These two people hold such a special place in my heart, they are the heartbeat of me, one gave birth to me the other I gave birth to. My Mom and I struggled in our relationship, even before she died 5 years ago things were slightly strained, we had come a long way but had not arrived, funny how after someone dies those things have no matter. I reflect back on my memories of my Mom, she was a legacy leaver even if I didn’t recognize it at the time she was doing it, her strength as a military wife alone makes me respect her even more now, she raised my sister and me most of the time in my Dad’s career military years all by herself, my dad was gone for most of my life courtesy of the Army and his many unaccompanied tours of duty. 

Mom had so much on her plate and did her very best to keep it together, a child with special needs, her own mother living with her and the care for her added to her list of duties an absentee husband, add to all of this her regular duties, housekeeping, childcare, driver, cook, and the list goes on, by the time she laid her head down at night she was exhausted. I wish I had respected all she did for us as I was growing up but if truth be told I didn’t thank her near enough or respect the sacrifice she made as both a military wife and mother. To say I miss my Mom is an understatement, I still go to the phone to call her, and now I cry out to God to be able to just talk to her one more time before her stroke and eventual death.

In the above picture, my Mom is holding our daughter, Sarah, this child was a gift from God, I was never supposed to be able to conceive let alone carry a child and there were so many circumstances that happened in her creation that can only be of God, she came a whole month early to the day, but Gods timing is always perfect so she was right on time and saved herself from being named Holly Noel, Sarah will now have been on this earth 32 years this coming Friday as of this writing, our beautiful daughter is one of the best gifts I have received thus far in my life, her Dad is another!

When Sarah came into this world, I remember telling my doctor I couldn’t have her yet, I didn’t know how I was going to pay for her. In my defence, I was on some heavy duty drugs due to complications, born with a cleft palate and harelip she weighed in at 6 pounds and instantly dropped to 4 pounds, figuring out how to feed her was a challenge but we had an incredible doctor, we navigated  the ins and outs of our local Children’s Hospital as Sarah went from being born in one hospital to going to a children’s hospital,

Her first year of life met with challenges of not gaining enough weight in her first year, several surgeries to repair her cleft palate and harelip, a month before her first birthday we found ourselves on the parent care unit at our local children’s hospital, Sarah was almost one and only weighed 13 pounds, she was failure to thrive, a common problem with children with her condition and leaving me feeling like the worlds worst Mom on planet earth. Sarah learned to walk two days after her birthday while in the hospital on that stay. Her life in the early years was spent in and out of the hospital, when she was 3 years old she contacted Spinal Meningitis, we spent a month and a half in the hospital and she gained the nickname of Wild Child from that stay.

Sarah’s early life was spent making friends during hospital stays and visits for check-ups, as she got older the visits and stays became less, her final surgery was her Senior year in High School on Christmas break and her nurse was one of the very first nurses she had from one of her first stays. Life has moved at warp speed since those days and Sarah has grown into this amazing woman, who I now also get to call my friend, to say her Dad and I are proud of her is an understatement, she went on to honor her early years of life by returning to the very same Children’s Hospital and now oversees the teams who oversee the entire Dance Marathons of Indiana for both colleges and high schools. Earlier this year (2018) she was honored by her employer ( The Children’s Miracle Network) as the first recipient of their new annual award for Dance Marathon  Person of the Year!

Summing up my thoughts on these to amazing women, the one who gave birth to me and the one I gave birth to. I thank you, God, that you thought the world needed one of me and for the people, you chose to bring me into this world. Thank you, God, for our beautiful daughter, I celebrate her, I pray I leave a strong legacy to her and those in my circle of influence and that we have instilled in her a love for you that she shares with others. God, I pray that she knows her identity is in you and that she also leaves a legacy of your love in this world.  Amen.

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, successful, loved daughter! Your Grandma was so very proud of you and the woman you have become and so are we.

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

My love for reading started early in life, but then I lost interest for a long time, it was when I was in grade school that I found that long lost love of reading again, some of my favorite books were Nancy Drew mysteries, The Hardy Boys, Trixie Beldon, I loved me a good mystery book! Nowadays I read many types of books, currently, a  Christian series of books called After by Joy Ohaweu, in each book is a story of someone who has a large weight loss to overcome, I can so relate to that as I am currently on my own weight loss journey, as of this writing I am down 70 pounds from my heaviest last year(2017), 30 of that has been since I joined weight watchers in April of this year (2018), these After books are works of fiction but are based in truth.

Keeping my reading material fresh I read many books at a time but can retain all the information from what I am reading.  I love to read any book by Max Lucado and Lysa Terkuerst as far as spiritual non-fiction goes, but my favorite fiction authors are hands down in this order, Nancy Naigle, who is a personal friend, two of her books have been made into Hallmark movies for this Christmas movie viewing season, Christmas Joy to air on Hallmark Movie Channel and Hope at Christmas to air on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel(2018) check your local listings for both!

My other favorites are Grace Green, she writes about the beaches in North Carolina as well as heartfelt novels like her book The Memories of Butterflies, her writing touches me deeply and my other favorite writer is Kathleen Brooks, her Bluegrass series is awesome and draws you into her fictitious world of Keeneston, KY, she went on to write a strong series about strong women called Women of Power, carried on the lineage of the bluegrass brothers and their growing families, and now books about their kids, an espionage series called Web of Lies and her newest series about the cousins of one of her Bluegrass series characters called Saving Shadows which takes places in the fictitious town of Shadows Landing in South Carolina.

In the morning I also like to read devotions, before I even get out of bed I read a devotion on my First 5 app on my phone, the current one I am reading is a study of the Psalms 1-72, I also am doing a study by Beth Moore about James the half Brother of Jesus. So as you can tell reading is something I am passionate about and love to do! The above picture is one of my favorite place to read, it sits in our bedroom in front of my bookcase and a lot of times when I read you can find me there, it is also placed so I can look out onto our backyard, I love to watch the birds of the seasons that fly and nest in our backyard.

Reading is my favorite pastime and this is my favorite place to read!

What is your favorite thing to read and where do you like to read? Comment below and let me hear some of your favorite titles.

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P 

This is the epic center of all things God Styled Life with Maggie P, I have written about my love for Jesus within these four walls and all things coffee, some of these sayings, pictures, etc.. are gifts from others and some are just things that were happenstance but all represent my love for God, this is my ministry office, my creative studio, print pressroom but most importantly this is my home, the home that God promised me many years ago, you see our sweet little house was once the Christian Preschool I used to teach at and every day for the 16 years I taught here I prayed that one day this sweet little house would be our home.

God honored my request 7 years ago, I remember praying as we went through the process and God honored my service of teaching those little ones about His love and word by allowing us to buy the very home it was taught in. The very house that taught the word of God to little children, is now the very place where the word of God is written about. Welcome to my God Styled Life! 

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

This is the top of the bookcase that is in our bedroom, I love to bird watch especially in the Winter months, the contrast of the brightly colored birds against the snow is especially beautiful. I love how God gives us beauty in every season, even in the gray times of life there is a beauty.

This bookcase is on the wall opposite of our bed so I can see it when I am laying in the bed at night or when I awake in the morning, it is a visual reminder of those things God has richly blessed me with, my family, His creation, and the memories made of our various trips that are in my memory jar pictured in the center and above the bookcase is the word BLESSED, this too is a visual reminder, it sometimes is easy for me to forget when I am down just how richly blessed I truly am.

Sprinkling reminders around our home is a very good way to live a God Styled Life, it allows those who we have in our homes to see God and it shows other without our words our deep desire to serve the Lord with all our hearts. 

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

In part two I said I would show you a way to make a portable quiet time basket, the basket pictured here is mine, in it, I have all the devotions I use on a daily basis whether it is for my morning or evening quiet time, journal book, notebook, books I am currently reading by Christian authors, ink pens, highlighter, yes I am one of those kinds of readers and most importantly a bible!

What I personally like about having a basket like this is that it can go with me wherever I go, I put it in my car and can make any place I go my quiet time space, but at home, it sits next to the chair it is pictured in. One of my favorite quiet time devotions to read is a book by Lysa Terkuerst called Embraced, it is 100 devotions to know God is holding you close. I don’t read them in order, I jump around a lot and sometimes I re-read the same devotion always getting something different from it. 

The next devotion I use in my morning and evening quiet times, I reflect on it in the morning then respond to it before bed, applying it to my day has really helped, it is called 100 Days of Bible Promises by Shanna Noel, several women at my home church are doing this study and have an online  private FB group where we share our thoughts and then every so often during these 100 days we get together in person and share how God is speaking to us through this book.

Finally, the book I am reading currently is called Anxious For Nothing by Max Lucado, he is by far one of my favorite Christian authors, I love that most of his books have a built-in study guide in the back of them. He writes in such a way that you just get it. So there you have it, you can use any type of box or basket and build your own portable Quiet Time necessities, just remember that the focus is on time alone with God and He doesn’t care what that looks like just as long as you are sitting at His feet and talking to Him daily.

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

In every season my favorite place to have my quiet time is my front porch, I love those days when God allows me to wake just before or as the sun is rising on the horizon, there is a stillness and sweet calm about the world as it wakes up from a nights slumber. Lots of times I just sit there with my eyes closed and listen to the birds and nature come alive, some mornings I can hear God through the wind as a gentle breeze blows the wind chimes on my front porch. 

My favorite place to sit in is the chair closest to you in this picture, there is usually a mug of coffee up with, my devotional books, my bible and sometimes if it is a little chilly a blanket. 

A God Styled Life is not just in our homes but on the outside too, it’s how we live our faith out loud and not just with our words. Since originally posting this blog post I have changed seasons and we are now in Fall, so the porch has taken on its Fall dressing. I think this is the season I enjoy most on my porch as it lends to cooler, but not freezing weather to relax and enjoy the start and finish of my days.

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

For the next few weeks as promised, I will be blogging about what it means to live a God Styled Life. My life in its self is nothing special but there are parts of my home, health, and things I do for peace of mind that lead me to a God-inspired life. I love my home and love creating vignettes that speak to my faith in God, this coffee bar in my kitchen is one example, the picture hanging on the wall was given to me by a dear friend, it is a reminder to me that God does indeed have a plan for my life! I love incorporating Gods word into my home decor. 

I remember being a young kid and enjoying helping my Dad move furniture and rearrange the rooms in our house, in part because he was always the one to move the furniture but he also enjoyed a different view of the beautiful mountains from our picture window in the living room, my favorite room in the house, to this day I still dream in color of that scene from our window, it reminded me of the line in the song America the beautiful, ” for purple mountains majesty” the sunsets and those purple colored snow-capped mountains are truly the stuff that dreams are made of. 

Having always been one to style my bedroom I shared with my sister for many years I made sure she held up her end of the work to keep it clean and organized, but she didn’t seem to understand my need for order and cleanliness which would lead me to do her fair share as well when it would really get to me. To this day I love all things decor and organizational, although at the time of this writing I am looking at a bit of clutter,  that is a blog of another matter.

So how does this all tie into a God Styled Life? I want God to be reflected in my home and not just in my kitchen but throughout my home, so I will take you on a tour of the vignettes of God inspired decor in my home and we will discuss creating God styled spaces and places.

Follow me for the next few weeks as we explore ways to show Gods presence in our homes, our hearts, souls, health and daily lives. Lets journey to our own God Styled Life!

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

This is what half of the other me my body carried for the last 33 years looks like now, I am at just about halfway to my goal weight, the necklace I have on in the picture I would never have been able to wear as it would have not fit around my neck. But I am not writing about that today, I am writing about the other person I have been carrying around for longer than I care to remember, so long that she almost needed a different name, you see she had issues.

Part of this weight loss journey this time around is teaching me truths about myself and how I ended up with another whole person on my body. I learned from an early age to be an emotional overeater, my Mom did it to deal with her emotions and so I followed suit when life got the best of me, but it was in college when things got really bad for me, I started dating a guy I had meant at orientation, we ended up being in the same  program and study partners our first semester. I was pretty nieve back then, but I thought I knew all there was to know about big city living, I was from Denver, Colorado but hadn’t lived there since I was 10 years old.

When we are young and nieve we tend to believe what we are told or at least I did, I believed that when my boyfriend at the time told me his parents would be home at lunch so we could go work at his house on our project, I believed him and when we got there that they must have changed their minds about coming home for lunch, they didn’t and they never did come home for lunch on any given day. Alone and in his territory he pounced and destroyed what trust I had in humankind, my no didn’t mean no to him and when it was all said and done, I pretended it never happened and began the downward spiral of  building my fortress, my physical protective layer so that would never again happen to me.

So I leave college and that experience behind, move back home and have a baby, my pregnancy was complicated and I gained even more weight, 80 pounds to be exact and there are health issues with my sweet baby girl, she comes a month early to the day, is born with a bi-lateral cleft palette and hair lip, can’t latch to breastfeed, I am a single Mom and one hot mess. At this point, we are in and out of hospitals and then when my sweet baby girl is about 3 years old she contacts spinal meningitis, we rush her to our family doctor who then transports her to our local children’s hospital( the very one our daughter now works for) but that is a blog post for another time.

What does this all have to do with my gaining weight and my now weight loss journey? I recognize that in the process of building the fortress around my body in the form of fat that I brought along all the emotions I buried with eating, I did finally get counseling for what happened to me, but I continued to use food to self-soothe when my emotions ran high. A whole other person later I met my now husband and what I didn’t count on was that he would love me from the inside, out. He went through some of the side effects of dealing with being assaulted, I wish to this day it was someone I didn’t know and I wish I handled the aftermath differently but I have no regrets of bringing my sweet baby girl into this world, God knew I need her and he provided a father for her who loves her and her Mom deeply but more importantly loves God. ,

On our wedding day, my husband gave me a letter of intent to adopt, our state requires a year of marriage and almost a year from our wedding day she officially became a Daddy’s girl, but truth be told she was that from the moment they laid eyes on one another. So half of the other person I have carried around is gone as is the baggage she carried with her. This year my husband and I celebrated 27 years of marriage and this past Spring we celebrated our Daughter’s success as Children’s Miracle Network’s Dance Marathon Person of the Year! An award voted on by her peers at the Children’s Hospital she works at and her previous hospital.

What I have lost in pounds I have gained in health, love and a new lease on life!

Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,

Maggie P

 

Once upon a time in a not so far away kingdom lived a princess, who deeply loved her king of kings, she was just an ordinary princess whose heart was to serve in the kingdom called Everywhere, the princess thoughts were set on things above until one day her thoughts became about self and her outer beauty and what another saw of her on the outside, this brought thoughts of self-centeredness to the point her focus was no longer on kingdom thoughts but rather of herself.

One day while walking along the river of peacefulness, she decided to wade in the waters and reflect on life, and life was full of selfish needs and wants, never had the waters she walked through felt so rough and more like a raging river than a lazy river. The princess waded and before long her feet started to stumble over the rocks and stones beneath her.  This was not the calm usual wade through the river of peacefulness it had been in the past, her heart was in much turmoil and constant discontent, her vision for what was ahead was blurry, rather than enjoying the coolness of the water on her legs and feet and  the beauty of the kingdom’s countryside she continued to stumble and at times would fall, so much so that her feet had open sores and bleed.

On this particular day the princess waded were she had been warned not to go, the raging rapids that lead to the waterfalls of emptiness, this was so far away from the kingdom she would no longer be able to hear her king of kings voice when he would call out for her to come home because it was getting late, however the princess continued making her way down this forbidden path and came to where the peaceful  river and the raging rapids met, at first it seemed the water was so much cooler there so the princess put her foot ever so slightly into the cooler waters on the edge of the raging river and that’s all it took, next thing you know the princess is being swept down the raging rapids and heading straight for the falls of emptiness, she cries out; oh save me my king of kings but he does not hear her because she is so far away from the kingdom of Everywhere her voice can’t be heard.

As she falls over the edge of the falls of emptiness she lands into the pool of loneliness where walls of towering rocks surround her and she floats on the pool’s surface as the day turns to night and the cold darkness settles in, it is there that she cries out for the king of kings to come to save her, unknown to her he has already sent a search party and as they ride through the night looking high and low the king of kings is already there and hears her cries, at first he does not answer  as her words are too faint to be heard  but as the night wears on and the cold harsh air touches the princesses skin she begins to shiver and cry out even louder, oh my king of kings please hear my cry, I have gone where I should not have gone and now as I float in the coldness of the dark of night I long to only feel the warmth of your presence, to hear the calmness of your still small voice and feel the love of your tender mercy as you wrap me in your arms to carry me to safety.

From the darkness come a small light and a still smaller voice saying I hear you, my child, I am here, is that you my king of kings? The princess asks through her sobs, yes, it is I and I am here to save you from the pool of loneliness all you need to do is cry out and I am with you, my child and at that the princess let the tears flow as she cried out to her king of kings, gently he lead her to the shoreline and put his loving arms around her and carried her back home to the kingdom of Everywhere.  The moral of this fairytale is this, there will always be stumbling stones in your life, but God will always give you the option the turn those stumbling stones into stepping stones, but that choice is yours to make, which will you choose?