Breakfast with Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker at my breakfast table...via YouTube

I first 'met' Jen this time last year when a friend directed me to her blog and a post about brave mothers raising brave kids.  She had a lot to say about boys, and given I have a boy (my friend doesn't) my friend thought I would find this post of interest.  I laughed long and hard - she's a very witty lady with a sense of humour I 'get'.  That post began our 'friendship'.  I laugh out loud long and hard over Jen's posts quite often.  My kids don't get it, even when I read out what made me laugh.  In the same way they don't laugh as hard as me when we're watching The Cosby Show.  Because they're kids and they don't get humour that is specifically related to  parenting.

The other day I was reading Jen's blog, and a post in which she talked about how she was taking steps to reduce the amount of time she is away from her family and be in her life again.  Wise, wise words.  I had my own moment on Sunday (remember, we just got back from holidays on Saturday?) where I started to panic about something I had said yes to at church.  You know, something worthwhile and important and it was only for six months and no one else has stepped up to lead this group and you would be so good at it.  You know, that kind of thing.  I know you know!!  Anyway, on Sunday I stepped back and prayed about the thing I said yes to and then spent some time with Nehemiah and I was again struck by his response to the people who were deliberately trying to derail his work to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  He told those men "I am doing a great work; I can't come down.  Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?" (Nehemiah 6:2-3 - The Message).  Indeed...why should my family, my work and my study suffer or stop because I have been asked to do something that is not within my season to agree to?  God took me out of ministry in a very clear way when I began my degree and I still have a year left to go of this season.  On Monday I emailed the leader of this group and explained all this to her and she accepted my change of mind very graciously. 

All that to say Jen's post really resonated with me in a very personal way.  Again!

Then I found heaps of stuff on YouTube with Jen speaking on different things and so I have been indulging myself in listening to some more of her wisdom and perspective on what it means to be a Christian in the 'West' in our modern lives.

So because YouTube makes these things possible I had breaky with Jen this morning.