Dirty Stove Top | My Stone Collective

There's a quote I've seen float around Facebook and Pinterest every now and then that says, "Excuse the mess, we live here." Have you seen that one? I chort to myself when I see it because, man oh man, is it true.

My stove top is often neglected in the "hurry clean the house someone's coming over!" bustle. You know exactly what I'm talking about right? The floor gets vacuumed, shelves get dusted (or something like it), pillows get fluffed and toilets get wiped, but rarely does my stove get attended to.

The other day a friend of mine came over and as she walked into my tiny kitchen, I cringed at the sight of my stove top. Dang it. I thought. I made a casual joke about Ty and I always fighting over who has to clean the stove and so it rarely gets done. haha. chuckle chuckle. please don't judge me. 

We went on about our day but I couldn't get that moment out of my head.

Why was I so ashamed about my stove top being dirty? Was it because of the fact that it was dirty or  because maybe I thought it represented me? My laziness. My inability to become anything domestic. I mean, the food on the stove wasn't even there because I cooked last...Ty did. He's normally the one who cooked last.

Shoot.

That was it. That dirty stove, in that moment, beamed like a spotlight of what I considered failure.

You don't clean enough Jules. Cooking? Forget about it. You'll never be a good housewife. 

Discouragement. Disappointment.

And then I remembered my calling. My promise to God and my family.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."Deuteronomy 6:5-9

I wasn't called to be the perfect wife or mother or chef or house tidier. I wasn't called to perfection at all.

I was called to live.

Live fully and freely and in a way that would honor and love my God. I was called to live in such a way that His grace and love and hope would be natural verbs of my life.

I was called to talk about Him, to my husband and my girl and everyone that comes in that front door.

Into my messy kitchen.

Yes, I was called live, and my dirty stove reminded me that I lived that day. It is my Ebenezer stone that reminded me I fed, I nurtured, and I enjoyed doing it.

Are you too, easily ashamed of piece of your home? How about we learn to not be ashamed together?  Let's learn to be alive, together.
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The Stone Collective is a community making much of Jesus as we create art, photography, prose, poems or music that commemorate the wonderful things God does in our life. Started by Sarah Martin and based on the passage in 1 Samuel 7:12-14, each month we will collect Ebenezer Stones as a regularly practice in the art of worship via our creativity. 

Want to join in on The Stone Collective? Create your own Stone and link up to LIVE IT OUT! Blog. #TheStoneCollective

God Helped Us | My Stone Collective

God helped us. Have you cried those words before? 

"Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it 'Ebenezer' (Rock of Help), saying, 'This marks the place where God helped us.'" 1 Samuel 7:12-14

This spot, right here, this is where God helped us.

If my life was laid out in map form, it would be so thoroughly covered with images of these "rocks," these "Ebenezers," it would brink difficult to decipher any coherency. 

That's not a life map, one might observe. That's a little piece of paper covered in rocks. 

Yes. To both. 

It is a life map and it is indeed covered in rocks. And I'll tell you why: because without those rocks, the life part wouldn't exist. It's true. 

God helped us. 

I boldly attribute any and every ounce of my life, the good and the bad, to the sovereignty of God and the freedom that comes from knowing Jesus Christ. I've often felt a tension, in this blog space, to not be overly emphatic about Jesus. I know there are so many searching for truth and meaning and purpose, and you have graciously given me permission to explore and question alongside your quest. For that I am honored.

But the fact remains, as much as I am searching and questioning and dialoguing like you, I know one thing to be true: God helped us. 

These three words hold so much meat sandwiched between them, that one essay, one book, one library could not contain its enormity. 

But let's try to bite off just a piece. 

God helped us, acknowledges there is a God. He does exist.

God helped us, acknowledges there is a God, who doesn't just exist, but He cares. 

God helped us, acknowledges there is a God who doesn't just exist, and just care, but possesses the character and desire to assist, redeem and restore, actively in this life. 

God helped us, acknowledges there is a God who doesn't just exist, and just care, and just possesses the character and desire to assist, redeem, and restore actively in this life, but in your life. In my life. 

Despite the vast chasm of knowledge I am lacking, I know these things to be true, not on theory alone, but because I have experienced them, first hand. Here, here, here and here. (And that's just a fraction.) 

These are my rocks. These are my Ebenezer stones that boldly and unashamedly proclaim, yes, God helped us. 

Charles Spurgeon, a great man of faith, once said, 

"Study deeply what Sovereign Grace has done to you, that you may see the greatness of the mercy and admire it, for, very much in proportion as you appraise the mercy of God at its proper value, will you be sure to have it fixed upon your memory all your life."(Emphasis mine) 

Looking back is the greatest tool we have in this life. (Click to tweet) Whether it's to remember where we came from and never go back or to remember what inspired us forward to being with, we could all use a minute down memory lane. 

Will you look back with me today, to remember where God, who exists and cares and redeems, has  helped us? 

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The Stone Collective is a community making much of Jesus as we create art, photography, prose, poems or music that commemorate the wonderful things God does in our life. Started by Sarah Martin and based on the passage in 1 Samuel 7:12-14, each month we will collect Ebenezer Stones as a regularly practice in the art of worship via our creativity. 

Want to join in on The Stone Collective? Create your own Stone and link up to LIVE IT OUT! Blog. #TheStoneCollective

(Original photo via)