• Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Collaborate
  • Blog
  • Parties
    • Children’s Parties Ideas
    • Holiday Parties
    • Adult Party Ideas
  • Holiday Ideas
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Fourth of July
    • Spring
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
  • Seasons
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Beverages
    • Desserts
    • Main Dishes
    • Side Dishes
    • Soups
  • Project Gallery
    • Crafts
    • Decorating
    • DIY
    • Good Ideas
    • Tutorials
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

  • Book
  • Speaking
  • Meet Vanessa
    • Featured

December 17, 2017

A Charmed Life

Dear friends, I’m so thrilled to be welcoming my friend Debbie Wilson, author of the newly released book ‘Little Women, Big God’ to the picket fence today! I hope that you will take this opportunity to pause in the midst of a busy season to be blessed by her words of encouragement and gentle reminders of truth. 

Can Scandal Be a Sign of God’s Favor? Remembering Mary

“She lives a charmed life,” a friend said regarding her daughter-in-law. “Everything just works out for her.”

If a charmed life is easy, then what do you imagine a highly-favored-of-God life to be?
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was highly favored of God. Yet her life was difficult. God chose Mary to be the mother of His only Son. Gabriel the angel called Mary highly favored of God two times in their brief encounter. “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28).

If an angel called you highly favored, wouldn’t you expect some free “get out of pain” passes? If God picked you to carry His child, wouldn’t you anticipate some special treatment? Surely, He’d prepare your fiancé.
I’m not sure what Mary imagined would happen when she returned from a three-month visit with her cousin to tell Joseph she was pregnant with God’s Son. But he didn’t buy it. Since their engagement could only be ended by divorce or death, he looked for a way to quietly divorce her.


Mary didn’t live a charmed life. Her fiancé believed she was immoral and unfaithful and she had no way to prove her innocence. She saw the hurt in Joseph and couldn’t reassure him of her faithfulness. Since God set the bar on sexual purity, why did He let others believe Mary was sexually loose? Why did He put this couple through this tension?
God did step in and stop Joseph from divorcing Mary. But the religious leaders continued to call Jesus illegitimate even in His adult years. God allowed people—religious leaders—to believe Joseph and Mary were sexually immoral, when they had shown extraordinary restraint. Joseph kept her a virgin until after Jesus’ birth.
I wonder how many Jewish customers and friends Joseph lost in his carpentry business because of this scandal. Wouldn’t you think God would clear the reputation of this highly favored couple?

Conflict may actually be a sign of God’s favor.

Isaiah 55:8 reminds us God’s ways are not our ways. They are better. God did clear Mary’s reputation with those with whom it mattered. He also used this misunderstanding to benefit Mary, Joseph—and us. Mary and Joseph could empathize with those who doubted their story. They didn’t waste energy being offended that others didn’t believe them. After all, it took an angel’s visit for Joseph to understand. Joseph modeled how to handle betrayal. Mary and Joseph’s faith grew. With each new challenge they remembered God’s faithfulness through previous tests.

We benefit. When people believe lies about us, we know we’re in good company. Some of God’s most highly favored saints were misunderstood. Having God’s favor didn’t mean ease for Mary. Instead of having a midwife and a clean bed, Mary delivered God’s Son in a stable. Instead of being escorted by the king’s army, soldiers hunted her boy to murder him. And when Jesus grew up, His scourging and crucifixion pierced her own heart. Definitely not a charmed life! God’s ways are not our ways; they are infinitely better. Despite her trials, Mary learned that no problem is too big for God. She dwells in heaven today with the Father and the Son. If you asked her, she’d say the favor of God surpasses a life of ease.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Author:

Debbie W. Wilson is an ordinary woman who has experienced an extraordinary God.


Drawing from her personal walk with Christ, twenty-four years as a Christian counselor, and decades as a Bible teacher, Debbie speaks and writes to help others discover relevant faith. She is the author of Little Women, Big God and Give Yourself a Break.

She and her husband, Larry, founded Lighthouse Ministries in 1991. Share her journey to refreshing faith at her blog.
Facebook Twitter

 

Thank you so much for meeting us at the fence today!

5 Comments Filed Under: Devotionals, Faith, Good Thoughts

Subscribe

Get the latest goodness straight to your inbox!

Previous Post: « Take Your Mantel From Fall to Christmas
Next Post: Your Turn to Shine! »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Norma Rolader says

    December 17, 2017 at 3:39 AM

    Aww precious and thank you for the message God bless

    Reply
    • Debbie Wilson says

      December 18, 2017 at 6:11 AM

      God bless you, too, Norma!

      Reply
  2. Michele says

    December 17, 2017 at 9:31 PM

    OH, so very well written. She is a beautiful, talented and faithful to God woman.

    This was a delightful reminder of how to properly look at the events leading up to the birth of Jesus.

    Thank you Picket Fencers, and much thanks to Debbie.

    God bless you all.

    Reply
    • Debbie Wilson says

      December 18, 2017 at 6:12 AM

      Thank you, Michele! Merry Christmas.

      Reply
  3. Julie Briones says

    January 8, 2018 at 2:06 PM

    Love this… and I agree! God is good, all the time, even when it doesn’t look like it to us!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search This Blog

Take the Quiz

Stay updated!

Get all the latest goodness straight to your inbox!

Get the book!

Invite Vanessa to speak at your event!

Must Reads

Recent Posts

  • Open Now December 17, 2020
  • Tradition and a Christmas Home Tour December 9, 2020
  • Tabletop Hot Cocoa Station November 29, 2020
  • A New Front Door November 10, 2020
  • Gaining Perspective October 26, 2020

Get all the latest straight to your inbox

Footer

Instagram

I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! 🙋🏻‍♀️🤪 I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
“Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every si “Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

But, in the evening, I cook dinner like I’ve always done and we gather around the table like we’ve always done and we laugh and tell stories and then clean up and play games or go on a walk or watch a show. And that feels SO gloriously normal.

So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

What feels ‘normal’ to you right now? Whatever it is, keep doing it. 🌿
When I was in college I would frequently call home When I was in college I would frequently call home and pour my heart out to my mom, sharing with her all that was happening in my life in that completely unfiltered way that you can talk with the person who potty trained you. These phone calls usually took place at night and my mom would patiently listen as I vented frustrations about professors, roommates, boyfriends and the food in the cafeteria. And, inevitably, they would end with my mom saying, “Everything seems worse when you’re tired. Try not to overthink things or make any major decisions tonight, especially when you are feeling emotional.” Dear friends, may I pass along this advice to you today?

If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ‘regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

My prayer for you in these days is that you will have the clarity to know what is true and that you will be filled with peace even while we live in this season of so many unknowns.
Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking thes Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking these days! 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’m trying to avoid gaining the #corona15 but my daughter and I LOVE baking together and it does help to pass the time plus it counts as a science lesson right?

If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

What have you baked so far during this time of social distancing? I’d love some new ideas!
There are a LOT of people out walking in our neigh There are a LOT of people out walking in our neighborhood right now (but still social distancing!) and she decided that she wanted to bring them some joy and put a smile on their face when they pass by our house. Also, the square with ‘say no to coronavirus’ is priceless. 😂 I just love her so much!
Follow
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2021 At The Picket Fence