Kookie Cut-Outs by Rachel Britz – Delivering cookies and good news.

‘Tis the Season

November 8, 2013 by Rachel Britz 4 Comments

The oven is on, my hair pulled back, and music fills the kitchen like the scent of fresh baked cookies. ‘Tis the baking season. My favorite time of year. This month I had a number of very special occasions and unique cookie orders.

My beautiful daughter Lily turned 16 years old.

Pumpkin cookies and business cards to my new Allume friends.

NOTE: These lemon cookies I did not make. They were
treats at Allume from the folks at Blood: Water Mission.

Ice cream cookies {shipped to California}. Cute party!

My niece had a horse themed birthday.

Bridal shower favors {palm tree and plane}
for a Florida destination wedding.

Bowling party.

Regency era, book theme cookies for book club event.

Now tell me, which one is your favorite?

Running Sucks

November 6, 2013 by Rachel Britz 1 Comment

Running sucks. That was the message branded across the woman’s t-shirt at the airport. It made me smile. If I hadn’t been late for my flight to South Carolina I would have stuck up a conversation with the woman.

Last week I headed south to attend the Allume bloggers conference.

WHAT A WEEKEND! Holy smokes. Where do I begin?

Allume is a annual blogger conference dedicated to empowering and equipping women of Christian faith. I’ve wanted to go for a few years so I saved up some of that cookie money and bought a ticket. So, what do you do at a blogger’s conference anyways, right? Here’s a quick rundown of the staples:

1) Consume ridiculous amounts of coffee.

2) Attend breakout sessions {learn craft} and browse a multitude impact opportunities {think sponsors, think GET inspired}.

3) Create community with other sisters.

4) Yummy food {the late night desserts were my fav}.

5) Worship through music together.

That’s Allume in a nutshell.

I could go on rambling with one story after another. I could go into great detail about the beautiful encounters I had, and new friends that I made, but I’ve felt the need to only share ONE event with you.

It was the unexpected one, of course.

A few nights into the conference I found myself sitting around the dinner table with complete strangers. I had arrived late and squished into the only open spot left. The beautiful woman to my left initiated a softspoken conversation while our meal was being served. We connected. Afterwards, as the lights dimmed in the conference hall, our 453 blogger voices stilled. Author and speaker JENNY ALLEN took the stage. She began with a story…or two. Then, something shifted. She seemed a bit rattled. As she continued, she poured out her angst over her prepared message for the evening. Jenny shared that God had been speaking to her all day. He had something to say, something entirely different than the message she came prepared to give. As I watched Jenny move under the lights of the stage, I could see that she had been wrestling over this NEW message that was being pressed upon her heart. You see, she had come to rally us, to keep it light.

God had other plans.

The new message would be regarding SIN.

Not so light. Needless to say, the way Jenny Allen had wrestled with God all day was evident on stage.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross,scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”-Hebrews 12:1-2

The new message. Let’s throw off our sin, the pesky stuff that entangles us day-in and day-out. Why? For freedom. Imagine running a race with sandbags tied around your ankles. Wouldn’t you want to do whatever you could to rid yourselves of this extra weight? But here’s the reality, once we start a race {get goin’ with life}, we forget about them sandbags. They are attached to us. As we trudge our way, attempting to set out on a good wholesome life, we simply forget about these sandbags. All we know is that we feel heavy.

Yet, we ALL have them. The pesky sandbags. Tied tight, knit into the fiber of our life, rooted deep within.

Sitting in the darkened corner of the dining hall we we’re encouraged to take a moment and consider the thing that has entangled us as of late. My first thought was I’m good, meaning I’m in a good place {sin-wise}. Still, I closed my eyes and prayed, Lord, search my heart, show me……

And in a flash, He revealed that thing.

Oh yeah, that one thing. The thing that had been rising with me each morning. Greeting me like a child from my womb. That thing that once hushed would settle down and sleep tight for most of the day. Oh, but it re-appeared periodically. And when it did, it scratched and clawed away at my insides, that child, like a toddler wanting to have her way.

My sin had been ANGER. Burrowed deep. Hidden from view of the plain world. My sin. And so, I confessed it with my lips to my soft spoken neighbor {as prompted by Miss Jenny}. Do you know what that beautiful woman did for me? She prayed over me. Right there, at the conference. She not only prayed, she invited God and asked Him to reveal the root. God is good. Not only did He show up and reveal the root of this thing, He took it away too! The lamb of forgiveness washed over me. This, my friends, is the sacred place where the hurt and healer collide. Oh, that one thing…for the first time I felt authentic freedom from it.

Now, I was not expecting THAT to happen at a bloggers conference. The beauty is this…

We are all running a race. It’s our life. Does running suck? Yep, it can…it does. The truth however is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Those pesky things that entangle us, keep us weighted down as we run, we are commanded to “throw them off…” Why? For freedom, yes! For endurance, yes! For reasons that stretch farther than we can possibly imagine.

You have been given a specific race to run. Are you on coarse? Take a look down at your feet. What’s got you weighted down today? Confess with your lips and throw it off. It’s a beautiful redemption my friend when you allow the One who holds eternity to lighten your load. Now go, run like you never have. Free to do what you’ve been set apart to do!

Dream. Believe. Share.

October 28, 2013 by Rachel Britz 3 Comments

My dad always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. I believed it. When I was 10 I rallied some friends to join my babysitters club. At 12 years old, after watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon, I organized a carnival in my back yard to raise money for children with MDS. When I was a senior in high school I wanted to implement a dance team at school. They told me no. So, I gathered my fellow cheerleaders and created my own dance team. The list goes on. You see the pattern.

I’m a dreamer. I’m a believer.

Now I have children of my own. They have dreams too. One wants to be a writer, another wants to be his father, and the other told me she desires to be a mom when she grows up. What a joy, a privilege to listen to their dreams. I am a witness. I will be their biggest advocate.

What are the qualities of a dream? How do some grow? While others die before they even emerge from soil.

When I was in Sierra Leone visiting a World Vision community I met a 15 year old boy named Abdul. He was an orphan being cared for by his uncle. Through interpretation this young boy’s story unfolded. We learned that his uncle was struggling to provide a proper education for Abdul because his financial means were stretched thin.

Photo courtesy of World Vision USA

His uncle had a dream. He wanted his nephew to go to school. His dream was Education.

But he couldn’t afford it…

…until World Vision introduced the livestock livelihood project. A donor who bought a $75 goat through World Vision’s gift catalog made the life changing difference. The gift was given to Abdul’s uncle. In a short time, the goat reproduced and he was able sell it. These funds provided the means to enroll Abdul in school.

This was the turnaround for Abdul.

As Abdul continued his story we discovered that he has a dream too. He wants to be a doctor. Now, because ONE person shared a simple gift he can go to school. His dream is growing, taking shape.

I think the secret to the life and vitality of our dreams has to do with two core virtues.

Believe. Trusting in the intangible takes guts. You have to believe in yourself, you have to believe that your divine purpose is for good. You are ONE person. You have a name. A name that is KNOWN by the ONE true God. When He plants the seed of a dream within you and we BELIEVE in it then mark my words you had better watch out…because He who holds the stars, and knows them by name, also makes the stars collide.

Sharing. We can’t help it. When we have excess, when goodness overflows, and the bounty is plentiful we desire to GIVE back. Sharing the goodness of what we’ve been given is pleasurable. When we SHARE with others a smidgen of overflow its like harmony. A soft melody. It’s inviting others to join in. Because when we are the ONE who has received we see life in a new light. We sing. We join the chorus.

And the cycle spins…for when we SHARE, we give another a DREAM, and when we dream we cannot help but BELIEVE.

Allume Blogger Conference

October 28, 2013 by Rachel Britz 3 Comments

Home. I’ve returned from my weekend in South Carolina at the Allume blogger conference. 3 days. 453 bloggers. 8 impactful breakout sessions.

These 5 words best describe my experience:

Kinship.
Passages.
Empowerment.
Healing.
Spangled.

For my reader friends, more stories to come…

For my Allume friends, what words would you use to describe your weekend?

And Now, A Lesson in Death

October 22, 2013 by Rachel Britz 3 Comments

In case you’re wondering…I’m still writing that dang book. The novel about the girl in Ireland. Yeah, that one. Last week I was hung up on a scene so I decided to break things down. Again. This is my new game plan.

Well, it’s the same game plan just re-written for the 100th time, in a different format, with different colors. I know your wondering. Did it work? You betcha! Unstuck and pressing on.

A few days later my 16 year old daughter was reviewing my colorful set up and asked, “What does die to self mean?”

I stopped writing and looked up at her. That feeling, mothers you know it, the one where you feel the teachable moment coming on. The air becomes thin. A quiet pause is stretched. I imagine magical sprinkles of {invisible} inspiration floating down from the Heavens, prickling the skin as it lands.

I answer, “Die to self? It means sacrificing {to the point of death} your selfish desires. For example, in my story the main character wants this one thing more than anything in the world. Yet, there is this other thing… The stakes are high. She needs to make a choice. Will she choose self? Or will she die to self?”

There are two kinds of death. Physical death, where the soul and spirit depart from the body. This kind is inevitable. It is our future. It is absolute and inescapable. The other kind is Spiritual death, where pesky sin separates our soul from God.

Dying to self is a Spiritual death.

It requires a 180 degree turn around. This is hard to do. Especially when the stakes are high. We want one kind of lifestyle. Yet, the desire to shake the peskiness remains. It’s a longing. For some of us, the separation from God is hard. We wonder why we do what we do…when it’s not really in line with what we want to do. Huh? Am I making sense?

Let me explain. Five years ago I quit drinking. For one reason and one reason alone. I needed to die.

Making the choice to quit drinking has NEVER been for any sort of legalistic reasons. I didn’t do it because I thought it was the good Christian thing to do. I didn’t do it because I think drinking is bad. I didn’t do it because anyone made me or pressured me to stop.

I quit drinking because the pesk was killing me. Spiritually speaking. Having one or two never really worked for me. The truth is that another person emerged in my drunkeness. She was ugly. Selfish. And when my physical body rejoined my Spirit after a hasty night…I didn’t really like her a whole lot.

But the death took time. Layer upon layer. Slowly, in a great span of time God called me out of that pesky entanglement and into something new.

That death. Oh, that death was painful. Yet, my God was faithful to me and never let me go.

“These scars ain’t pretty but there a part of me… These marks tell a story of me down in the valley and how you reached in with your grace and healed me.” -Mandissa

It’s about beauty from ashes. Being reborn into a new creation. Stepping out of old skin and trusting that the new has a perfect purpose for you.

Only YOU in your inmost being know the things being willed of you to lay down and die. It’s a matter of choice. The stakes are high. What will you choose?