"My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."

 Isaiah 32:18

Upon moving to RiverStone over four years ago now, one of the biggest blessings was the women that poured themselves out to love on me.  I was overwhelmed by their love for someone they had just met.  I spent the first few years at RiverStone in weekly prayer meetings with them.  I was so deeply encouraged by the way these women loved Jesus.  I left many mornings, thinking, do I even know Him?  And would dive in even deeper to seek out this man Jesus.  They stretched me.  They encouraged me.  They knew how to call things forth in the Spiritual realm....and in me!  To find out that women could be that powerful in the spiritual realm, and still wipe snot off of kid's noses was good for this ole heart and I wasn't even a mama yet.  

A few years into RiverStone one of the women that had become dear to my heart got suddenly sick and was gone before we even could process it.  You know how you just have those moments that are significant in your life?  This is one of them for me.  Even though I had only known Julia for a little over a year--her life marked me.  It was at her memorial service that someone stood up and said, "Julia knew how to do Heaven on Earth."  I have carried those words with me now for almost three years now and I process them daily.

Julia knew how to encounter Jesus when she was doing the dishes or doing the laundry.  She did not separate the two.  She knew how to commune with the Lord in the daily mundane and no matter what it was she was doing, she was enjoying the sweet presence of Jesus.  While thinking of those words, I've come down to one thing.  It's a choice.  We can choose to be bogged down by the mundane.  We can choose to believe our identity is in the dishes and laundry, or we can choose to believe that we are a daughter of the King.  Chosen.  Chosen to encounter Him every minute of every day with every ounce of our being.