07: my mom

Today I am thankful for my mom, who I had the opportunity to see receive a Peer Recognition Award this afternoon at VU. To be recognized by supervisors is one thing, but to be recognized by your peers demonstrates a different kind of passion and integrity. She goes about her life, doing her job with excellence even in the face of chronic pain and disability, in such a way that she is able to make those she works with feel important and loved. She is able to excel without making others feel like less, and that’s certainly a special gift.

Yet I have the fortune of knowing her not only as a coworker (which I am!) but as a mom. How can I express thanks to the person who gave me life? Who in the face of a boyfriend insisting on an abortion, insisted on life… and because of that I am here to type this today. Had she done nothing else beyond that point, it would have been enough. She chose to fight for this little life growing inside her, a life that she knew would change everything she knew, or dreamed, or cared about. That is courage.

I am grateful that she taught me the hard lessons in life, with love. That she allowed me to make my own decisions and experience the consequences of mistakes. That she taught me that life isn’t always fair. That having less doesn’t necessarily mean you have less, but that your blessings are stored elsewhere. I thank her for teaching me how to love the unlovely. I am grateful that growing up she was my mother- not necessarily my friend. That she taught me to respect her and others in authority over me. That rules are there for a reason. That nothing good happens to a teenager after midnight.  Because of that, in my adulthood, we have developed a genuine friendship based on mutual respect and love.

Seeing her receive her award today, it was clear the inspiration she has been to so many, and the admiration she receives from her peers. But I get to do one better than that… I get to love her. After all, she’s my momma.

06: spiritual leaders

Today I am thankful for the spiritual leaders God has placed over me. The shepherds He has called to lead His flock, the friends He has called to lead this sheep. As I have reflected on the spiritual leaders in my life, it occurs to me that I must really be a mess because this sheep needs not one, or two… but three shepherds to keep her on course!  And that doesn’t even count all of the Pastors that have impacted my life over the years!

I am thankful today for Seth Alexander. Seth pastors my home church (FBC Bicknell). I am thankful for the educator that he is. For the passion he has for the Truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. I am thankful for the visionary leader he has become, taking our little church from a completely inward-focused, keep-our-members-comfortable-and-happy mode of operation to an entirely outward-focused, find-the-lost-and-show-them-Jesus approach to doing church. I am thankful for the way he has challenged each of us to become disciple-makers, reminding us that it’s our job to reach this lost and dying world, and that if we don’t do it… who will?  My heart rejoices as we continue to see the streets of Hell depopulated! Just today we witnessed the 45^th person step into the waters of baptism since we began the push to reach the unchurched in our community! Forty-five people! That’s a big deal, folks, especially in a community our size!  God knew what He was doing, Seth, when He called you to lead us. And He knew just what I needed when He called you to be my friend. 

I am thankful today for Kathy Stephens. Kathy teaches a Bible Study in her home on Monday nights that feeds my spirit and has encouraged me to seek the deeper things of God.  Her humble spirit finds confidence in God to say things that challenge the American mindset and encourage us to trust a God who warns us that it will not be easy, but promises that it will be worth it. Her spiritual insight into the Scriptures continue to amaze me… taking me deeper and deeper into passages that I have sometimes read a dozen times… and never thought of it quite like *that*!  I found myself at Kathy’s Bible Study many years ago, just as I was really beginning to hunger after God… and it was there that I learned how to read Scripture, and hear God’s voice. What a gift! She took me from spiritual milk to meat, and continues each week through the power of the Holy Spirit to confirm, challenge, and convict me. Kathy, you are a mighty woman of God, and the work you do in your home is truly Kingdom work- reaching across denominational barriers and gathering us together as one Body!

I am thankful today for Dusty McCandless. Dusty pastors the New Life Community Church in Haubstadt. I only met Dusty about seven months ago, but he has spoken so much into my life that it seems like it must have been longer than that! Since that time I have regularly attended an intercessory prayer service their church hosts on Saturday evenings.  Over and over again, Dusty has spoken things to my ears which were directly from the throne room of God.  He has encouraged my ravished heart to be ever more sold out and radical for my God.  His passion for Jesus is contagious (and I think some people very near and dear to me are catching the fever too!) and His love for God’s people is written all over his heart and his actions. Dusty, I thank God for the way he has used you to speak directly into my spirit. I thank you for the encourager you have been to step confidently into the calling God has placed on my life.

How lucky am I? How blessed? To have these three individuals to guide and mentor me. How thankful am I that they said “yes” to the call to go and make disciples! And how humbled am I by their example… which is ever and always to point to Jesus. To shine a light on Him. Never accepting glory on their own name, but always lifting a banner up in Jesus name!

I don’t do a great job of letting each of you know how precious you are to me (I was even a Pastor Appreciation Month Failure)… so let me take this time to say thank you from the depths of my heart for who you are and for the gentle care you have taken in nourishing my spirit.  

05: amazing friends

Today I am so thankful for the incredible friends God has called along this path with me!

I am so thankful for the friends who have always been there. Who walked through my history with me, and stand with me today, loving me all the same... or perhaps even loving me more because of it. 

I am so thankful for the friends who patiently listen through my mind dumping sessions as I run along a mile a second about all of the plans and dreams and concerns and hurts and blessings that rattle on around this brain of mine. 

I am so thankful for the friends who challenge unhealthy thoughts and attitudes... who hold me accountable and make me want to look more like Jesus.

I am so thankful for the friends who love me enough to invest in my children's lives... to make runs to Evansville when my schedule gets overcrowded, or plan video gaming sessions with Z, or take time for ice cream and bubbles.

I am so thankful for the new friends He continues to bring into my life. The ones who picked up like they've known me forever. The ones who "match". 

I am so thankful for the family God has planted in my life that have surpassed the flesh and blood relationship to one of true friendship and mutual love and respect. 

I am so thankful for the friends who know all of the inside jokes. Who can read my mind with the glance of an eye. Who know what <4 means. Who rejoice when I rejoice, and cry when I cry. Who are comfortable in the silence.

I am so thankful that the One who created the heavens and the earth, who holds the universe in the span of His hand, who gave up all of heaven to walk as a man and die for me, calls me friend.

All of this, so much more than this awkward little girl could have ever dared to dream of during those difficult times of loneliness most kids go through. So much more than I deserve.  And yet, I find myself so richly blessed.

Thank you, friend, for the blessing you are to my life.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you [Philippians 1:3].

04: uncle dave (friday flashback edition)

I love doing the Friday Flashbacks because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on where I have come from and how God has been so intricately involved in every little detail of my life. {Isn’t He beautiful?} And today, as I considered how to combine my flashback with something I am thankful for… I kept landing on memories of Uncle Dave and Aunt Marge. There have been so many people who God has placed along my path… guideposts along the road toward Him… but in Uncle Dave and Aunt Marge I see how such a simple act can have a profound impact.

When I was about three years old, my family rented a house in Bicknell, Indiana that was owned by Dave and Marge Morwood. Lucky for us, they also lived right next door. My family was poor, and we certainly had our problems, but they met us right where we were. My  mom tells me that as we moved from Cincinnati, the one promise she made to my Mamaw was that she would get me into a church. I suspect that Mamaw spent a lot of time in her knees talking to God about this, because within a couple of weeks of moving into that little gray house on Cedar Street, the man who I had already come to know as Uncle Dave asked mom if I could go to church with him.

At just over three years old, I stepped foot for the first time in First Baptist Church of Bicknell. Thirty-two years later, that is still the place I call home. In the decades in between, I have seen my baby brothers dedicated, my daddy accept Christ, my husband step into the waters of baptism, my children come to know Jesus… I have made some of the best friends I could ever imagine, and I have seen other friends get on fire for the Lord.

And to think, it all started when my next door neighbor invited me to church.

It doesn’t always take grand mission trips or enormous steps of faith to impact the world for Christ. Sometimes it’s as simple as looking around you, seeing who God has placed there, and meeting them where they are at.  I think of Uncle Dave often. I am so thankful for the guidepost he was in my life… and I believe that Christ is calling all of us to be along the path of other seekers…  pointing the way to Him. Who has He placed in your life? Who is looking to you for direction? Whose testimony would you find your name in?  

Praying you hear the voice of the Lord directing you to action today… and that you do something about it!  

03: something exciting!!!

Tonight I am thankful for a great meeting of the minds with some beautiful women of God! The Lord has given us a vision to hold a Women’s Conference to minister to the women of our area… and it’s going to be so, so, so good!  We are still hammering out the details… so I can’t tell you much… but I can tell you that it’s going to be BIG, it’s going to be CHALLENGING, it’s going to be ENCOURAGING, and it’s going to have JESUS all over it!

And I am SO excited about it!

I am thrilled that the women He has called to work together are from different churches, different backgrounds, different denominations… yet we are all ONE.  Isn’t His Body a beautiful thing!? Isn’t it amazing what happens when we work together in unity?  Certainly we have different ideas and different approaches… but in the end we are all looking to the One who can already see this conference taking place and because of that I can totally trust the path He is taking us down!

I’m bursting at the seams to tell you more… but He says “not yet”… so in the meantime… stay tuned!

02: zach

This morning I answered some emails, made a few phone calls, typed in a few case notes and decided what I really needed was a nice mid-morning shower to wake myself up. [How awesome is it that I have the kind of job that allows me to work from home, so that break times can be spent in a nice, hot shower? But I digress...] As I headed back to my work space with my glass of water, I stepped over something on the floor. Not unusual in this house, but looking down I realized it was my son's school binder. The one that only two months into the school year is already falling apart and being held together with shiny silver duct tape. The one that has his conduct sheet in it that must be initialed every night. The one with his agenda that requires a parent signature daily. The one holding all of his homework. 

I'm not going to lie. I looked at the stack of paperwork still calling my  name and thought "I do NOT have time for this"... 

But then I imagined him getting into his backpack, realizing this morning that he didn't have it. That sick, sinking feeling of realization that he was going to sit all of his recesses. So of course, wet hair and all, I headed toward his school, binder in hand.

I could have been aggravated, but really, I wasn't. Because all I could think about on the way to the school was how relieved he would be when that binder came walking into his classroom... and he would know... my mom came through for me. I got to be the hero today, and that was pretty cool.

Plus, it's not like I never left my binder (or paperwork, or report, or check book, or other-really-important-thing) at home before.

I keep thinking about that duct-tape repaired binder and the tornadic event that carries it back and forth to school every day. The one who rips holes in the knees of all of his jeans. The one who's bed always looks like a sasquatch spent the night in it with him. He is so different than his neat freak, clothes-has-to-be-just-right sister... and I love that about him!

He's obsessed with video games, but respects the "one hour a night" rule. He wants to play the games the other kids are playing, but doesn't argue with my "I don't think so" look at the video game store. He's a good kid. He has an amazing sense of humor. He loves to torment his sister. He loves to torment me. He also loves to sit next to me on the couch and cuddle. Begs me to rub his back, and his feet, and his face (yes, his face...) and I love that about him!

It's hard to imagine this straight A student was once a little boy who we wondered if he would ever find his words. Hours of speech therapy, patience, and prayer... we can't shut him up now. And I love that about him! 

Today, I am so thankful for my little man, Zachary. I am thankful for the young man he is growing into. I am thankful for the gentle way he holds baby Ty at church, and then the full out heart he plays football with later that same afternoon.  I am thankful for his laugh. I am even thankful for his mess. And days that he leaves his binder on the floor.

And I am so, so thankful for those times when he says "thank you Mommy".

Like tonight, when he told me that his binder showed up right before first recess. Just in time.

30 days of thanks

Last year in November, some of my Facebook friends took the time to offer up one thing they were thankful for every day of the month... so this year I am going to do that here at my mind's eye. I hope that you will join in sharing some of the things YOU are thankful for!

Today, my heart is full of thanks for new opportunities. The Lord has blessed me with a knack for the creative, whether it be scrapbooking, painting, decorating... or photography... it's something that comes naturally, and obviously from the Lord! For a long time I have been resistant of using these gifts to earn money... but lately He is showing me that some giftings can be used so that I have more resources to support ministries, or more free time to serve Him. This is a part of the process of becoming all that He imagined me to be when He created me. It's becoming comfortable in my own skin, and in my talents...

As I type that I think about the three servants with whom the master left talents. I know, I know, in the parable the talents are actually money... but it certainly seems appropriate to correlate those talents with the abilities our Master has deposited into our lives. How are we investing them? How are we sowing them? How are we using them to bring increase to the kingdom? I have always seen my talents as an opportunity to bless others... but God has been very clear over the last two or three months that He has something more in mind.

After much prayer, and the surprising (and consistent, and encouraging, and supportive) urging of Jim, I have decided to take my photography gig a little more seriously. For years I have taken senior pics, family pics, tortured my own children, done more weddings than I care to remember, and dabbling in sports photography. I have charged very nominal prices for my time because, well, I just felt weird about it. Now, however, after a ridiculous number of confirmations (yes, I kept wringing out the fleece and waiting for yet another confirmation from God, and boy am I thankful that He is not only patient, but also generous to meet us in our hesitancy)... I am officially going to label myself a "photographer" by launching my brand-spanking-new website.

I am so thankful for this opportunity. Since the time Jim first began talking to me about doing this for real, I have been inundated with requests for family portraits, senior pics, and children's sessions.  I even ended up at a wedding on a weeks notice (He has a sense of humor, too).  He is saying... walk this way, Becky. I have no idea where this path is leading me. He hasn't illuminated much farther than the next step... but you know what...

I trust Him.


And so I will continue to put one foot in front of the other, following where His voice is calling. If this proves to be a short-lived side job to allow Jim and I to get completely debt free, that is enough! If this proves to be a long term opportunity to raise money to support ministries and missionaries He has placed on my heart, that is enough! If this leads to other opportunities, that is enough! Even if it goes nowhere... I trust the process, and that is enough!

So... excitedly, hesitantly, nervously, expectantly... I bring to you...
in a blink
UPDATE: I registered my own domains so now in a blink can be found at beckyboyles.com!

Click. Tell your friends. Let me know what you think. And pray for me... that I believe and not doubt what He is asking me to do...

And I will be doing the same for you, friend... because our Creator God is One who is always growing us, stretching us, asking us to step outside of the box and trust Him. He likes to create something new. Because of that I can be confident that He is speaking to your heart as well about the next step in your life. What new opportunities is He placing before you?