Andrea O. Freeman

‘ None of us surrenders just once, or ever quite surrenders all. On this side of eternity, we will never be done with surrender because it’s not a one-time decision for us. It’s a commitment to a lifestyle. Every day will bring us a new opportunity to offer our surrender to God and to let something go. And we’ll keep on giving over to God things we thought we released to him fully once-and-for-all but didn’t. Not because we didn’t want to--because we couldn’t yet.' (I Give Up: The Secret Joy of a Surrendered Life, 5 day devotional study plan by Laura Story) Surrender is not easy. It is an action, a posture that does not come naturally. I think most of us like to hold tight to what we have in this life, what we have accomplished, what we have worked so hard to achieve. Even after we find new life in Christ, and as we navigate this journey of life in faith, it is difficult to fully trust and give over everything to our God. It is a necessary daily release we must adopt,

As we are fast approaching the holidays, I intend for this to be my last blog entry for the year 2019. If I could look back on this year and sum up my attempted focus it would be this: Be Still..... My family is a busy one, schedules all over the place with a husband and our 2 olders in college, 2 youngers at home, and me trying to somehow keep the plates spinning. I am amazed as I witness Ryan's determination and intense effort to complete his bachelor's degree. It has been a long, hard, very interesting twisted road but you are doing it, my Love! I have found it necessary this year to take more time to be still, be quiet, be seated in restful and focused time with my Father God. I have scaled back from doing as much as I did in years past, and so I have spent more time reading, meditating, praying, and just being still. I am so tired. So incredibly tired and worn from this current season. I have asked God quite often this year, "Why does this have to happen

The ability to breathe is the difference between our life and our death. Without oxygen, and our body’s ability to circulate that through an amazing, intricately and delicately designed system, we would not be here. I can remember from a very young age, probably 5 or 6 years old, experiencing the fear and nearly breath stopping reality that I was not where I was supposed to be. We were living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and I was in first grade I think, and rode the bus home from school like any other day. On this particular day though, my bus driver dropped me off at the wrong bus stop. And because I was fully trusting this bus driver to get me home, I stepped off the bus and onto the sidewalk, and watched the bus doors close, and the bus drive away and didn't give it a second thought. Until I began to look around, and was suddenly aware that this was not my street and I was in unfamiliar territory. My little heart started beating fast, and I was scared, but somehow I decid

….In life, some moments mark the start of something new. You realize a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. You sense a shift happening; you will never be the same. (“Adored by the God Who Sees Me: Day 5 A Life with Purpose” Bible app devotional by Kerry Clarensau and Kay Burnett) Day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year, we are all going through some similar seasons and some very different seasons. I have started reading a Priscilla Shirer book recently about the interruptions of life and how we perceive them. There is a shift that occurs in us when we choose to see life’s interruptions as divine interventions. God has purpose in every single thing that happens to us. The good, the bad, the amazing and the absolutely horrible. He is in it with us when we are knocked to our knees by the unexpected, and more than anyone on this earth our Father God experiences the entirety of it. He knows our shock, our pain, our anger, our disgust, our disappointment, our disillusionm

I am weary, Lord, life is really hard a lot of the time. But You are good, always good, always faithful. Always near. Always God. You never change. That’s solid ground beneath my feet even when the pavement of the road of this life is cracked and marked with the occasional pothole. It’s not impossible, even though it feels as if it is sometimes. I stumble as I step, and fall to my knees but I always get back up. I refuse to be a casualty of this war. I will not be a victim. I will endure. I will remain determined and move forward, even if it is just one small step at a time. There are some days when all I know to say in my prayers is, “Help me, God…” or “Lead on, Father…”. He knows. He sees our condition, feels the weight of the burden we carry, and is right there ready to take it for us. Sometimes, I wonder if I am strong enough, and I have to lay it all before my God and ask, “What am I to do with this, Lord?” “…Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid, for the L

But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.” John 20:25 MSG Recently, I had to undergo a minor procedure and it was not something I expected to have to endure. A second time. It was bad enough the first time, but a second time? I have seen my doctor more in the past 10 days than I normally do in an entire year and I have learned a lot but the great mystery remains: the human body is quite amazing. I wish mine had managed this particular issue better than it did, but thanks to the excellent care of my doctor, I am on the mend. The things we experience from the sense of touch, can set us on a perspective in life to expect things to always go a certain way. We are either more certain or more uncertain by what the sense of touch provides to us from one experience to the next. We want something tangible to know something is true and real. In John 20, we read about the experience Tho

“After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4 NLT) Exploring the sense of hearing this week, and my focus is on this concept of the sheep knowing their shepherd’s voice. In John 20 we read about Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus at the empty tomb. She arrived and to her dismay discovered He was gone, and her grief shifted her state of mind into fear that Jesus’ body had perhaps been taken, stolen. She was desperate to find Him, to care for his body, this Savior who had changed her life in so many ways. I imagine for a moment how lonely this moment must have been for her, because she had not yet identified fully that Jesus although He was no longer present in human form was most certainly with her in Spirit. As He appeared to her, we read on and delight in experiencing with her the joy of hearing Him call her by name, and she instantly recognizes Him! Her ears did not deceive her, even though her e

"...this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in him..." (John 9:3 NIV) It is a new month, May is here! The countdown is on with just days remaining in this season of transition for our family. My son Bailey is closing out his senior year of high school and preparing to enter college next Fall. It is incredibly emotional and overwhelming, particularly for him right now. We are walking with him through these last days of his high school experience and praying for him to seek solace in the Father, and savor these last moments. It is too easy to want it to just be over and done, because he is carrying such a heavy load of work and expectation from so many sources around him. I think so many of us observing from the outside, too quickly cast our opinion as to how it should be handled, and often times giving our advice and intended wisdom without considering the recipient’s state of being. Bailey is a powerfully sensitive and creative soul, and we have wa

“He is not here! He is risen!” (Luke 24:6 NIV) Last night I was imagining from my tiny perspective, what it must have felt like to approach the tomb where they laid Jesus’ body, to see the stone rolled away. The quiet moments after the women had already been there and the angels had just told them that He was not there, He is risen! The hush just before Peter must have come upon the now empty tomb and peered in to see the cloths laying on the floor of the tomb where He was laid. I imagine the birds must have been stilled even, all nature quieted just for a moment, as everything awakened with the sun that morning to realize this man whom God had sent to bring about salvation for all mankind in a most extraordinary act of sacrifice and mercy-was RISEN! I find myself on my knees, just in awe of what has happened here, the experience these women, these disciples had, has left a mark upon this world that I cannot completely appreciate until one day I am in the presence of A

I had to remind my youngest child Chloe last night, how to approach the injustices of this life with kindness instead of anger. I got a heads up from her teacher earlier in the day that Chloe and another classmate had a conflict which resulted in some unkind words being exchanged. It’s a chip at a Mama’s heart when you are informed your child has spoken hurtful words toward someone else. The behavior was managed appropriately by their teachers, and upon arriving home last night, I had some time to talk with Chloe about the situation. The focus of our conversation was the uncommon response of kindness rather than responding in anger. For Chloe, it was a moment of what she could only see as an injustice done to her. So naturally, her human and emotional response was to retaliate with angry words. As I am typing those words, I have a vision in my mind of a crowd of people, their fists raised while holding up signs with bright bold phrases, shouting and chanting, emotions high, det

I was out in our front yard last night, walked over to our tree to look at some of the new buds that are appearing. Transition from one season to the next, it’s interesting to watch it unfold. The time change and the longer days, more time we have with the sunshine into the early evening has been so refreshing. I have enjoyed getting back outside to walk again, because it’s just not the same having to exercise indoors. I admire those of you who get up before 6:00am and get it done. I am not that motivated, my bed is really comfy, and so I struggle just to get on my feet by 6:30am to get ready for the day ahead. The day ahead holds a lot for me. It can go one of two ways, and when it doesn’t go the way I had hoped and planned, it can take a nose dive to disaster quick if I let it. Perspective: where is it? Is my mind, my heart, my entire being stilled in Him? If I start there, in the perfect stillness of His presence, then I can maneuver the uncertainties of the day much b

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”-Andrew Gide 2011 was quite a year for our tribe. We entered into a season of heightened uncertainty, while welcoming our newest member of the family, Chloe Grace. I remember the day we brought her home. My folks made the trip to be with us but only stayed until the day we took Chloe home. I remember getting into the car at the hospital and feeling this ache for my Mom and Dad to stay and help me through this. Because it wasn’t just adjusting to having our fourth baby, it was having to face the ‘Grand Canyon’ size unknown our lives had become just a couple months prior. I felt more vulnerable and helpless at that moment in my life than I had in a very long time. I can look back and still feel what I felt as we drove home that day, tears streaming down my face as I watched Chloe sleep snuggled up safely in her car seat. I remember Ryan glancing back at me in the rearview mirror, asking me af

I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead Or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, Granting me the joy of your presence And the pleasures of living with you forever. (Psalm 16:8-11 NLT) How is it February already? Valentine’s Day is just a couple days away and here’s my Mom confession: I’m not the least bit prepared. I know there are a lot of Moms out there who make a whole lot more effort than I do, but at the age of 47, having been through the delight and anguish of these elementary days/parties/events/etc. 3 times previously, I have gone to a much simpler approach with our youngest tribe member. Decorate the Valentine’s Day party box, load her up with a bag of labeled pre-packaged sweet treats, and call it good. And whoever came up with the idea to pre-pay a flat amount of mone

He holds all of creation together…… (Colossians 1:17) And just like that, 2018 is behind me and 2019 is suddenly right before me. I spent some much needed time over the holiday break considering where my heart, my mind, my focus is and how I need to enter this new year. I chose to disconnect from social media just prior to the holidays, and as I have done this before in years past, weighed carefully how I want to commit my time going forward. Life is stressful to some degree at all times, not just some of the time, but ALL of the time. How do we handle this? How to cope? What do we do to find our way into a healthier state of mind, and sustain it life long? For me, it’s my faith in Christ, and healthy habits I have adopted over the years that keep me balanced. When I am off-balance, it definitely shows. I’m grouchy, short-tempered, emotional, go on a tangent about whatever mess appears to be right in front of me and proceed to push everyone out of my way to get it done myse