Every year as Mother’s Day approaches I get a little sentimental, a little weepy.  I am very blessed by the gift God gave me wrapped up in my mom.  My mom is my best friend.  We talk almost every day.  We love to go on adventures together and visit every quilt shop along the way. My sister says we share a brain…which sometimes I think is true! I have always been close to my mom and I know that isn’t the case for many people.

I also had two amazing Grandmothers well into my adulthood.  Grandmas who were present at my dance recitals, choir concerts, graduations, and other smaller everyday life events.  My Grandma Young taught me to play cards, to do needle point, and garden (which didn’t stick).  My Grandma Blake lived five minutes from us, and she was our last minute babysitter, the driver for fun runs to Thrifty for ice cream, and hostess with the mostest for our almost daily summer pool parties with my cousins.  They were two amazing women who helped to shape and form me in very different ways.

I have also been blessed by so many different women in my life through the years.  Women who have loved me like a daughter.  Women who have taught me and showed me how to be a strong woman of God.  Women who have shared their hearts with me in such a motherly way. 

This is what often makes me teary eyed…remembering all these women in my life and the legacy they shared with me once upon a time.  Many of those beloved ladies are long gone but I remember them fondly.  I remember the love and lessons they taught by simply living out their faith.

I strive to live up to the standards set by those significant women in my life.  As I do my best to live and love and be the woman that God has created me to be.  There are times when I wish I could hear my Grandma Blake’s voice, see my Grandma Y’s face, sit with my mentor, pray with my prayer warriors, simply be in the presence of those that have gone before me…and tell them thanks.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the women in my life!  Thank you for simply being you and sharing that with me.

Blessings,
Pastor Jenni

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  
Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  
Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
(Deut 6:5-7)

I have been thinking about the idea of limits this week.  There are so many limitations that surround us today.  Some limits, like speed limits, are for our safety.  Others, like weight limits on your luggage, are more of an annoyance (but also for the safety of the baggage handlers).  There are time limits on parking meters which can be a bad thing if you forget to pay attention.  Sometimes we have physical limitations that keep us from participating fully.   

There are limits that you can control.  I often put limits on my evening social media scroll, which is a good thing!  My Netflix has limits, after so long it asks if I am still watching (the answer is always YES!).  I limit my accessibility by turning my phone on silent when I am out with friends.  When cleaning house I set a timer to limit my cleaning so I don’t fall into the rabbit trail of other projects that may present themselves.

But I also think there are personal limits we set, intentionally or unintentionally.  Occasionally our time has limits: when that neighbor stops you as you are heading out to run errands, or that one friend calls just as you were sitting down to eat dinner.  I think my patience has limits which get tested often by the little things.  How about you?  What limits do you have?  Where have you set your limits?

So here is what I am pondering…what limits do we have on our love?  Should our love have limits?  My default mode is always with my heart first followed sometimes by my brain.  I am someone who wears my heart on my sleeve and sometimes love (wholeheartedly) too deeply which has led to hurt and heartbreak.  We are told in scripture to guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23), but that is not a license to withhold love.  So what does love without limits look like?

Blessings,
Pastor Jenni

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

On Tuesdays I bring my pup Merriweather with me to the office.  She loves to come run around, say hi to Susan and whomever else may be in the building.  Her favorite thing to do, besides sleeping on my desk,  is walking around the campus, looking for bunnies, chasing the birds, and smelling all the new smells.  Yesterday as we walked around outside, I stopped to smell the roses.  Currently the Memorial Garden is in full bloom and the roses are gorgeous!  I have always loved rose gardens. They remind me of my childhood.  My grandmother and my mom always had such big beautiful fragrant rose blossoms almost year round (you can do that in warm dry climates!)

Now, I am not a very good gardener, I don’t have a green thumb and probably more importantly I am not a very successful gardener because I forget to water my plants. But, I do know there is more to gardening than just watering! I watched my grandmother and my mom tend rose bushes when I was young. Pruning the bushes during their growing season and cutting them way back during their dormant season. At first glance I thought they were just cutting branches with no rhyme or reason and when I offered to help, I was shown the proper way to prune a rose bush. It is a very methodical job, pruning…being sure not to cut off healthy branches but cutting right above the bud which allows more nutrients to the bud while removing the non-productive portion of the branch. Pruning is promoting better growth by cutting away the branches that are no longer producing flowers. The result of a good pruning is a very full beautiful rose bush!

Pruning is a painful but necessary process.  There are times in our lives where God is doing some pruning, cutting off the life-draining things to make room for the life-giving things!  This Sunday we look at another of Jesus’ “I AM” statements.  I am the Vine, you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. How are you bearing fruit?  Where might you need pruning so you can bear more fruit?

Blessings,
Pastor Jenni

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.
Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
(John 15:1-2)

I spent last week amongst the tall redwood trees in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California.  The camp I was at happens to be one of my favorite places on Earth!  I have so many memories of that place…I attended camp there with my family every summer, I worked on summer staff all through college, and have attended pastor camp there off and on for the last 20 years.

For me this is a place where I am known deeply to the core of who I am.  As a child it was spending time with friends who attended the same week of camp every year.  As a young adult it was the place where I felt my call to ministry and the place where my faith became my own (and no longer my parents.)  As a pastor this has become the place where I am known by peers, supported in my ministry, encouraged in my struggles and loved deeply through friendships that have walked with me in the highs and lows of my life.

This is also a place where I feel the most connected to God.  Sitting amongst the trees, looking towards the heavens.  Listening to the trickle of the stream as it turns into the rush of the waterfall.  Watching the birds and the squirrels as they go about their daily tasks.  All of these things work together to remind me of how great God is – so creative, so powerful, and such an eye for detail. The more time I spent alone with God last week, the more I was reminded of how much God cares for me, even in the smallest of details.

This Sunday we will be taking a look at one of Jesus’ “I am” statements found in John’s Gospel. I am the Good Shepherd, he says, I know my sheep and my sheep know me.  It is an amazing thing to be known.  To have someone not just know your name but to also know your story.  And in knowing your story they also know you deeply and love you unconditionally…this is the Good Shepherd.  Friends, we have a God that knows us, all of us – every part – and still loves us!  We have a God that watches over us, cares for us, and was willing to lay his life down for us!   

I hope you have a place where you are reminded of God’s great love for you.  A place where you can see God’s goodness and experience God’s presence in new and amazing ways.

Blessings,
Pastor Jenni 

I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. (John 10:14)