April Flower Momma Message: Be Still And Sing Praise

Last month on The Flower Momma Podcast, my best friend Sav took over the mic! She interviewed me about celebration, and it made me realize -man, I truly do love celebrating! However, we also talked about the fact that celebration doesn't look the same for everybody…and it doesn’t always mean what you think it does! So, let’s dive into that!

For starters: Did you know in the book of Exodus the words "Do not forget" and "Remember" are used 22 times?! I think if I had been set free from slavery I wouldn't forget that! I would be too busy celebrating my deliverance! But God knew better. He KNEW they would forget what He brought them out of.

Now don’t forget this (see why I did there!) we will revisit it later!

Did you also know that celebration requires a little bit of risk? It's true! Let me explain.

One of my favorite stories in the Gospel of John is about Jesus healing a blind man. We read that Jesus puts mud all over his eyes, but that isn't when the healing happened. He commanded him to go wash in a pool of water. The man went and washed, then came home seeing. It took an act of obedience to trust Jesus in what He promised was good. The man had to walk from point A to point B in obedience and trust, that what Jesus said was going to happen. In his obedience, he was trusting Jesus for who He said He was.

Celebration is risky like that. When we are led by our emotions, a lot of the time it takes risk to trust and obey that He is who He says He is. To step outside of what we are really feeling, we have to put one step in front of the other even when we aren't fully sure that what He says will happen is true.

Celebration is an action.

Katherine Wolfe once said so eloquently: "This side of heaven there will always be a low-grade sadness.” We can read that and be weighed down, depressed, and think: "What's the use then?"

…Until we take that first action which is the first step of obedience toward celebrating. Celebration gives us hope. We know He came, and we know He is coming back. We know He is good and faithful. We see this in all the blessings He has given us, and that is why it is important to stop and remember through celebration.

Those first steps the blind man took before his healing took an insane amount of trust and risk. How embarrassing it would have been if he wasn't healed! He would have just walked all that way with mud just splattered all over his face…But He trusted. He took the risk. He put one foot in front of the other filled with anticipation and hope. Celebrating isn't about us, sweet momma. It's about celebrating and remembering (like the Israelites, and us, so often failed to do)- He is good, and He is faithful. Let us remember that Celebration is participating in hope this side of heaven! It’s remembering all that the Lord has done, and trusting all that he will do.

Until next time!

xoxo,

For further reading and encouragement read Psalm 23 and John 9: 1-12