Mother/Son Retreat

Teague and I were finally able to attend our mother/Son retreat weekend. My initial plan was to take the boys the summer after they left elementary school, right before they entered into junior high. Troy’s year worked out wonderful. Teague’s Year was 2020…so with Covid nothing was open and hasn’t been for awhile. Teague isn’t into all the hanging out and taking business so I was just going to let it go, but last summer he asked why he and I never went on a retreat like I did with Troy. The fact that he even asked that question made me realize I had to book us a weekend!!

Although the weekend was one of the coldest, we had a great time!! It was such a sweet weekend with my mighty man of God. Teague is so different from me, yet everything I wished I was! He is outgoing and outspoken and a gatherer of people. By the time I had set up my bunk and came back outside on Friday night he had already made friends and started a football game! We played a ton of games; football, mini golf, ping pong, basketball, and wiffle ball . We also had great discussion time and Bible study. My favorite activity was the pizza…Each team was given a plain pizza crust and we had to complete a task to get our ingredients. Then we had to create a yummy, creative and visually appealing pizza. Ours won first place!! It was awesome!

As a fellow brother in Christ I see that the broken and marginalized are drawn to Teague and at first that worried me because it’s harder to pull others up and easier to be pulled down yourself. But as I have watched Teague, his heart for justice holds a high standard that has surprised and impressed me. I pray the Lord continues to use Teague and his unique gifts to grow the Kingdom! 

Disciple Now

This year’s D-Now was huge and filled with so much spiritual warfare in the weeks leading up to it. We had 2 host homes end up Covid positive, 10 kids dropped out, 2 leaders had to back out and the speaker turned up positive and had to cancel. Luckily, the Lord made a way and the event happened perfectly, despite all the last minute changing and shifting. 

I hosted the high school girls at the house and we had a blast. It always takes so much man power to pull off a weekend like this and thankfully there are many in Axtell willing to help and we had the best time serving among the adults and getting to know them better, as well! 

A new tradition

As I wrapped up my one word tradition last year I have not felt led to choose a word for 2022. I have loved the tradition of having one word to focus on. 11 years worth of words and as I look back over then the growth I have experienced is amazing! However, I have started reading a book that gave me a new idea. The book is Secrets in the Secret Place. 

This book has short chapters that have wisdom and practical ways to make your secret place a powerful and life giving place. One chapter stuck out to me and I immediately put it into practice: praying scripture. Of course I pray during my quiet time but this spiritual discipline took prayer to a different level. Here is what the author said about the why behind praying scripture:

“Praying with the language of God’s word is powerful for several reasons:

~His word is living and powerful, so when we pray with His words on our lips, our prayers are living and powerful.

~Praying the word gives us confidence we’re praying according to God’s will.

~As we speak God’s word back to Him, our tongue is ignited by the fire of heaven rather than the fire of hell.

~Praying the Scripture adds a dimension of creativity and surprise to our prayer life, which in turn makes prayer more fascinating and enjoyable.”

The author recommends choosing a Psalm and praying and reading simultaneously. There are a ton of Psalms so I everyday I have asked the Lord to give me a number and then I go to that Psalm and read/pray it. Everyday it was the exact thing I needed to hear… and pray, apparently! So this year I am choosing to incorporate a new spiritual discipline into my quiet time. I am excited to see how the scriptures saturate my heart and how that prayer shapes my year! 

My one word wrap-up

 This year my word was breakthrough. 

As I look back over the year, I can see many places where the Lord gave me breakthrough; in my walk with Him, in my life and in our community. The youth group that was a handful of kids only 9 months ago is now busting at the seams in our house. I love that we are finally seeing the fruit of years of praying for our community. I was finally able to secure a job in Axtell, which has made my commute and relationship building so wonderful to be right in my town all day everyday! We saw so much ground taken in Axtell in this one year alone and it is so exciting! 

I have decided this will be my final word. In the upcoming year I want to start a new tradition! More to come on that in 2022! 

NYE 2021

As usual, we spent New Year’s Eve at the fireworks store. Several youth joined us and they always make the day a little more fun by there being there. We are excited to ring in 2022 and see what God has in store for us! 

Pippen Christmas

Our final Christmas celebration we went to Mansfield. We spent the day there eating and opening gifts and playing games. 

Christmas Day

We spent the early part of the afternoon at the house so the boys could open their stockings and gifts. This year hunting and fishing gear were the hot items.

Teague even got his pink boots that Richard had been teasing him about for years.

Then, we went over to Lynette and Roy’s for dinner and games and gifts. Justin and Heather were there with the girls so it was so fun to get to play with them.