Read-Worthy Posts

10 Apr

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Thank you as always for visiting This Temporary Home. I am very grateful for a platform to write from and an audience to read. You are a gift!

This weekend was quite busy for our household. Ron’s work deadlines, in addition to a couple of my own, have forced us to squeeze the most out of our time.

Monday, a family break was in order and we all traveled to the beach. It was wonderful! Now, as we face one child with bronchitis and a few more deadlines, I am choosing to invest my time a different way than writing today. Don’t worry, I will be back in full swing on Friday. However, until then, here are a few posts from some other writers that I found either very interesting or necessary to share as a need of prayer.

Enjoy your time reading!

  •  Instagram’s Envy Effect via Relevant Magazine (click here)
  • How To Get Along With An Introvert via Storyline Blog (click here): Being one of the few introverts in my family, I find this article very interesting.
  • Catching Water In Your Hands via Minivans Are Hot (click here): Do you, like me, mistakenly view your time as your personal commodity versus a gift from God? Read on.
  • Abortion Doctor on Trial But Media Not Interested via Washington Post (Warning: this is graphic. Click here): We should speak out and pray for the life of the unborn child.

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Filed Under: What I Am Reading Wednesday

Gradual Gratitude

5 Apr

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Have you ever found yourself in a new place in life and completely nostalgic for the comforts of familiarity?

A few short months after Ron and I were married we moved to his childhood home in Florida. Having lived solely in Alabama for the first 21 years of my life (18 of those in my small hometown boasting two red lights and a McDonald’s) I was excited about the move, but unaware of the challenges of change.

Moving to the beach intrigued me. Continuing my studies in communication disorders at a new university excited me. However, I was unaware of the differences in culture, accent, and even socioeconomic differences that awaited.

When change happens we crave the small, steady denominators that made home home.

I missed knowing the cashiers at the grocery store, seeing people in Walmart with whom I attended school, and familiar faces at church that held common memories in time and space. It took me many years to embrace my new identity as a Floridian.

I was focused on yesterday and the hopes of one day which would bring a return move home to Alabama. I had little desire to explore the greatness of the area in which God had placed me.

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Unfortunately my inability to embrace the changes in my life perhaps robbed me of a portion of present joy.

Today, almost 11 years later, I love the area I live in. My family enjoys the recreational parks, habitat preserves, the beach, and the museums and sites near our home.

Within the last year or two I have often wondered why I spent much time and energy trying to make my current home more like my childhood and less like the newness of life that God had placed me in. I missed opportunities to enjoy God’s creation in my own backyard because I was longing for the backyard 500 miles away in which I grew up.

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Are you in a new location be it geographical, vocational, or missional? Maybe the novelty of your experience leaves you longing for the familiarity of yesterday. Take heart my friend! There is good to be gained from every new venture. Look around you today and purpose to find a good to be grateful for. Gradually your gratitude will give you a change in perspective. Your eyes will see not as a pilgrim longing to turn back, but as one set to forge ahead to the lasting pilgrimage of the celestial city. (See Pilgrim’s Progress)

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Five Easter Books for Your Preschooler

27 Mar

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One of the ways we prepare for Easter in our home is through Christ centered literature. While we love the signs and symbols of spring in the beautiful flowers and precious animals that are God’s gift to man within creation, we like to keep the central message the new life in Christ.

Christ laid down His life so that we could take up new life in Him.

The book links below are targeted for preschool through second grade learners. Perhaps you would like to check these out at your local library or purchase them at your favorite bookstore. Happy Easter and may your celebration be rooted in Him.

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Great to use with the Resurrection Eggs available at your local Christian bookstore.

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To See Jesus

26 Mar

A little picture post here today. I invite you to hop over to IBelieve and check out my featured article, When Our Children Reflect the Gospel (click here). Sometimes to see Jesus, we must simply look to the actions of children…

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“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ (Matthew 25:34-40, NLT)

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Celebrate His Coming

22 Mar

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My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.  You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world– to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. (John 18:36-37)

Wonder, amazement, and awe are emotions felt when we pause to consider the coming of Christ. Jesus left his eternal domain of Heaven and took time-capsuled residence among the fallen and flailing.

The King of Kings, Creator of All, clothed in human flesh… the dust of the earth. At the Father’s will He was crushed, stripped, beaten, and pierced for my transgressions: envy, covetousness, pride, slander, anger, ungratefulness, and ungodliness to name a few.

Jesus bore a mocking crown of thorns and accepted blows and insults as a lamb slain for the final sin offering. He is the One whose sacrifice we celebrate as His people freed from our sin.

Each man who had a part in the punishment of Jesus was known to Him by name. He knew everything about them. Likewise, he knows everything about us. All that we have done or will do both for shame and for His glory and yet, even then He chose the most burdensome cross of all: to do the Father’s will and restore relationship between Holy God and wicked man.

The Redeemer came to reunify the created to the Creator. Like the Good Shepherd that goes after the one lost lamb, He came so that all the lost have freedom to choose life. Life not given at first breath, but by means of dying to ourselves. That we may be reborn to new life in Christ that can never die.

Now we may walk with our Savior.

In Isaiah 53, the prophet, Isaiah, prophesied about Jesus, the Messiah, 700 years before His birth and 733 years before His cruel death on the cross. Our God is the Master Author, Scientist, and Historian. He is the more than we could ask for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Bowed as branches we celebrate His triumphal entry, as was His way: riding upon a lowly donkey. May this Sunday’s celebration remind us to eagerly await the second coming of the One who, appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:11-28)

But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. (Mark 14:61-62)

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (Matthew 21:9)

Looking to the clouds and eagerly awaiting our Lord…

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A Walk With Our Savior

19 Mar

Almost two years ago I was confined to walking in chest level water for exercise. At the time I tried to learn as much as possible of the spiritual parallels for walking in the water.

This past Sunday evening, Ron and I were watching The Bible on the History Channel. In one scene, John the Baptist is preaching repentance and salvation, and also baptizing in the Jordan River. John’s cousin, Jesus, approaches him to be baptized (Matthew 3:12-17). The moment Jesus’ feet plodded through the water to fulfill all righteousness, it came to me:

Jesus walked through the waters of baptism before He walked on the water of ministry.

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For those who are in Christ Jesus, our conversion precedes our submersion (baptism) and our submission to the will of God begins with believers baptism.

So often people will question whether or not they are ready for baptism. When the Lord calls us to come and die to our old life, our sin nature, repentance followed by confession of His Lordship (Romans 10:9-10) leads to new life. As a new creature, our response is a life centered around the life of Christ lived in us. Walking through the baptismal waters is our first act of obedience and preaching of the gospel with our lives.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 17:24-25)

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In baptism we follow our Savior. In so doing we preach the gospel and walk with Him.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

~In the Garden, C. Austin Miles, 1868-1946

The act of baptism does not save us but is an outward declaration of our faith in Jesus. It is a picture of our dying to self to rise in new life in Jesus Christ.

As Easter approaches let us test ourselves to see if we are in Christ Jesus. If Heaven is to be our eternal home then Christ must be the Lord of our lives.

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Wooing Our Minds To His Majesty

15 Mar

What woman doesn’t love flowers? I myself am enamored with them.

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On our honeymoon in North Carolina, Ron and I visited the Biltmore Estate. There are countless pictures of me with my nose in every rosebush and flowering shrub. Ron would laugh and tell me that I had pollen on my nose because I refused to enjoy the totality of the flowers’ aromas from afar. I literally insisted on putting my nose into the flowers and breathing them deeply.

In flowers we glimpse the intricacies of the handiwork of God.

Consider the variety of flowers, shrubs, and trees. God was not beholden to man that He should satisfy our desire for sight novelty and beauty. That man would desire a visual marking of the seasons was already known to God before we had yet experienced the cool refreshing autumn wind, replete with blazing leaves,  or savored the warming sun of spring birthing rainbow gardens.

Plants are good for food, medicinal purposes, and capturing the artist’s scope throughout the ages.

God gave plants both form and function for the enjoyment of mankind and as a tool to tell of His glory.

Our friends were over last night and gave an impromptu apologetic for creation based on plant species alone. In the course of our conversation Dr. Walp pointed out that the fully formed, fully functional plants, observed throughout all time, cannot be explained in any way by evolution. Nothing ties plants together in such a way that we would consider them to have evolved from each other. There are no fossil records to support such a claim (neither are there to support the evolution of man for that matter). Further, plants, animals, and humans enjoy symbiotic relationships. Symbiotic relationships are ones in which both parties need the other to survive (i.e. the bee to flowers and the upside down jelly fish to algae, or sea oats to sand).

In truth, there never have been millions of years of gradual, chance mutations and natural selections that produced the “intelligent” flowering plants that we see today. The intricate design of plants, as manifested by tiny proteins like AP1, testifies to the fact that an intelligent Designer created flowering plants. Plants “know” exactly when to bloom simply because, when God created them, He endowed them with the ability to perpetuate their kind. As Genesis 1:11 states: “Then God said, ‘Let all the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so”. (Evolution Can’t Explain “Smart” Plants, Kyle Butt, M.A., via Apologetics Press)

Read the full article here. Also another article on this topic here.

Today as you are walking, driving, or working in your yard, consider the flowers and the glory of God. His creation was formed in such a way as to point us to Him and provide us with a plethora of avenues to woo our minds to His majesty.

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The How and Why of Blogging

12 Mar

“Human creativity is derivative and reflective, working within the bounds of what God has formed,” writes Os Guinness. As. C.S. Lewis put it, “an author should never conceive of himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of that eternal Beauty and Wisdom.” Because of the Fall, we do not have a clear glimpse of Beauty or Wisdom; we see only a poor reflection. But because of Christ’s redemption, the arts can be restored. (How Now Shall We Live, Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, 1999)

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I have not always considered myself an artist, nor, for that matter, a writer.

In 2008, I began a family blog to chronicle the life of our first child, Emily, in such a way that relatives in neighboring states could observe her growth and development. That blog consisted primarily of captioned pictures and a smidgen of video clips. Later, in August of 2010, I began writing a ministry blog: Raise the Risk. Fairly quickly I came to love the art and craft of writing. I began reading other more popular bloggers and learned more about this creative outlet I am called to.

In 2011, I decided that writing two blogs was too much. I wanted to graft my family blog and ministry blog together. I also wanted the freedom to write about all aspects of my life; not only the ones that involved everyday risks. As a result of that decision, This Temporary Home was born. I now consider this blogging home a place where I can capture the days and express my thoughts through the lens of  a Christian worldview. It is my way of embracing everyday beauty.

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Interested in starting a blog of your own? There is no one way, however, I would love for you to learn from my past experiences in blogging and shorten your learning curve a bit.

  1. I suggest starting with your own website versus a Blogger or WordPress blog. I have used all three and would forgo the headache of transitioning from one to a dot com. To do this you need to purchase a domain name and secure a server. BlueHost is the server that I use. A detailed description of how to go about this can be found here on Amy Lynn Andrews’ helpful website for all things technical on blogging. As you decide on your domain name (web address) the easiest thing to do is use your name as a dot com. For example: www.brookecooney.com. I did not choose this for various reasons, however, in retrospect this may have been a better option. Using your name gives you the flexibility of changing your blog’s name without purchasing another domain.
  2. Next, begin writing. Once you establish a regular writing schedule, you will discover the theme connecting your posts together. You may begin a food blog only to discover you continuously write about the guests you have over for dinner! Once you develop your writing style, and the theme woven into it, then you can begin working on your branding. More about that next.  The most important element of writing a blog is consistency in posting. The more you write, the better you will become.
  3. Branding. By this I am referring to the web design and overarching message of your posts. These YouTube vlogs may be helpful in pursuing this idea further. I hired someone to design the look of my blog. I have no regrets for doing so. For a very reasonable cost, and much less anxiety on my part, a beautiful space was created for me to call my writing home. I would suggest that you look at your favorite blogs and websites and determine what exactly draws you to the look of those blogs. The look draws you, but the content is what makes people return again and again.
  4. Next, once you have blogged for a year, I would highly recommend converting your blog into a book. The company that I use each year is the Cutest Blog on the Block. These books are our family’s “scrap book” and also make for great gifts!
  5. One last piece of advice. When writing your blog and pursuing a reader base, always write with your audience in mind. In other words, try to tie in how the lessons you learn can impact your readers lives.

If you sense the Holy Spirit calling you to pursue blogging, be it writing, photography, cooking, or a creative how-to website, then I hope that the above suggestions will be of benefit to you. May you blog for His glory and for beauty!

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*Photography by Ron.

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To Make the Most of Our Days

5 Mar

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It is often said that we should enjoy the present days for “the days are long but the years are short.” Sooner than our minds can fathom, our children will be forging their own path and we parents left with dinner for two.

During these short years full of long days, how do we make the most of our time? How do we enjoy our children, maintain our patience, and live with sanity amidst frequent requests, tiffs between children, and multiple appointments? I think an oversimplification of God’s Word will give us a formula for living as wise parents. I need this advice as much as the next mom…maybe even more so at times.

First we must breathe.

The wonderfully created human body breathes without conscious effort. This is one function that you never need to put on your to do list…or do we?

Isn’t amazing how pausing to breathe and reflect before responding to a stressful situation often helps in making our reaction calmer? At least it does mine. When anxiety, stress, and frustration meets us in our day, a few seconds for purposeful, conscious breathing helps us to follow the commands of James 1:19-20: Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

During this brief moment we also provide the Holy Spirit time to remind us of verses we have meditated on and/or read earlier in the morning as we started our day in His Word.

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Next, we must rest.

Yes, there are multiple opportunities for work and work is a necessary gift of God. However, rest is a neglected portion of health. God rested on the seventh day and His Word further tells us to be still and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10) With rest comes reflection and observation of the greatness of God.

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Third, we must reflect and praise.

In reflection on the precious moments of our day: his giggle, her smile, that quip, those paintings, toys shared, dishes done, we remember the gifts of God. As we remember the gifts we then turn and praise God, the giver of all things both good and perfect (James 1:17).

God appreciates a thank you as much as anyone else, and He deserves it far more than anyone else.

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Finally, repeat.

Each new day brings the opportunity for the repetition of these steps. No day is the same, which is why we must make the most of our time, accept the forgiveness of yesterday’s trespasses, and purpose to live this day in accordance with His will. Is that a lofty aim…perhaps, but He calls us to it none the less and He is patient beyond all our understanding.

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A few simple reminders to make the most of our days and live intentionally in the present to make the most of eternity.

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You Are Not Alone

1 Mar

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No man is an island,  entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were;  any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

~John Donne

Just as John Donne, priest and poet, proposes that every passing of a life affects all mankind, I propose that our actions affect mankind as a whole.

Take for example the playing of our three children upon the beach. Little E takes Joshua’s truck. Joshy screams. Emily intervenes with physical force as I simultaneously begin giving orders. Where moments before there was peace and harmony in sand and sea, seconds later there is discord and strife.

One thought that often scares me is: people are watching when I least expect it. Someone whom I have never met may watch my interactions with my husband, children, or friends and be influenced by my behavior. People notice the manner in which we dress, react to news, pray, …our Facebook interactions and Tweets and all the while we may live in oblivion to this fact.

Your life and example can affect not only my own choices…but I can allow it to affect my mood, insecurities, worries…

This week perhaps you have received unbelievable news that you did not expect. Where did this news drive you? To your knees… a gut check…despair? Perhaps all three in varying forms.

Dear one, you are not alone. As even this news reached your ears as reality, the Father knew it from before time began. He knows all, sees all, and will one day redeem all. I want to pray for you here today as you walk in the new reality the news has brought for you.

Father God,

You are maker of heaven and earth. Before each child breathes their first breath, You have already knit them together in their mother’s womb and know each day they will live.

Help us not to waste this life you have given us!

When we are recipients of shocking news let us remember you hold the world in Your hand. The entire host of the heavens are called out by name from your mouth. When each star burns its last you are aware.

Please be with the grieving. Help us to remember that our actions can cause a ripple effect. Help us to behave in such a way as to bring about positive, God-honoring change and not contribute to the death and dying of this cursed world.

We long for the redemption of your creation. As we await your Son’s second coming, we thank you for your common grace that allows for continuance of life on earth, and for your saving grace that turns sinners into blood-washed saints.

We love You Lord and ask for Your will to be done on earth as in heaven. Even so Lord Jesus, come soon.

In Jesus Name I pray,

Amen

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