ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

These past two months have been killer for me. I couldn't figure it out until one day it just smacked me in the face: somehow I lost my joy . Being in the Word, listening to worship music all day long, reading and writing about His goodness. Even all of that didn't snap me out of it. I have this tendency to allow burdens to pile up unnecessarily. My kids are driving me crazy, my husband has been working a lot, I have deadlines and due dates and to-do lists a mile long. I let that stuff swirl in my head non-stop. I think about it, mull over it, rehearse it, problem-solve it , and even make up scenarios in my mind.  As if I need one more thing to think about?  My brain is constantly full, taking up all the room I usually like to save for rational or creative or happy thoughts. It's just a jumbled mess in there sometimes. I''m a melancholy girl, and I can get pretty down when I allow myself to. I can feel down about my own life just as easily as I can about the s...

Do you ever get tired? Like, soul tired? Weary, overwhelmed, fed up? I thought so. I do, too. Silly question, I guess. For me it usually happens when lots of little things pile up on each other and it’s hard to find the air. When big things happen, I can trust God to handle them almost automatically, because what other choice is there in circumstances that you know you can’t control? But with little things, we have this tendency to try to juggle them all, try to keep them under control, try to get by in our own strength, until it all comes crashing down in a big mess of tears and frustration. We don’t like asking for help with the everyday stuff, because we think that we shouldn’t need to. We think we can handle it all on our own until that last straw breaks us. That kind of self-sufficient attitude stems from pride. My pride is the cause of so much hardship and heartache in my life. And we all know that pride is a sin; one that sort of sneaks its way into other sins. I...

It recently occurred to me that fear dictates much of what I do and don't do . When I feel God has placed something on my heart, I dismiss it because I'm not good enough and surely He didn't mean for me to do that? I think that I have to achieve some level of discipline or spiritual maturity before I'm qualified for the job,  so I simply never move. It's pure defeat, allowing my mind to go there. I'll never have mastery here, and I'll never have discipline there. When will I just do what I know I'm supposed to do? I'm convicted of the ways in which I fall short , or I read through the passages in Matthew that shine a piercing spotlight into the areas of my life that are lacking tremendously. I wonder when I'll ever be different than I used to be? When will it click, and when will I finally be that faithful and fearless woman I desire to be? I chew on it long enough until it finally hits me:  this sanctification process is just that --  ...

Well friends, it's a new year! Another chance to reinvent ourselves, try new things, make commitments that we really intend to keep. In junior high and high school, I used to make a list of resolutions before each school year. They would always look something like this: 1. Curl your hair everyday 2. Be on time 3. Don't be so awkward and shy 4. Dress cuter The only trouble is that I could write them out today and they'd still apply. Late everywhere, not that cool and not that fashionable, a hopeless procrastinator, painfully slow at getting things done, a perfectionist to a fault: you know,  human . As the years have gone by and countless lists of resolutions have remained unconquered, I've started to wonder if maybe God made me this way? Maybe He had a perfect plan for all those imperfections? Maybe they would serve to unlock a creativity and an introspection and a compassion in me? Maybe they would reveal an overwhelming need for Grace, for a Savior, f...

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:14 NIV) I think about this passage often. I think about what a “city on a hill” might look like to those in the valley gazing up at that hill. I think about what it means to be the light of the world to a lost and hurting humanity. If you had asked me six or seven years ago, I would’ve told you that shining the light of Christ meant reading my Bible everyday, praying with my kids at mealtimes, going to church every Sunday and serving in some way. It was a checklist of “dos and don’ts” I followed at all costs. You know, standing up for my convictions? Add in a Facebook status with a snippet from Sunday’s sermon, and I was really on track. In a nutshell, it was like a litmus test for myself, so people could know I was a Christian. But that was the extent of it. As I started reading the Word more, I began to realize that this wasn’t the message for which Christ gave His life. He brought us a messag...

Christmas is fast approaching. All my decorations are in place and Christmas music is playing around-the-clock. I close down the house each night, turning off lights and starting the dishwasher. It’s my favorite time of day, when I have a few moments with my own thoughts. I sit in the living room, lost in the tree lights. My eyes drift to the nativity my mom bought me for my first married Christmas eight years ago. I think about Mary, and about how she must have felt when the angel told her she would bear the the Savior of all mankind. Scared, unsure, feeling ill-equipped, she was called to a path that no one else in all of history would ever travel; the very thing that God had ordained for her before the foundations of the earth. I think about us, here in two thousand twelve. How God has uniquely purposed our lives, too. But I wonder if we expect His plan to be neatly packaged? When we say yes to God, do we assume He’ll go before us and unravel all the knots and iron out the ...

so i'm not sure if you can tell, but i like to write. and lately i've been wanting to write a lot. i have countless posts sitting in my drafts, still more swirling in my head. there's a message i'm supposed to be sharing, and i want to share it here. the coolest thing happened, and this wasn't on my radar at all. for one: it never donned on me that anyone would want to borrow my words for their own collaborative space. and two: i just wasn't seeking it out. well, a few weeks ago, Nicole emailed me to see if i'd like to author for Fancy Little Things  as they're planning a major re-launch of the site and looking for more contributors. hesitantly enough, making sure she had the right girl, i said... um, yes. i would love to. sooo Fancy Little Things will be opening fresh on December 1 [it will be closed Nov 29-30] and my first post will show up on the 5th. i'll be writing for the "faith" team, which of course i'm thrilled abou...