Home | Charis Buckland

The blizzards are here! I was born in Florida, moved around a lot, and I enjoy the snow, but mostly from inside with hot chocolate. Buuuut, you can’t have snow outside and not GO outside, so we played!

We also watched some Christmas movies! With a cat, of course!

We went sledding down the “mountain” in our little suburban backyard too!

How many of you felt reaaaaaly awkward in middle school? Yeah, me too. What a weird set of years, right?! Body is weird, finding friends is weird. I felt my face wasn’t proportional either. I had a lot of teeth pulled to make way for braces. I moved in sixth grade, too, so that was weird. 

Elisabeth Elliott says, “If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.” 

I desire for my little people to be pure in heart. To demonstrate the love of Jesus to those around them and to follow Him all of their days on earth. I pray they obey Him and follow where He leads. These are all great goals, but I believe it gets a little tricky when trying to exercise these in this world and in current culture. It’s a little harder to follow Jesus when we find ourselves doing it alone…or when it might seem…weird.

Yes, even as adults, we can question whether choosing not to see a popular movie is extreme or choosing to take kids to church instead of a soccer game makes us weird. Where are the lines drawn? What exactly should we do?

There is no exact code or key to follow, and it might seem confusing. God knows our hearts. He knows our motivations and our intentions. He knows when we truly live to honor Him.

I pray my kids have friends. I pray that they find a place to belong. Everyone wants that. Tough thing is, if they are following Jesus, they may not always fit in. Actually, if they are truly following Jesus, they are acting completely different than culture, so they might be thought odd. 

One of my older girls has been hanging with friends more this year than ever before. Middle school is a time where friends become incredibly important. It is vital to be uplifted by friends who share the same beliefs in Jesus, so when they are around those who need Jesus, they can show the difference. 

We had a conversation the other day, after I noticed a snippy attitude after hanging with a friend. Let me point out, I do empathize with sass – I am really good at sarcasm and sass, so Jesus has worked on me over the years and still continues the process. I asked her if her friend would talk to her mom that way. She answered that she does, so I asked her what Jesus would say about that. Of course, Jesus would not validate that attitude. We were able to talk about how her friend probably does not have a relationship with God, and we desperately want her to know Jesus and spend eternity with Him. As a believer, even in 6th grade, my daughter has the privilege to make a difference in her friend’s life by behaving differently and showing her friend the difference Jesus makes. 

Is she young? Absolutely! These are mature life lessons…life lessons that will enable her to live in confidence, self-control, and inner beauty that will last her lifetime. Choices she makes now may have mature consequences so it is essential she have mature conversations now! These life lessons will enable her to hear Jesus’s voice in the midst of all the other loud voices from friends, movies, and culture. These lessons will help her become an influence because she is different from other people in the best of ways and people will want to know why. 

When kindness and love share restraint and confidence to behave differently, it’s God-honoring beauty. I wish I had exercised this confidence earlier in life, but it is never too late to begin. It is never too late to honor God.

Although I wish life never had hardships or insecurities or feelings of loneliness, I know that, when choosing Jesus, all my children will experience this. I will too. My goal is for them to be the kind kids, not necessarily the most popular, the most athletic, or the most academic. If they have fewer friends because they go to church instead of an athletic event, so be it. If they get weird looks because they do not listen to specific music artists, it will have to be okay. In the end, God knows the heart and He will lift them up. He will lift us up. He will provide them with the friends they need, the athletic success they need, and the academics needed to make it (James 4:10). Living this out in the real world is harder than it seems reading it on paper, but always worth it.

Love, 
Charis 

Pic(k) of the week:

When the toilet is out of order upstairs because someone (the two-year-old) stuffed an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet, AND the plunger breaks in the effort to fix it…

When the obsession with toilet paper is still going later in the week and the toilet paper lands all over the floor…at least the floor, not the toilet. I will take a win where I can get it.