Today I’ve invited my friend Stacey Thacker to share the power of remembering hope in the midst of everyday chaos.
I scratch the word hope in my best, albeit bad, handwriting on a memo board in my kitchen while I’m supposed to be doing dishes. The dishes are mocking me today. It seems like I can’t get to the bottom of the sink no matter how hard I try. I’m determined at 11:00 pm to wrestle them into the dishwasher and scrub down the sink because Monday needs to start with a clean slate.
It has been three years since I started twirling hope around in my mind and so as the water sprays down over my Mount Everest of dishes, I think hard on this tiny little word with enormous impact. I walk back to the board and doodle little laurels all around it. (Thank you very much Nester for this newest obsession of mine).
Photo by The Nester, “hope” print by Annie Barnett created for Hope*ologie members.
I grab my dishtowel and realize why hope is so attractive to weary moms like me:
- When life moves fast, hope breathes grace.
- When tender hearts break under the weight of great loss, hope promises to hold us together.
- When friends seem few and far between, hope never leaves.
- When guilt chases you down and calls you ugly, hope throws open its arms and welcomes you home.
“Hope is not a wish or sprinkle of magical fairy dust. Hope is a person. Hope comes with flesh and blood in Jesus. When I call to him, he comes quickly. He has no expectations of me. Actually, quite the opposite.” Hope for the Weary Mom, p 47.
When I think of hope today, it isn’t something with feathers or the words to a Disney song my girls sing in the back seat of my minivan. Hope is a person.
This one small truth has gained me whole lot of freedom.
I close my eyes and whisper a simple prayer of gratitude for three years of discovering more of who Jesus is in my life. When I open my eyes my dishes are still close to a national disaster. Nothing has changed in that department. I’m the one who has changed. Hope leans in and whispers my name and says,
“Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”
Isaiah 41:10, NASB
And he does.
Stacey Thacker is a wife and the mother of four vibrant girls. She is a writer and speaker who loves God’s Word. Her passion is to connect with women and encourage them in their walk with God.
Her new book, Hope for the Weary Mom
, is now available wherever books are sold. Special offers are available for anyone who buys through February 9. Find out more here.
You can find her at staceythacker.com and on Twitter or Instagram.
Also doesn’t she kind of remind you of Ellen Pompeo?
P.S. Stacey is also a member of Hope*ologie, which of course we love. This month Dad featured Stacey in our “Meet the Hope*ologist” segment, which we have made public so you can read it whether you are a member or not. I adore Stacey and I know you will, too.
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