by Emily Howsden | Mar 26, 2018
When is the last time you went for a walk? Whether it was a casual stroll around the neighborhood or you were on a mission, I am a firm believer that walks are one of the most therapeutic things a person can do for themselves.
Most weekdays after we spring forward from daylight savings and the darkness of winter, I can be found with my dog Sadie and most of the time my hubby Casey walking in our neighborhood.
Our walks have become so regular that Sadie will stand in silent (or whiny) judgment until we utter the magic words, the words that turn her world upside down and bring her so much joy, “Do you want to go on a walk?”
I can’t say I blame her for getting so excited. I think it’s important to be able to spend some time each day with Mother Nature. It does a person good.
I’m not just throwing my opinion out there on this subject. There is factual evidence that says going on a walk is good for you!
Walking is said to add years onto your life, inspire creativity, help you solve problems, is an excellent source of activity, can be a great form of meditation, and even help form relationships—according to several studies and findings by scholars at places like Harvard, the Boston Globe and more.
I have found, that even when a Monday has been especially hard, something has thrown an unexpected kink into my day, or I’m just downright not in the mood for anything, a nice, long walk does the trick every time.
I don’t know if it’s the smell of springtime in the air—you know the smell, freshly cut grass, if you’re from Oklahoma, most likely a fire in the distance or just the sun on my skin—a walk is therapeutic.
I love to take in the sights and smells of my neighborhood. I know which fences house what kind of dogs, I know which houses are selling Girl Scout Cookies, I get to stop and talk to neighbors whom I otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to chat with. Call me old fashioned, but I love to build community this way.
If my husband accompanies me on my walk, I leave the phone at home. That means I’m unplugged and focused on him and Sadie alone. That is good for my soul. We catch up on each other’s days, talk through things at work that might have gone another way other than the way we planned and make plans for our future.
Quality time is one of my love languages, so you can imagine how a walk with the one I love lifts my spirits after a long day away from him.
Also, it feels good to get my blood pumping and get a little out of breath. Since I am over the halfway point in my pregnancy, running or jogging has become more than uncomfortable for me. Sometimes I have to catch myself walking slow, or Sadie will look back at me like “why are we going at a snail’s pace?” but when I kick up my feet and walk at a brisk pace, it makes me feel better about my desk job where I sit the better half of 9.5 hours a day.
Some of life’s greatest problems can be solved on a walk—or not! In my mind, that is what is so great about a walk. If it is just Sadie and me on a walk, a lot of my thoughts go toward God and what He’s doing in my own life and others’ lives.
I think it’s important that we take time to make time to engage in things like a simple walk at the end of a work day. It is in these kinds of places that we make ourselves most accessible to God.
As we approach Resurrection Sunday I can’t help but think of one agony-filled walk that the Lord went on in the Garden of Gethsemane before He walked the cross to Calvary’s hill on behalf of the world. It was His final act before being arrested, tried and crucified on the cross.
It was a painful walk, a walk where He knew what had to happen, but still pleaded with His Father to remove this burden. A burden that we, mankind, placed on His shoulders with our sin.
Yet He took our burdens and our sins and bore them on His shoulders in the form of slashes with whips. He wore them in the form of a crown of thorns; He wore them in the form of the tattered rags up on the cross. He wore them, so we wouldn’t have to, if only we believe in Him.
I am grateful that the result of that last walk meant someday, as a believer, I will walk alongside God the Father on streets of gold. That will be the ultimate in evening strolls.
Have you made the decision to follow Jesus and walk along the path towards righteousness? If you haven’t I pray you do and that I can walk alongside you as we look heavenward towards those streets of Gold.
by Emily Howsden | Mar 19, 2018
Do you ever give much thought to what shoes you’ll wear for the day? This is something that can mean almost nothing to some people, or a whole lot to others.
There are many famous quotes about shoes, because people care about shoes! My favorite quote that mentions shoes is from my favorite Dr. Seuss book, Oh the Places You’ll Go! “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”
Marilyn Monroe once said, “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”
“If the shoe fits” is another famous quote about shoes, along with the joke that “Cinderella is proof that a good pair of shoes can change your life.”
If you are like my husband, you have under five pair of shoes and you happily rotate wearing those shoes until they fall apart. I however, have…well, much more than five pair, and do my best to wear as many as the season allows.
Casey tends to pick more expensive shoes, which last longer, and I will happily purchase a cheap pair and rotate it with other cheap pairs. It takes me a little more to spend a lot on a single pair of shoes because I find myself thinking how many cheap pair I could buy for the price of one expensive pair.
However, lately, my feet have begun to hurt, as I approach my 23-week of pregnancy, and that has caused me to think about the comfort of my shoes significantly more than I normally would.
I have even caught myself thinking about the shoes that people all over the world wear. I visited New York City over the weekend, and when I would normally stray from wearing tennis shoes with jeans, I happily slid on my tennis shoes because I knew I would be walking a lot more than usual.
Have you ever visited a large city where a lot of walking takes place and seen this as a trend? Women in business skirts with tennis shoes and most likely high heels in their bag for later. People are starting to care more about comfort rather than risking it all for fashion’s sake, or so I’ve observed.
If you are like me, do you also consider the day and what it may bring when selecting your footwear? If it’s raining, I consider sliding on my rain boots, which I often rule out because who wants to be wearing rain boots for the nine hours of the day that you are inside working? Thus, wet ballet flats it is for me most rainy days at the office.
I will indulge and wear high heels if I know my day requires minimum walking, and I will feel fabulous, yet choose my walking journeys wisely.
In the summer time, my most common shoe of choice is my Chacos. They have taken me to foreign countries and back, in all kinds of weather and terrain, all while providing great arch support, and usually wearing them outside means cool tan lines on my feet.
Some people don’t have the luxury of shoes which I acknowledge and wish so sincerely that I could give each person in the world a pair of shoes, because I am a wimp when my feet hurt. Even growing up in the country, where shoes can be optional, I still prefer shoes rather than no shoes.
Since I’ve been thinking about shoes so much, I began to think about how I prepare for my day, how I prepare for trips, how I shop for shoes and how I trust my shoes.
For an item of clothing that has come to mean so much to me, I couldn’t help but consider how, while shoes are vital to my physical comfort, and necessary in almost all indoor establishments, I should consider the Bible with even more importance.
Reading the Bible is also vital to my comfort, I trust His Word, I should prepare for trips and trials in His Word, I should meditate upon it.
I would never leave for a trip or head to work without a pair of shoes. Each morning, without fail, I put shoes on. Can I say the same for the Bible and how I dive into Scripture?
In 2018, I’ve challenged myself to read through the Bible. I would say that was my only true resolution. Here it is, March 19 and I have fallen behind on my plan via the Bible app on my phone. I haven’t given up, but I there have been days where I have failed to enter into His presence by reading Scripture.
Did I forget to wear shoes to work these days? Of course not. I am on my way to catching up, but when I think about how silly I would look at the office in my bare feet, I should also feel as silly going about my day without His Word as my daily guide.
I say all of this not to condemn or embarrass myself, I just say it out of transparency. I’m giving myself a bit of a pep-talk here, too!
Until I as a Christ-follower yearn after Scripture the way I do towards shoes, or other elements of my first-world life, my growth as a Christ follower will be non-existent, stagnant.
I have seen such progress in myself and how I view the importance of reading Scripture, and if you, like me, have struggled with reading Scripture, I encourage you to look at it from another point of view.
Look at the Bible as a series of literary works if you please. The Bible Project has a lot of fascinating content on this subject. It is mind-blowing, I suggest any Christian should check out the “How to read the Bible” series here.
Don’t look at it as a task, or a chore. Look at the Bible as a way to know your God more, and as something that you NEED desperately in your life daily. When you yearn for the Gospel as you would yearn for your feet to stop hurting, you’ll be amazed where your feet will take you and what disciples you can make along the way.
by Emily Howsden | Mar 12, 2018
Change is a common thing in life—in some stages more than others, but still change seems to be a constant, ironically, in most stages of life.
My husband and I are currently surrounded by change nearly everywhere we look. First, we will welcome our first child, a baby boy, into the world this summer (July 18). This is perhaps the biggest change that we will ever experience.
There is so much to do in the next four months, and we both know it will fly by. Before we know it, we’ll be a family of three, and life as we know it will have changed forever.
This big change brings about small changes almost daily. This weekend we said goodbye to Casey’s two-door car that he’s had since high school and bought a minivan. Yes, you read correctly, we bought a minivan, and we are PUMPED about it.
I’m not saying everyone should go buy a minivan immediately, but I am saying if you don’t have one you’re missing out. Just imagine all the cargo room, seats, comfort and gas mileage for a bigger car that you could ever want, and you’ve got a minivan. I’m telling you, we’re living large! Don’t knock it until you try it.
For the past year, our house has been almost constantly changing. We had a list of things that we wanted to update or change within the first year that we lived in our home, and we accomplished all of those big projects in December. It has been nice to just enjoy our home since we wrapped up the almost construction-life phase of our first year in our home.
Casey is the college pastor at our church, as I’ve mentioned before, and college ministry and college-age young adults are always changing. This is the biggest time in a person’s life where they change from an adolescent into an adult. That is both mind-boggling and hard to think about.
I love that we get to invest in their lives, especially at such a pivotal time for them, and be a bit of a constant in their ever-changing worlds.
With change come new experiences, new opinions, new friendships and lessons learned. I think that is why I have a deep respect for change. I believe that while it does seem to age us more rapidly than natural, change is good for the soul.
When I think about change and how uncomfortable I am in the midst of it, I think about all of the times in the Bible where problems of God’s people were far greater than mine, yet they faced the change, and God did miraculous works through them.
Some who come to mind are Naomi and Ruth. Naomi’s husband and two sons died, one to whom Ruth was married, and yet the two women faced their uncertain future together and continued to live how the Lord directed them. That’s not to say they didn’t mourn, or even feel sorry for themselves, as their story does acknowledge, but they did it nonetheless.
Esther saved her people—the Jewish people—in her land by being bold and taking hold of her future. The well-known verse “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16) is one that makes her courageous journey to becoming the queen, and her enemies meet their demise in the end.
Joseph had his world completely turned upside down many times in his life. First when his brothers sold him as a slave and told their father—who favored Joseph—that he was eaten by wild animals. Then again, when Joseph gains favor in his new land, and his master’s wife lies about him trying to take advantage of her. Time after time, again the Lord protects Joseph, and Joseph trusts that the Lord will provide.
Side note: The name Joseph, in Hebrew, means “may Jehova add,” interesting, right?
I could go on and on about the people in the Bible who remain steadfast in their faith throughout times of change, and the Lord provides or guides them through troubled waters. Often, people (me, you, people in the Bible) doubt the Lord, and we quickly see the foolishness it takes to doubt the Lord and his plans for our lives.
But what I have found to be to be true throughout my life is that when I’m most uncomfortable with change, when the Lord stretches me far outside of my comfort zone, is when He has the sweetest things across the horizon waiting for me. If only I’ll trust Him and obey.
If you’re going through incredible amounts of change right now, do your best to trust Him. The outcome might not be what you think, (i.e. my 26-year-old husband driving a minivan and loving it), but I can assure you he’s working something together for your good, and for the glory of His kingdom.
by Emily Howsden | Mar 5, 2018
Where do you think evangelism happens best? Over the weekend, at my church, there was a baptism for a member of our youth program, and the story that led him to the baptismal waters was one that I am extremely proud to know the participants.
I won’t drop any names, but I will tell you how this teenager nearing the end of his high school years came to know the Lord as his personal savior and invited Him into his heart.
This particular story of evangelism started at work. One of the students in our college ministry works at Target. All good things happen at Target right? Just kidding, back to the story. So the college student has a coworker with whom he is friends. I will call the college student John and his coworker Adam.
At some point, John simply extends an invitation to play basketball to his coworker. Adam says yes and joins John at the church gym for some Sunday afternoon basketball, which a lot of people attend.
That was the first step John took toward personal evangelism. Had that step not been taken, there would be no story to tell. I can admit that throughout my college career I worked with many people who were not believers in Christ.
Often I would be cordial at work but not dare invite any co-workers into any aspect of my personal life, often running in the opposite direction should anyone suggest getting together outside of work. This was never because I thought I was too good for anyone, or even that I didn’t like them. I was simply keeping to the old “keep business and play” separate adage.
However, this should never be the case for Christ followers. There are no breaks in our walk with Christ where it is okay to just keep your faith separated from the rest of your life, whether that is to not bother someone else, make them uncomfortable or whether it is to avoid rejection—it simply shouldn’t be an option. I am so glad that, in John’s case, he didn’t keep it separate.
After Adam played basketball at the church for a few Sundays and developed friendships. These friendships led him to decide to come to the youth group at church. Adam then decided to come to the DNOW weekend that our church hosted, where he made a profession of faith in Christ.
You see how easy that seems? Don’t get me wrong, I’m talking to myself here too…Often when I talk to the personal evangelism specialist here at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and ask him the most effective way to share the Gospel, his answer is the same. He says that people think there needs to be a complicated process, or that it’s a large, scary ordeal, but it is, in fact, the opposite.
There is a time and place to have a Gospel conversation, and for that I pray the Lord gives me the discernment to know when and where it is appropriate. I fully believe that if the Lord were to tell me to have a Gospel conversation with a stranger, it is my duty to fulfill his calling.
However, personal evangelism, a type of evangelism with which Millennials relate so well, doesn’t happen all at once. This type of evangelism happens over time, through the development of a relationship and once a level of trust and friendship has been built.
This is what John did. He had a relationship with Adam, invited him to play some pickup basketball and the Lord moved in Adam’s life from there. How incredible was that? And how simple, right?
As Christians, we should be to the point in our relationship with the Lord that it is seamless to share the Good News of our Savior with the lost and dying world around us. That is why we are here, to go into all of the world and make disciples! (Matt. 28:19)
Where is it that you could begin to cultivate a relationship with someone that could ultimately lead to their eternity being secured with Jesus Christ? Is it in your neighborhood? At school? Maybe it’s at work or even in your home.
Time is ticking and there’s a lost world out there desperate for the love of our Lord and Savior, let’s tell them all about it. Be bold, pray for boldness from the Lord and as Nike says, Just Do It!
by Emily Howsden | Feb 26, 2018
A year ago, my husband Casey and I were in the process of closing on our very first home. What a year it has been! I could attack this subject from so many different angles, and I could truly ramble on-and-on about each subject, but I’ll try not to bounce around… too much.
To recap, we offered on two homes before we offered on what is our home now — talk about third time’s a charm! We went back and forth about wanting new construction that would allow less wiggle room in our budget, or if we wanted to take an older house and make it our own.
Of course, our hearts wanted an older home because, time after time, when we looked at newly constructed homes, they lacked the character we wanted. Finally, on a day much like this past week in Oklahoma that was full of ice and downright awful weather, we gave a home a chance that we had scrolled past many times on our house-hunting apps.
I am so glad we decided to just take a look at that house because here we are a year later, and it is the place we call home. We started the home-owner process with a large list of “must-dos” in the few weeks we had before we had to be out of our apartment and moved into the home.
This long list included two things that both Casey and I agreed must happen as soon as possible: painting all 1,600 square feet of our home and Casey removing the popcorn ceilings (why was this ever a thing?).
To some, painting might not seem like a big undertaking, but it absolutely was. When we had the house inspected, we also had a contractor come give us a quote on all of the things we wanted updated. We asked him to give us a quote to paint the whole house, tear down two half walls, remove popcorn ceilings and install about 450 square feet of new floor. After he told us everything we wanted would cost more than $20,000, we decided to do it all ourselves.
Our living room, my favorite room in our house, had a custom, dark-brown wood paneling job. Dark-brown, word paneling that I sanded every square inch of and we painted, which now looks incredible. Let it be known that we couldn’t have done it without our families that drove 90 miles or so for a “paint party” on Saturday. That was perhaps the most noticeable change in the house, along with all of the other rooms that had odd colors on their walls, which we painted grey.
Also, removing the popcorn ceilings was a big change. Casey did an incredible job with the help of a few close friends, and you wouldn’t be able to tell now that popcorn ever coated any ceiling in our house.
There were so many other seemingly small changes that took hours upon hours of labor. This is where I got to first-hand see that I married one of the hardest working men in the world. I have always known Casey was a hard worker, but until I saw him staying up until 1 a.m. or later working on replacing all the light covers and plug-ins the house, I didn’t fully grasp how amazing he really is.
Here we are a year later and our house looks incredible thanks to Casey and his hard work. Many times before beginning a project, I asked him if he didn’t think we should just hire someone, and he would say with confidence that he could figure it out.
He never hesitated to ask for help from others more experienced than he, but in the end, he has saved us an incredible amount of money and truly poured some meaningful sweat-equity into our home. He has torn down walls, broken up old tile and installed new floors, built furniture, replaced all of the old blinds and countless other things.
His work ethic and the way he has served me and our marriage constantly reminds me of how the Lord calls us as Christ followers to not be served but to serve. However, it isn’t just in one area of his life that Casey serves like this, he serves like this in every area of his life.
Whether it is through the college ministry and loving students, or just being there for them, Casey is there. If it is doing a last-minute job that isn’t necessarily fun but needs to be done, Casey is there. There are so many things that I admire about my husband, but how he serves and loves others are at the top of the list.
I say all this to challenge you in several ways. First, if you’re currently in the house-hunting process, don’t be afraid to take on a manageable fixer-upper of your own. We have never regretted ours! Second, ladies, look for a man who serves others, especially when no one is watching. He is the type of man who will lead your marriage along the God-honoring path that it should go. Third, never hesitate to acknowledge the hard work you see someone else accomplish. Chances are, if they are anything like my Casey, they won’t expect the praise, but it is welcomed.