ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

waiting. one of the hardest disciplines, isn't it? for me, anyway. i'm not the most patient person in the world... just ask my 2 year old. waiting comes in all forms. sometimes they're serious and life-changing things that we wait and hope and pray for, and sometimes they're just daily little things that pop up in our path. we pray and pray for God to work in our circumstances. to change them, make them go away, make them better.  but what if God had a different lesson for us to learn in the waiting? some of you are waiting for a baby. either because you're dealing with the heartache of infertility or you're navigating the difficult waters of adoption.  some of you are waiting for a wayward child to return. either to your home or to your heart. a broken relationship needs mending and you're waiting. some are waiting for your husband to rise up and fill his role as spiritual leader in your house. you're waiting for his repentance or h...

maybe someone needed to read this today?  i know i needed it. i have a bunch of "mixed CDs" just laying around in the car. i stuck in this particular CD and this was the first song that played. and it was exactly what i needed to be reminded of. please take the three minutes and listen to it i included the lyrics below (emphasis mine, of course). i mean, they're just Truth, with some pretty music added to it. and hopefully they'll give you strength for whatever your circumstances might be if you don't know who Ginny Owens is, she's a singer/songwriter. and she's blind.  i won't write out her full bio, but i think that fact alone gives her some solid "street-credit" when writing about trials, doesn't it? the pathway is broken and the signs are unclear and i don't know the reason  why You brought me here but just because You love me the way that You do i'm gonna walk through the valley if You...

right now i'm carrying around a burden of knowledge that i wish i didn't have. there are so many crazy things going on in so many lives around me and i wish that i had some answers. i wish i could just make it all go away, and if i'm being really honest, i just flat out wish they'd never told me. knowing is not always good . but alas, i know their secrets and i'm desperate for answers, some way to ease their burden without feeling like i'm being taken under myself. you just feel so helpless when lives are crumbling around you and you're powerless to do anything. have you ever been there? maybe your own life is crumbling and you're feeling hopeless? the following is a guest post that i wrote for jami a few weeks ago.  but oh, how i need it now: if you're like me, when trouble comes, you immediately scramble to find a solution. you try to solve problems using logical, earthly wisdom, gleaned from your vast pool of experience and knowledge....

i came across this song today. i love that the "what ifs" in the chorus below aren't really what ifs to me, they're true and proven. i hope you have been blessed in this way described below. and not just in the ways we usually define blessing: We pray for blessings  We pray for peace  Comfort for family, protection while we sleep  We pray for healing, for prosperity  We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering  All the while, You hear each spoken need  Yet Love is way too much to give us lesser things  'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops  What if Your healing comes through tears  What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near  What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise   We pray for wisdom  Your voice to hear  We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near  We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love  As if every promise from Your Word is not enough...

yesterday at Bible study, we had a special guest speaker named Carol Oliver. she is a potter, and came to tell us all about the Biblical analogy of God being the potter and us being the clay, all from a potter's perspective, while making pottery in front of us. it couldn't have been more amazing, one hour full of breathtaking analogy. but there were some things that stood out to me. [if you ever have the chance to see her "speak" somewhere, GO!] it was near the end of her presentation, when she was taking us through the process of firing the pottery after it had been carefully kneaded, spun, and shaped into the exact piece that the potter had planned. after it's molded, it has to be thrown into a kiln at 1800 degrees to be "fired". if it doesn't go through the fire, it can never be used. it will just crack or melt back into a messy lump of clay. after the fire, it is thrown into a trashcan with newspaper and everything goes up in flames again....

tear down the lies. put up the Truth. bow to the Truth. that is [in a really short nutshell] what Beth Moore teaches in Breaking Free, for how to live in freedom on a daily basis. reject the lies that the enemy throws at you, replace them with Truth from God's Word, and then listen to that Truth. do what it requires of you. last week, as part of our weekly study, Beth asked us to practice these steps in the area of forgiveness. she wanted us to write it all out, look up specific verses, bring it to our group when we met. i'll be honest. i didn't do the exercise, because i'd already [more or less] done it in real life just a few months earlier. i wanted to share my personal story with my Bible study group last thursday, but we ran out of time. so i'm sharing it with you now. not the in-depth details, but the most important parts. it's pretty long, but i hope you'll stick with me to the end. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  a few month...

we were on our way to Disneyland yesterday. as we pulled out of the driveway, my current cd of choice was playing in the car. it's a compilation of all those songs that i gave to my worship pastor , that i'd be preparing in case he needed me to sing any of them in the near future. so they're on repeat in my car all the time. one of them is Kathryn Scott's "Beauty for Ashes" . every time it comes on, my daughter will say "song, sad" with a big frown and furrowed brow. i'm not really sure why she thinks it's sad, maybe it's just in comparison to the other songs on the CD? anyway, she started repeating the lyrics. after each phrase was sung, she'd repeat the key words: "I'll trade these ashes in for beauty" [ashes for beauty] "And wear forgiveness like a crown" [like a crown] "Coming to kiss the feet of mercy" [kissing mercy] "I lay every burden down" [burden down, lay down] when ...

tomorrow, at church, i'm singing this song: i love the message, and i love how it's the perfect song for me to be singing right now, in this season of my life.  out of the six potential songs that i shared with our worship pastor, this is the one that he chose for me to sing tomorrow. couldn't be more perfect. it's not a coincidence either, that's for sure... anyway, my favorite part about the song? in the chorus, it reads like this: Hallelujah, hallelujah whatever's in front of me help me to sing hallelujah Hallelujah, hallellujah whatever's in front of me i'll choose to sing hallelujah this is so true for me. how about you? there are times when "disaster" strikes and i need Him to remind me- "sing Hallelujah, this is for your good and for my glory. it is best and it is not a surprise to me. this is part of the plan. choose to see what I have for you." there are other times when i choose to sing hallelujah. not out of emotion, no...

a few months ago, i think it was december, i glanced out the window during a particularly difficult day, and i noticed them. in the dead of winter, peeking out behind a dormant tree: bright orange, beautiful poppy colored flowers, blooming in the middle of winter. but more importantly for me, in the middle of a desolate and stormy winter that had ravaged its way through my weary heart. those little flowers were blooming quietly, just for me, straight from Him. yesterday, i noticed them again and went out to take a photo... lo and behold, the clouds parted and the sun shone on these tiny white flowers, popping up on the dormant tree that sits right in front of the orange flowers. little white blossoms, symbolizing new life, hope . bringing beauty and bringing glory to the bare branches. i scanned the bank and noticed purple blossoming in the iceplant [shown in first photo] and pink sprouting from another little tree that i didn't even know existed in my backyard. God is good. i lov...

 i've been bombarded with this same message from Isaiah almost daily, whether through Bible study or the various books that i'm reading, conversations with friends... it also seems to be a recurring theme around the blog world these days. in case you didn't already know,  music is the language of my soul.   and   this song [ At the foot of the Cross , by Kathryn Scott] is my anthem, for this season of my life: At the foot of the cross Where grace and suffering meet You have shown me Your love Through the judgment You received And You've won my heart Yes You've won my heart Now I can Trade these ashes in for beauty And wear forgiveness like a crown Coming to kiss the feet of mercy I lay every burden down At the foot of the cross At the foot of the cross Where I am made complete You have given me life Through the death You bore for me I'm laying every burden down I'm laying every burden down isn't that beautiful? listen to it here  [if the below video doe...

it has been raining for five days straight down here in sunny San Diego i LOVE the rain. i love the sound i love the smell i love the symbolism as i sit here at my laptop gazing out the window at the steady downpour that has not relented for even a few minutes in the past five days i'm reminded of my soul and how it hasn't stopped raining for a few months but it's not the rain you'd think of when you think of trials you'd think that i was saying it hasn't stopped hurting that bad things keep happening you know, " when it rains it pours"? but for me, right now, right in the midst of the storm it's that sweet healing rain that won't stop Jesus is continually, day after day unrelentingly pouring out Himself washing my spirit and my soul in His goodness and His grace He's flooding my heart with life and with peace. and just as I write this, the sun is peeking out I feel as if God is literally saying, right now, to me: "I'm still here...

if you haven't read my post, where i was going to start praying for rain , please go here and read it! and then read this: my God, above all else, is FAITHFUL i did start praying for rain.... and i also started praying for someone specific in my life to come to know Jesus in daily fellowship, and not just as a one-time-long-ago Savior of their sins. i started praying for this person fervently. desperately. more sincerely than i've ever prayed for anything. and i got to the point where i told God that i would accept any means by which this transformation would come about . i would do anything or endure anything that God would require of me. and a few months ago, both my prayer for rain and my prayer for this specific person's restoration... were answered. all at once. And in that moment i met a new God. i met a God who is faithful. a God I never would have known were it not for this moment. in the very moment that the...

a sweet friend taught me a huge lesson tonight. she's in the choir at church, and she's almost like a big sister type to me {i'd say "mom-type" but she's not old enough :) }. she looks out for me and gives me good advice, and she's just there if i need some encouragement, a compliment, or just a laugh. she's a wonderful person... carolyn has lost 3 siblings and her mother in a short period of time. another sister is on the last leg of a battle with cancer right now. she has just received some news about her own health, and her husband suffered a seizure just a few weeks ago and they still haven't figured out the cause. she stood up tonight and *testified* to the power and strength and love and sovereignty of God Almighty. i mean PREACHED with confidence and conviction and clarity. the words of the Holy Spirit were no doubt pouring out of her mouth. and oh . how she moved me. i have had a remarkably easy life thus far. when i say "remarkably...