Willing


What are you willing to submit to the Lord? For some people, their first reaction would be to emphatically offer everything. For the rest of us, we would offer the majority while holding what’s most dear to us behind our back. 


As someone who likes to be in control and to have a plan, I have always had a hard time with full and complete submission to the Lord. While I have grown in this area, I know it’s something that I have to be reminded of often. 


Recently, I read through the story in Genesis 22 of Abraham being called to sacrifice Issac. For context, Abraham and his wife Sarah had been praying and begging the Lord to be able to have a child for many years. In Genesis 21, it is written that Abraham is a hundred years old when Isaac is born! In the next chapter, we see God asking Abraham to sacrifice that very same answered prayer.


Genesis 22:1-3
1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 


Did Abraham question the Lord? Did he try to run away and hide his beloved son from the Lord? Did Abraham attempt to offer a lesser sacrifice in place of Isaac?


NO! Abraham exhibited immediate obedience to the Lord. He could have easily disobeyed God, but in knowing the Lord’s heart, knew that the Lord would use this step of obedience for good. 


Genesis 22:10-13
10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram a caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 


The Lord saw Abraham’s obedience and returned his sacrifice to him. Just because we are called to submit or sacrifice something or someone to the Lord, it doesn’t mean that He is just going to take that from us. He wants to know that we are willing to submit it all to Him.


What is God calling you to submit to Him today? Allow Him to use your obedience for something better than you could ever imagine!

Guidance


I have a wonderful life. I am blessed by God in so many ways that I live in awe of all that He has done for me. I am so thankful most of all for my salvation. 


I know that there is nothing in me that can earn it. It is a free gift from God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. With that said, I have still been asking myself and God if I am living a life pleasing to Him. What does God,in spite of His precious saving grace, expect my life to look like?  What does it look like to live a life pleasing to God?


I went to scripture and the first thing I found was Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him”.
We absolutely cannot have a true relationship with God if we don’t trust in His existence and goodness. He blesses us when we seek Him. He desires for us to trust Him in our everyday lives. Faith is knowing that we have a Father in heaven to rely on when we don’t understand or see the way.  


“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Hebrew 11:1


We want to be spiritually minded in constant dependence on the Lord knowing that He is our source. All that we need we have in Christ!


Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship”.


God wants our lives to be living sacrifices to Him. To lay down our own desires and to become totally committed to Him. True and proper worship is not just done in church, but in how we live our lives. How obedient we are to God. We are to use the gifts He gives us to serve and glorify Him. God equips each one of us with the ability to honor and bring glory to Him. We are to renew our minds with His word and to be set apart from the world. Living for God’s approval over the need to please or impress other people. 


People should be able to review our lives and not question if we are a Christian or not
Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”.


When we truly live to please God our lives and hearts change. He expects us to be fair, just,show mercy to others, and live in humility. Most of us struggle in at least one of these areas. That is why we have to stay committed to reading God’s word, have a daily prayer life, and ask Him for help to renew our hearts and minds. 


We have to completely surrender to God knowing that we are pleasing Him when we apply these things to our lives and our relationship with Him will grow stronger in each step of obedience. We need to ask for His guidance daily as we are seeking wisdom and spiritual understanding.


“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” Psalm 19:14

They wait some more


Exodus 24:18, “So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” 


The people wait. They look up. They wait some more. No movement. No voice. A mountain veiled in cloud. The days go by and the people begin to grow restless. By Exodus 32:1.. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”


Bosh (pronunciation: bōsh) is the Hebrew word for delay. It literally carries several layers of meaning – “ to be ashamed, confused, disappointed, or put to shame.”  (BibleHub)


This wasn’t a matter of time passing, but revealed how the people felt about the waiting. Perhaps for them, the delay and silence caused feelings of embarrassment, uncertainty, even abandonment.  “Unbelief and impatience are at the bottom of the greatest departures from God.” — Matthew Henry


As the people continued to look up and wait, there had to have been speculations like, “Something must be wrong with us.” “I guess we are on our own.” “Maybe we can’t rely on God.” “We’ve got to do something about this.” …


And can’t that be true today ? Apply for the job only to be met with silence. Pray for  _____________ and there’s delay in the answer. Ask for direction only to be met with clouds and limited visibility. In these kinds of situations we can often experience the same emotional side of delay.  Silence begins to whisper its own story to us. 


We have to remind ourselves that during the delay God was writing His covenant. He wasn’t distant. He wasn’t distracted. He wasn’t inactive. He was giving instructions that would prepare His people to live in His presence. They may have felt abandoned at the bottom of that mountain,  but that did not change the facts. Preparation and planning were going on at the top of that mountain. 


And the same is true for us. God still uses delays to prepare us for here and for eternity. What feels like delay does not cancel His faithfulness. Lamentations 3:25 reminds us, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”


When we find ourselves at the bottom of a mountain looking up. Let’s wait well. The cloud does not mean we are abandoned. Our feelings don’t change the facts. He is shaping our future. He is preparing us for His presence.

Make it count

Feb 23
Make it Count, Kid!
During the 2024-25 school year, my son made a move to a new school. He had attended Warren ISD since he was in 5th
Grade.
He joined a new basketball program. This program renewed his spirit. He loved basketball from the time he was doing jump kicks on the court in kindergarten, but his discouragement through the years because of his height and size had really worn on him.
But Legacy was different…his coaching staff (a large group of men) encouraged, prayed for, and coached him up. His new teammates became like brothers. He was hungry for the game again.
I couldn’t attend all of his games because I was still working in Warren, but I made most of them.
I’m a loud mouth in the stands. I don’t just cheer for my kids, but I cheer for all of them. During free throws – I began to yell, “Let’s go, 5; make it count kid.”
Then it became a thing…one of my favorite Legacy young men said something to his mom about hearing it…so if I’m in the stands, I’m yelling. If I don’t, his momma reminds me.
Those words. That reminder.
Why don’t we live each moment of our lives to make it count? Every interaction…
How do we make each moment count outside of the basketball gym?
I think it comes down to sharing the love of Jesus with everyone. Today I read an article about a celebrity who has recently passed away. One sentence haunted me – “He didn’t believe in an afterlife.”
I wonder if anyone told him that Jesus loves him. I wonder if anyone shared the hope of Jesus with him.
There should be a sting when we think that someone dies without knowing Jesus. I think too often we put that out of our minds. And look – it’s not easy. I’ve been told that someone’s salvation was not my concern.
Well – I disagree. If I love the people that Jesus places in my life, how can I not be concerned with it?
My family and friends have said several goodbyes in the past year. It’s so much easier to say goodbye to someone who knows Jesus.
People are waiting for the hope that we have. We’ve got to keep our focus on the mission the Lord has given us, and make every moment count.
Our mission is clear:
Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Make it count, Child of God. You’ve got a SHOT to change someone’s life with the Gospel. Don’t miss it!

Two or more

Why is it so hard for us to ask for help sometimes? I mean, is it just me lol? We want others to ask us if they need anything- prayer, physical, or even everyday things. ❤️ 

But, here we are, stubborn, unsure, reluctant, listening to the lies, and hesitant to ask for help for ourselves. I know I’m guilty of it. Guilty of thinking I have to have it all together, be strong, not show or share my insecurities. By doing those things it very much invites loneliness, exhaustion, DEFEAT. We get so worn down trying to carry the raw real mess and STILL DON’T ask. 

This has been HEAVY – like all around me. But… here lately … as He does so often, God has stepped into my conversations, prayers and circumstances with some easily forgotten truths. He has reminded me through some of the “what seems like”, pits so deep you can’t even see the speck of light at the top, that we are never in this alone – AND to ask for help. 🫶🏼 God has blessed me with some pretty amazing prayer warriors and just this month, when some circumstances have been so heavy, we have had the sweetest conversations about Moses – Aaron – and Hur. He so gently but BOLDLY reminded us of the power of prayer. 

The treasure of the SUPPORT He sends for us in battle! And man oh man!  

In Exodus 17 Moses commanded Joshua to choose men and go out and fight the army of Amalek. This was quite a frightening event – it was pretty crazy against a fully armed enemy! Moses told him, “I will stand at the top of the hill holding the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did just that! And meanwhile, Moses, Aaron and Hur climbed the nearby hill – and as long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But, when Moses hands dropped the Amalekites took the advantage. Of course, as we humans do, Moses grew tired and could no longer hold up his arms. So, Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on- stood on each side holding up his arms! So his hands held steady until sunset and Joshua defeated the army of Amalek!! Yall!! Who is holding up your arms? Or who needs you to hold theirs?! We need God’s help! He sends amazing “Aaron and Hurs” in our lives – AND – He equips us to be the same for others! To support, to pray, to hold up arms when all strength is gone! 

The battle is God’s, there was no magical strength in Moses’ arms- God brought the victory and used others for prayerful and physical help in Moses’ battle. WOW! I pray God reminds you each day, and each hard moment, that you don’t have to fight alone, it’s ok to ask for help. Jesus is always there interceding. The One who has all authority and conquered death has GOT YOU! 

“Where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” Matt. 18:20 💛💛

Prosperity



“The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.”
‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39‬:‭23‬ 


The ladies at our church are reading through the Bible in a year together, and I honestly love seeing everyone’s daily comments…what stood out, what the Holy Spirit is teaching, and even what they’re wrestling through. The other day as I was reading, the verse above really caught me off guard, and if I’m being honest, it made me pause and wrestle with a hard question: why not me? Why don’t I feel that way?


It says the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. And I immediately feel that tension, because there are days I don’t feel like “whatever I do” is prospering at all.

Here’s the hard truth: God’s prosperity doesn’t always look like ease, speed, or visible wins. Joseph was faithful and still betrayed, accused, and ended up in a prison. Does that sound like Joseph is prospering? Whatever “prosper” means here, it has to be something deeper. I think Joseph prosperity looked like God’s presence on him, God’s favor in the middle of hardships, and God making his faithfulness effective even when his circumstances weren’t changing just yet. I believe the Lord is prospering the work in each of us who may wrestling with the “why not me” by strengthening what’s happening in us…integrity, endurance, humility, obedience, before we ever see the fruit around us.


That morning I asked the Lord to search me, not with condemnation, just with clarity. If there’s anywhere I’ve delayed obedience, I want to be quick to say yes. And if I’m in a hidden season where the fruit isn’t visible yet, I don’t want to confuse “quiet” with “absent.” He met me so faithfully in that moment, and I know He’ll meet you too. And the question I was wrestling with turned into a declaration: whatever I do, the Lord makes it prosper! I just have a better understanding now of what true prosperity really is.






It chose me

“Hit me with your best shot… fire away!”
For years, that Pat Benatar anthem was more than my go-to karaoke song. It was my love life.

I’ve always loved love. But love hadn’t always loved me back. I was used to fighting for it — fighting to be chosen, fighting to be adored, fighting to be enough. When I was 28, my dad asked, “Are you thinking about getting married?” I laughed and said, “Dad, I’ve been thinking about getting married since I was 12.”

The truth? I didn’t have a good picker.
In November 2022, I finally admitted I couldn’t figure this out on my own. I joined a relationship coaching community for single Christian men and women. What I discovered changed everything. I learned that God created me divinely feminine. Yes, I’m a leader — a leader of leaders. But in marriage, I desired to be led by a man of God who loves Jesus more than he loves me.

When that revelation settled into my heart, I surrendered. My heart softened. My striving stopped. I became open, willing, and available — even to men I wouldn’t have chosen before.

In April 2025, I met Clayton.
What began as friendship grew into a committed relationship. For the first time, I wasn’t fighting to be chosen. I was chosen. I wasn’t striving to be adored. I was adored. He loved the Lord. He loved the Church. He loved me — steadily, intentionally, faithfully.
I kept waiting for it to explode. It never did.
Clayton is my best friend, a servant leader, kind and generous — and my fiancé. On May 7, 2026, I will become Mrs. Clayton Shults.

God didn’t send perfection. He brought together two imperfect people who love Jesus and love serving one another.
“Love is patient, love is kind… it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–7)

God showed me how much He loves me — through a man who reflects His heart.
And this time, love didn’t fight me.
It chose me.

Stacy McVane @stacylmcvane

FOMO

Funny fact about me — I have FOMO.

Yes, a big fear of missing out. But as I’ve grown older, what I fear missing has changed.

I used to have FOMO over girls’ nights, dinners out, and trips to Hobby Lobby (and I still love those!). But now, I feel it most when I think about missing my girls and their tiny moments. My priorities shifted.

Six years ago at Passion Conference, Christine Caine spoke about FOMO in a way that changed my perspective. I realized what I truly don’t want to miss out on:

• I don’t want to miss out on what God has planned for me. (Jeremiah 29:11)

• I don’t want to miss out on seeing Christ work in the lives around me. (Ephesians 2:10)

• I don’t want to miss out on being a light in a dark world. (Matthew 5:14)

• I don’t want to miss out on God-given opportunities because of fear. (Psalm 23:4)

• I don’t want to miss out on having peace because I didn’t surrender control. (1 Peter 5:7)

So yes — I have FOMO. But now it’s a fear of missing what God wants for my life.

Do you have FOMO too? I hope there’s a part of all of us that longs for what Christ desires for us.

In the trenches

I am a mom in the trenches right now. Two words…Potty Training. My patience is being tested, and I find myself questioning if I am doing all the right things to equip my toddler for this big transition. Although this stage is temporary, the task and responsibility to “train” my little girl will continue as she grows up. Most importantly, I desire to train her to know Christ as her Lord and Savior. 

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭6‬ ‭

Parenting is a hard job, and the tough battles can start early. Our children will learn the behaviors they see from us. We can ask ourselves; are we representing Jesus through our words and actions? This training will happen with consistency, not perfection. It comes from modeling repentance and humility as we make mistakes along the way. An essential and underrated parenting tool is prayer. Communicate with God daily and lean on the truths of His word. 

Pray for your child’s salvation often, because it matters. I aspire to raise my child to know her identity in Christ to the extent of not needing the approval of this world. This is not an easy task, and it’s safe to say impossible in my own strength. The training up is our role, the outcome is God’s. My prayer for anyone reading this is to lean on God and His teachings to raise up our children so they may be sons and daughters of His Kingdom.

Accommodation

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

‭‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭33‬ 

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭26‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ 

Peace. It’s what we long for, isn’t it? The world is in turmoil. Our nation seems in chaos. Things are happening that we never thought could or would. We have differing opinions than our friends about things and that rocks us because society says it is unacceptable to believe differently. Social media is filled with arguing and oftentimes untruths. There are work situations that leave us feeling frustrated.  We see our families hurting and struggling. Our kids don’t know how to act or what to do. We hurt, we struggle, change happens, and we find ourselves feeling out of sorts. We don’t know what to believe or how to act in light of what is happening. Life just does not seem very peaceful. I don’t know about you, but as of late, I feel like my peace is on shaky ground. 

As I thought about our longing for peace, I was reminded of an accommodation some of my students are provided. It is to have an opportunity and place for “cool down” when they get agitated, feel angry, or become out of sorts. This accommodation affords them a chance to get refocused and be able to move past the agitation, frustration, anger, feelings of unrest, etc. They have various things and places to bring them back to a place of calm. When they listen to the teacher helping them and utilize what is available to them, they are able to refocus, go back to a calm state, and be successful. The underlying cause may not have been removed, but the focus has shifted allowing peace to return.

God gives us that accommodation in life. However, it’s not a one and done experience. It is ongoing. He clearly tells us that there will be turmoil in life. However, in the midst of that turmoil, we can have peace. It comes through Jesus. We have to have our minds focused on Him. We have to trust Him. He is the stability in the midst of the chaos. Just like my students, we have to have our focus changed. We have to go to the Word and to God in order to “cool down”. When our mind is stayed on Him, we will have peace because our Redeemer is the Overcomer. The underlying causes for our feelings of unrest may not be removed, but the Rock we focus on will allow us to have peace and stability in the midst of it all.