A Full Heart

Whimsical Love Day 5

You know the Lord loves us when He makes your heart bigger through a friend's new heart. 

One of my best friend's family recently adopted a precious little girl named Brooke from China. She was abandoned by her parents, probably because they knew they could not afford to pay for her heart problems. But boy did her Father have some incredible plans for her! Her family adopted her knowing the Lord was going to use this little girl in some awesome ways. She was born with 2 chambers in her heart instead of 4. This is a pretty rare condition and is extremely hard to operate on. They basically had to take an artery and make it dump the blood directly into her lungs so her heart would not have to pump it to the lungs. The love her family has showed to her has encouraged me so much and has made me love the Lord even more by seeing this process. She recovered from the hard and long surgery very well and is doing great! I got to meet her for the first time this weekend and I have never seen a little kid so full of life and personality! 

One of my favorite parts is that her loving family always tells her she is brave and that she has a beautiful new and brave heart! What a beautiful scar to remind her of how much the Lord loves her and the new heart He has given her. 


This weekend when I got to meet her, my friend had to leave early so I stayed to play with this one and her sister. Brooke began coloring on my arm as she was playing doctor. She pretended to give me a shot with her crayon and then said, "there, now you have a bigger heart". HEART MELTS* I loved how she incorporated that in her imagination and play time. She knows she is blessed and knows she has a beautiful new heart. As she was playing, she put some foam stickers on my shoulder (her baby stickers were at school on my shoulder) and throughout the day stickers came out of the middle of nowhere haha! I loved it though, such a funny reminder of what I had seen that day! She without a doubt has one of the most joyful and loving hearts I have ever seen. 

"A cheerful heart is good medicine." Proverbs 17:22

I began thinking about why we use the symbol of a heart to represent love. Proverbs 4:23 says that the heart is the wellspring of life. Think about that for a second. The heart is what brings life. Without a heart beating, there is no life. Can you imagine a life that does not love? To me, love is life. Because of Jesus' love we are given life. Can we then in return have a life that is void of love? If life is void of love, can it truly be life? Those who love others are the ones that truly experience life. This little girl is a beautiful example of the way Jesus loves us. 

"I'm not that great at spelling and thankfully my phone auto corrects the words I type for me. What I've noticed, though, is that almost every time I type in the word love, it gets changed to the word live...I learned that fully loving and fully living are not only synonymous but the kind of life that Jesus invited us to be part of. And because of that, our lives don't need to be puffs of blue smoke anymore" (Goff, 16). Love Does

Abandoned but Loved

Whimsical Love Day 4

I think it's so cool how the Lord loves us all in different whimsical ways. One of my love languages is animals, and my King knows exactly how to love me through that. Ever since I can remember, I have basically lived in a zoo, and have even volunteered at one. There was one time in my life when I had 13 animals. Yes, you read that right. 13. There were dogs, cats, a guinea pig, hedgehog, a frog and snail, and who knows what else. I have loved every minute of my zoo life. Today I have 3 dogs, a cat, and 3 sugar gliders. There's just something about animals that speak love to me. 

Today I want to highlight one of my all time favorite animals I have ever had. I would say I am normally more of a dog person, but when it comes to this guy, he has my heart. Meet the one and only D.W. (Yes, he is a male, and yes, he is named after Arthur's SISTER. God bless his heart. You never know what you are going to get when you are a kitten in the hands of a 3rd grader). I remember going to a friend's house a few doors down when I was little and saw them playing with a loving and sweet kitten. They didn't have a kitten when I was there 30 minutes earlier.




WHERE DID THAT CUTE CHUNK OF AWESOMENESS COME FROM? They told me that someone had driven behind there house on a dirt road in a truck and threw him out the window. You would never have known just by seeing him. He was loving on us and playing with us as if he was deeply loved. He was abandoned, yet he loved. That is unconditional love. Let's just say it went a little like this.... they could not keep him so I thought that I may be able to ask around and find him a home. So, I carried him home, rang the doorbell, and when my mom answered, talked a mile a minute about how he was abandoned and needed a place to stay for the night so I could find him a home. SUCKER!!! That's irresistible. If my kid ever does that, pretty sure my heart will melt and it will be a yes every time, it's a weakness. Obviously my whole family fell in love with this little kitty that night and the rest is history. You see, he's not your average cat. This kid follows me around EVERYWHERE and is the most snugly and social little thing. He's also too smart...we have to lock all the doors because he can open them. You have got to be kidding me. He is one of the most loving animals I have ever had.

I love Job 39 because it talks about the Lord's wisdom in creating animals. You know he had to have enjoyed creating all those creatures and not only creating them, but using them in our lives to love us in a whimsical way.

I have never understood when people are not animal people. There are so many ways we can learn about God through these animals. I can see God's faithfulness through the faithful, his unconditional love through those who know no hatred, His comfort through the way they love on you and comfort you when they can tell you are down, His humility, playfulness, and beauty. There's a way that animals can minister to people that humans can not. There's a reason they are used in counseling. They just have a gift of knowing how to minister to people. I truly believe the Lord uses animals in incredible ways to minister to them. We can't control what they are thinking, we can't make them understand the baby words we use, but God can use them to minister to us without words. One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books, Love Does says,

 "But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence. It's a love that operates more like a sign language than being spoken outright." 

God's love is often acted out through the things around us. He uses animals in my life to act out that love. Animals can't talk and tell us they love us, they simply act it out every day. This kind of love challenges me to act out my love for the people around me. It's too easy to simply say " I love you" but if you truly love people, it will be like a sign language. If that's not whimsical, I don't know what is. 

My Whimsical Journey

Do you ever look back on your life and think about all the ways the Lord has blessed you and loved you in whimsical ways? Every birthday I try to take some time to just simply reflect and praise the Lord. This last Thursday I turned 21...ummm excuse me, what? It was just yesterday I was picking out my Arthur backpack and my Lisa Frank lunchbox for my first day of school and hugging my cat Wanda (...yes, Wanda was a male) goodbye as I jumped in the car headed for Kindergarten. Through the years the Lord has become my best friend who has loved me unconditionally and has loved me in such a beautiful and whimsical way. Here's a glimpse at that journey.

I was blessed to be able to grow up with amazing parents. Even though I did not know Jesus at this point, I knew Jesus through my parents who demonstrated His unconditional love for me since the day I was born. Bless them... they put up with a daughter that probably changed at least 6 times a day. Pretty sure with three older brothers and these incredible parents I probably never had to walk as a toddler. 

Not only was it this over eager beaver's first day of school, but the year when she made the best decision of her life, hands down. I was so blessed to be able to grow up in church and get to hear about Jesus since I was a baby. While rebelling against a nap (oh those glorious days) in Kindergarten, I remember my teacher mentioning if we ever wanted to know more about Jesus or decide to give Him our lives, we could talk to her during nap time. I was wide awake. I was ready. I went up to her and after hearing more explanations of what it meant to follow Jesus, I knew it was time. I'm in awe that the Lord showed me so much grace to help me see my need for Him at 6 years old. I was excited, but there was no immediate change. I still lied to my K5 teacher about a candy bar I had found then stuck it in my backpack. Then, she gave me a note and I remember throwing it away. Wow, rebellious 6 year old huh? But the Lord knew what He was doing and was slowly performing a heart transformation throughout the years.

Ever since I was little, people called me different nick names that had to do with lemurs...the most famous, "lemur girl" in which I signed all my papers in elementary, a classic Shae move. I LOVED lemurs. I even volunteered at a zoo for two years and was their "lemur girl" and got to take care of the lemurs and play with them in my spare time. I remember one night while I was in third grade I began praying about my future and asked the Lord why I liked lemurs so much. His answer was not exactly what I was expecting. That night, the Lord called me to be a missionary in Madagascar, where lemurs are from. I have never been so sure of anything in my life. His still and quiet voice was the clearest it had ever been. I knew He would get me there in His timing, but I had no idea what was to come in 11 short years...

And then comes Junior High.....

Rough picture, huh? Well, let's just say 8th grade was 10X as rough as this picture. In 7th grade I found out we were going to move from Oklahoma to Texas. I was ready for the new adventure but I had no idea how much my world was about to be rocked. After leaving my older brothers who were in college in Oklahoma, my parents and I drove to Dallas to start a new journey. A new school. A new church. New friends. On top of all those challenges, my last two grand parents died 10 days apart shortly after the move. Rough, huh? I began to hate my circumstances and was so confused as to why God was doing this to me. I would pray, "God, can you please just take me back to my family, friends, and my school?". Sometimes the greatest answer to prayer is a no! The Lord brought me contentment and showed me grace as He sought me like a hidden treasure. As hard as that year was, it was the best year of my life. The Lord used it to finally get a hold of my heart and really get my attention. This is where the heart transformation God started on my heart when I was 6 started to leave the prep room and enter the surgery room. As hard and painful as surgeries are, most of us would always choose it because we know the outcome and the joy the results bring. 

After 11 years of waiting for the Lord to open doors to go to my future home, Madagascar, He showed His faithfulness as always. Not only did He show His faithfulness, but did so in an incredible whimsical way. I expected Him to be faithful and open the right doors, but I had no idea what was to come. During my freshman year, I began praying not only for opportunities, but for missionaries to get in contact with. Since Madagascar is a pretty rare place, it was almost impossible for me to find anyone to contact online. One day my roommate walked in and gave me the email address of some missionaries in Mada she saw in DBU's prayer room. WHAT? I got to contact them and even got to meet one of them while on the trip. Then, after searching for mission trips to there for several years a friend called me and let me know his seminary was beginning to reach the people in the South of Mada and would be taking a trip there (last Christmas break). UMMM YES. Then, a friend found a blog of a journeyman in Mada whom I got to get in touch with and even work with him on the trip. The Lord's plans were woven together in such a beautiful and intricate way. I even got to feed a wild lemur and have another one fall asleep in my lap. To me, Lemurs are the most whimsical way the Lord loves on me. holding that lemur (as silly as this sounds) brought me so much joy since I had dreamed about it since I was a little girl. This was no longer a lemur in an American zoo. I WAS THERE and the Lord showed his PERFECT faithfulness. Now, I am planning on going back for the two year journeyman program right after I graduate college.

I am so blessed by a family that has supported me every step of the way and that has loved me unconditionally. You always love family, but I tend to like mine as well =). What studmuffins.