I Declare

My third born was born different than the others. She was a summer baby, just missing the 4th of July fireworks show. We weren’t sure if she was a boy or a girl. She was my first natural birth. And we didn’t have her name until she was over a day old. Unlike her sisters, she was born with bright brown eyes that opened wide, reddish colored hair AND an umbilical hernia.

From that first pediatrician appointment when they pointed it out, we prayed that the 5-year window they gave us would be the time God would use to heal her and protect her from surgery. On her 5th birthday, we realized surgery was what God was going to use to heal her abnormal belly button that we had grown quite fond of. As we prepared her the best you can prepare any 5-year-old girl for surgery, I saw fear in her eyes days prior. As I stood in the kitchen, the words I love God and He loves Me came out of my mouth without any thought at all.

I love God and He loves Me.

This is what you are to say as her big brown eyes stared back at me and her head nodded yes. She knew it was true and the words gave her peace because they were His words. Not my own. Over the course of the next 24 hours, I caught her saying this phrase out loud as God prepared her heart and her mind for surgery.

The day came. The gown was placed over her head. The meds given. And she repeatedly said her phrase as if her whole heart believed every single word. The doctors came. The drugs kicked in. And they placed her on the rolling bed and began to wheel her back along with the countless other patients they had seen that day. But this one was different. She was mine. As the double doors opened and my 35-pound girl lie carelessly on the bed, I was completely out of control for the very first time in her young life. I muttered the words…

I love God and He loves me.

Nevertheless, the tears flowed and the preparing we had done seemed worthless in preparing us for how we felt at that moment. Fully dependent and reliant on Him to bring her out of that operating room.

For the few years that followed we would say this phrase as we would face fearful moments. Becoming a personal declaration that our whole family was familiar with.

When we moved to Florida (from North Carolina) the second time, we had it in our hearts that God was calling us to plant a church. We began to meet with about 21 people in our home and almost half of that was children. I knew during our time together that I wanted to build a mission statement that kids could say in their home and teach it to their parents. As I sat down to write it, the beginning words that followed were…

I love God and He loves Me.

The rest flowed as God gave me words that meant something to our family and it was my heart to share it with the rest of our “church.” However, I didn’t realize that a few months later, God would ask us to lay down the vision of church planting and take us on a journey of seeing our youngest one healed from something that was very painful to watch. We had been given scary blood tests results and diagnoses that honestly we are still trying to figure out one year later. But in the moment of pain and unknown, the words that God had given us earlier for our church plant became the very words that would anchor us in the moments that felt as if the floor had caved in.

These words would become a declaration of God’s goodness over our family.

Declarations are in the Bible. Promises given by God repeated from the beginning of time all the way through the New Testament. Promises that were meant to sustain, encourage and remind His people that He is with us even when we feel like no one is near. Declarations boldly declare Truth over our lives and are a way to put scripture to memory. They renew our mind and steady us in the time of trouble.

Declarations are Truth made applicable.

So here we are, one and a half years later from writing this personal declaration and I want to share it with you. This declaration is something we say every night before bed. We created motions to go along with the words in order to memorize it. It’s something that even my youngest at just 4 years old could say and do whenever her joints hurt and she was screaming in pain.

This declaration (and many more) is special to our family and I hope that you will embrace this one or be encouraged to write your own.

Declarations are founded in Truth and that Truth takes root when planted in our hearts. Declarations provide a way to make that process easier. In some ways, we are always declaring something over our lives. We can declare negativity, self-doubt, and lack over our lives by the expressions we often feel and release through our words. You’ve done it. I’ve done it. Therefore it’s vital to our destinies that we embark on this idea of declaring Truth over our lives. We must have it to memory so that when hardship comes beating on our door, we are ready.

Today I would like to encourage you to declare God’s Truth over your life.

It will change your perspective, renew your mind and set your path straight. Interested in writing a declaration over your family but have nowhere to start? Reach out to me. I will help you seek out Truth from His Word and get you started. Want to take our family declaration for your own? Do it. That’s why I am sharing this.