Today is a very special day! Today marks 36 years of God giving me a miracle!

I prayed to God to heal my broken heart from my parents divorce, and He did. I prayed that He would be my Heavenly Father and help me break my deep rooted feeling of being unwanted, and He did. I prayed He would lead me and guide me even though I felt so alone, to pursue a college degree so that I could serve Him and commit my life to Him fully, and He did! Finally, I prayed that He would give me someone I could do you that alongside with all my life, and He did!    

I first saw Jim Swaney as he leaned up against the outside wall of the campus Commons meeting room at our college. His 6’ 2” frame, dark curly hair and piercing blue eyes caught my attention immediately! But there was something small among the obvious big traits that stood out about this man. He said nothing! He was completely silent! He did not even reach out his hand to say hello as my friend and I walked up to join the Bible study that he was about to teach. His friend who was with him did all the talking and all the greeting! Yet as he stood there silently, So much was being communicated through his silence. I sensed a confidence mixed with a sincere humility that literally melted my heart! Here was this guy who had every reason to exude arrogance, I mean he was drop dead gorgeous! Yet he stood there and said absolutely nothing. I was drawn to the quietness. There was a strength in it that over took me. When we walked through the doors into the campus commons room that tall dark handsome quiet man started to teach the word of God! The most beautiful thing that happened was as he taught, I fell in love with his heart for God! It was not his good looks that drew me to him, although they were icing on the cake! It was his quiet, humble spirit! My miracle came when after two years of serving God in the college group together, dating and learning more and more about each other, God gave me this man as my husband!

As God continues to challenge me to lean in to Him, and see the small things in life, and find joy in them, this week He clearly has shown me the joy of being quiet!

Truth Bomb

Big lessons are learned through the small practice of being quiet.

To celebrate our 36th anniversary we went to Pismo beach. We woke up early in the morning and stepped outside of our room to sit together in perfect quiet and stillness and read God‘s word. We said absolutely nothing to each other! We just read and then sat still and listened. In that quietness I heard some thing that pierced my mind with this truth…

In the quiet we are able to hear strength!

As I sat still and silent I began to hear the soft roll of the waves of the ocean. They were rolling in so quietly until they reached the cliff. Then they crashed onto the cliff and rolled back out into the still quietness!

“The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;

    its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,

    in secure homes,

    in undisturbed places of rest.”

Isaiah 32:17-18

God was showing me that in the small quietness of the role of the tide, strength is built! The same quiet strength that my husband has is built when he is quiet. Then when he speaks God‘s strength pours out!

So today on my 36th wedding anniversary, as I celebrate the miracle God gave me in my husband, I celebrate the strength in the smallness of being quiet!

Speak Truth Love