise, please know I’m no better or different than you! I just cling to the hope of what’s written in the pages of my Bible like a drowning woman! And I believe He saves.

Redeeming the time

Why a woman found?- Some of my story

Proverbs 31:10 says, “An excellent wife who can find?” (ESV).

One day while studying this passage, Genesis 2:20 came to mind. The passage says, “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” (KJV). The similarity struck me. Both passage are seeking to find a wife/help meet for a man.

Who finds help meets? Who finds excellent or strong wives? Proverbs 19:14 says, “Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudent wife is from the Lord.” The LORD!!! The Lord finds excellent wives/help meets.
But wait. Is the Lord on a search, trying to find a really good wife and when He comes upon a woman who is strong and skilled He then plops her in front of a man? No! That’s not the kind of “find” I believe the Lord is talking about in these verses. For as I studied this out I kept getting drawn back to the Genesis account where after God saw that it wasn’t good for man to be alone and after He let Adam see that he was alone and didn’t have a mate, GOD CREATED A WIFE FOR HIM! God FOUND Adam a wife! And it struck me back then when I was studying this, that just as it was in the begining, it is now for those wives who are in Christ.

When we are in Christ we are created NEW creatures…it’s like creation all over again only we’re without sin.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor.5:17)

As a wife, when you are created anew in Christ, you are FOUND by God an excellent, prudent, wife!

When I studied this out I was a newly created new-creature-wife 🙂 My husband and I had just reunited after a painful 9 month seperation and near-divorce and I was falling on myself, tripping over my weakness after all we’d been through like a new baby, learning to walk. I didn’t feel like a prudent or excellent wife. But I remembered the days when the divorce was filed, and I was alone in my apartment with my newborn baby and my 20 month old, on my face, crying out to God, seeking what He would say to me. What He spoke to my heart was, “You are a wife of valor Sheila!”

I remembered the blushing of my soul. I can’t explain it, but I knew without a doubt that like Gideon, God was speaking to my heart. And I knew that just like Gideon was called a mighty man of valor and had a hard time believing it since he was hiding and in bondage, oppressed by the enemy like the rest of his people, I was being called or found- created anew- a wife of valor or an excellent wife. I wasn’t one already and God just happened upon me! NO! I was plagued by my sin, fearful and rejected. I had no evidence of this excellence God was pronouncing on me in my life.

But God spoke something to Gideon that day when He found him. He said, “Go in this might that is yours…do I not send you?” (Judges 6:14 ESV) Gideon protested in disbelief cause he showed no evidence of being a mighty man of valor, but God said, “Hey! Go! I’ve found you, I’ve made you this mighty man of valor because I’M SENDING YOU! If I say you’re a mighty man of valor, you are. My word is your might! Whoever I say you are, that is who you are!” (my paraphrase)

That’s what God did with me. While I was flailing around, fearful and haunted by my past as a wife and the perverse choices I had made, and also by the pains of rejection, God found me! And He made me a new creature!

Proverbs 31:10 goes on to say, “Her worth is far above rubies.” Which makes me think of another proverb, “The ransom of a man’s life is his riches...” (Proverbs 13:8)

A woman found by Christ, found in Christ, created by God IS AN EXCELLENT WIFE! And only a woman found by Christ can be an excellent wife. ONLY HE CAN FIND HER! And only He can make her worth riches that are above rubies. It’s the price paid to find her that makes her worth so much!

Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

Jesus paid a lot to creat me all new! He suffered a rejected sinner’s death to make me worth more than rubies!

I was a woman lost, but now I am A woman found!