Cassie's Nimble Nuggets

              Hello fellow Turkey goers!  My house currently smells of Pumpkin Pie and Nic and I have spent the evening baking pies.  I already see news feeds all atweet with #grateful #TurkeyDay and "What do we talk about with our families for Thanksgiving?  We have a generation of greed and envy that twenty four seven bombards us with messages of "you need" or "you want"  and then one day a year we are supposed to be able to put a thought behind the words "Thanksgiving." It really hit me on Monday as I picked up my child from school, like I do everyday.  My youngest child was in the back seat asking me if we could go to the Thanksgiving Feast at her school.  Well I worked a twelve hour shift that night and her dad had a long day at work so the answer was "No, I am sorry but No."  She does struggle with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) as does every six year old.  But her response really threw me for a loop.  "Daddy is lazy,"  I was co

My friend is pretty epic, I love her dearly and she and her husband are so mild mannered that it would shock you to meet her child. He is amazing, like seriously the kid is genius bright and has a stubborn streak a mile long. We were sitting down and she said "I just love seeing other peoples kids throw fits in the store. It gives me hope." I laughed so hard because she smiled her precious smile and her adorable dimples came out and we continued on in our day but that moment truly stuck with me. When I go to the mall and here someones kid screaming I giggle inside and almost wanna take a video and share it with her because it gives her hope. You see Nic and I never took our girls anywhere when they were little. We learned very early our minions didn't leave the house. So I cannot speak to my friends plight but she definately speaks into my thoughts. I don't know if you are ever like this too but seriously I do just wanna see the ugly moments people have

So I had a week vacation last week, my husband and I after the last several months of grueling schedules decided to take a respite from the world and reconnect.  We planned a very relaxing trip to go to Kentucky, then North Carolina to a family cabin.  We went to Kentucky to visit the Ark Museum, which is a replicated full size Ark, like “ Noah and the Ark.”  We were in awe and wonder of the sheer size of the replica and it solidified what God was already placing in my heart this week.  So dear lovely ones, I pray over this blog and ask God what to give to you, and this week he brought to my attention the mediocre moments of life.   Like an adventurer who wants to have great stories of excitement it is hard when you feel like what you are doing is miniscule, mediocre, and ordinary.   So here are some things I want you to take back from Noah.   Noah walked with God. The bible says in Genesis 6 that Noah was a righteous man and God's favor was on his life, it also said Noah wa

So I have spent much time since last week praying and thinking on what I wanted to say to you this week.  God began to give me some words and one of them was the word Mediocre.  Now when we think of mediocre we think of “meh” like lukewarm tap water, if I was thirsty enough I would drink it but it isn’t really satisfying.  I have spent the majority of my life being bi vocational, I have worked a job and done ministry and I had a time when I was ready to be done with my “job” and do my ministry.  I would walk every night after the kids went to bed and I would normally complain to God, it was a rough season.  I had two little kids, worked more than full time and did over 20 hours of ministry work.  I wanted to be in full time ministry, but my leader didn’t see me as full time leader material, half because of my gender, half because of my youthful zeal aka immaturity.  I was griping to God, telling him how unfair it was, how I didn’t understand, when he silenced me audibly.  I remember e

    I have been not wanting to write this weeks blog, not gonna lie. I don't want to write it, tried to write something else, but I do believe in Gods perfect timing, and so after seeing a recurrent theme I have to say this to someone else other than me this week. God has given me a really big mouth, I am not talking about just a lot of talking but it carries sound.  People listen to me and it terrified me for a long time and as I get older I have come to terms with my really big mouth, not minimizing it or apologizing for it. But here is what I need to say to you and me.                   Your mouth is robbing you.  You see I sat down at my kitchen table laid my head on my bible and sobbed, when I was a child I sat in Sunday school rooms and listened to the stories of the children of Israel in my youthful innocence I couldn't understand why they were so stupid.  Always stories of the children of Israel messing up and God sending people to save them.  I thought to myself as a

      I had the greatest honor to sit under some of the greatest women leaders of our time in September and with that I want to share some Propel nuggets from the conference.  I loved each speaker and I came expectant and God downloaded some amazing things into us at this Activate Event and I can tell you we are taking our local community by storm and want to see God move in such a mighty way.   Lorie Ann, who was on the Panel said something so profound "Choose to hold onto the crystal balls and let the rubber ones bounce."        You see too many times we let people take more space than they should.  I am not saying we don't love people, we do. But as a women the expectations we place on ourselves and the expectations that others place on us make us weary.  I have precious fragile balls I am holding "my children, my husband, my relationship with God, these are my crystal balls.  I cannot fulfill my life on a mission if I am not holding and protecting my sacred spa

So I see it a lot in my youngest what you may call sarcasm I call quick wit and I appreciate her humor.  It isn't so much humor as she points out what she deems obvious and we try not to laugh at her because although she is right we have to teach her the propriety of how to be life giving.  So I am going to take of my propriety and state that James is an oxymoron based on Today's standards of wisdom.  James calls out the unwise and really helps to put the church into the right.  Even back in that day people were confusing the gospel of Jesus with some sugary sweet kumbaya my Lord sappy crap. So lets dive in to the book of James. James starts out by calling himself a SLAVE of God in verse one.  James doesn't proclaim himself an apostle, Jesus's brother, second in command, he calls himself SLAVE.  Let's just start with this here because the reason Christianity has lost it's saltiness is because we got so many people vying for position instead of vying for God

  I am not polished ladies and gentlemen, I am not perfect, I struggle to want to create a posh image of myself, that looks the part I feel I am supposed to play.  I am tempted to pull back, to be measured, to minimize and not move rather than push forward and embrace crazy.  I have wanted to be anything but crazy, I come from a family line of very imperfect people and I looked around at everyone else and wanted so desperately to be 'normal.'  When I was at a revival one time, the pastor came in from out of town, I am a nurse and the man was actively having a heart attack in the church.  I was only twenty five at the time and let me tell you it was an experience.  The pastor was praying over this man and a relative of mine comes, pushes me out of the way and grabs his hand. They then precede to telling him that when he goes to heaven tell her son hello."  We had to get her out of the room, and as this was the pastor's first time coming up and I gotta tell you I was emb

        In November of last year I sat on my couch, completely and utterly done.  I was done doing things my way and completely in tune with the Holy Spirit.  I began to write down the longing of my heart.  God asked me the question: What kind of women do you think the church needs.  It was from this place I wrote down to God the Tuscarawas Propel Connect core values.  I told Him:  I want to see a  group of women that compliment instead of compete, that believe that the body of Christ is unified but not uniform, that naturally lead others back to Jesus, and understand that we are inclusive not exclusive.  One thing I know is when God speaks he doesn't just speak to one person He speaks to many.       So it is not surprising that the body of Christ is seeing this theme come forth through some pretty amazing and powerful men and women of God.  Lisa Bevere has come out with a new book and I have to tell you it it is pretty life changing to many women in the body of Christ. Although

So for those of you who know me, you know that I put myself under the teaching of two fearless women in the body of Christ.  Christine Caine and Lisa Bevere.  I don't know them personally, I haven't sat and had lunch with them, but I choose to be mentored by them through their books, podcasts, I serve as a Propel Chapter leader, I watch their facebook live feeds, and pretty much any sermon they post on youtube.   One thing Chris said yesterday that struck a chord with me was "Don't look back."  like Lots wife who looked back after she was told not too, she was turned into a pillar of salt.  In my version "She looked back and got salty."   I have been praying this season of my life, as I know God is getting ready to do something great, our team has seen it, I have felt it and this season we are setting apart time to fill ourselves first.   It has been a very difficult season for me because I have allowed God to search me, and point out my weaknesses, my f

So I have a very transparent confession to make:  I used to be a pretty legalistic person, I could quote scriptures forward and backwards, explain things to you.  Tell you why something is right or wrong, avoid all people who were unholy, imperfect and broken and feel completely justified.  I could explain how someone put themselves there, judge them 'all in the name of God."   It was a very lonely place and there was no joy in that place, no happiness, and honestly no freedom.  It was me looking around at my world pointing out the imperfections of others, feeling smug in the fact that I had it together, I knew my bible, I knew my scripture, and I kept myself in an iron clad suit of my opinions and keeping everyone else away.  The problem was God couldn't heal my very broken and very weak heart from this place.  I was so full of rules, regulations, and doing everything right, that I didn't have grace, compassion, or even empathy for others.  They deserved what they got

I wish I could sit here and tell you I am naturally brave but the truth is I struggle with people.  As much as I have been called rebellious I am actually a pretty straight laced person.  I like rules, I like the boundaries they set and I like to play in between the lines.  Religion was very comfortable for me, I could look the part, dress the part, act the part.  I could fit into the culture that was created and deliver a very stellar performance.  I had a very legalistic mentality because and honestly a whole lot of fear.  I was controlled by my fear of disapproval.  Friends of mine tried to sneak back at Oral Roberts University to meet Christine Caine and I completely chickened out.  It broke the rules and I couldn't do it.  Following Jesus has been a challenge at times because there have been moments where I have had to defy convention and in the last year of my life I have finally spoken what I thought was so wrong.  I have thrown the legalistic rules to the wind, picked up my

So I can remember my mom singing with a trio back in the day and the song started like this "A woman tried many physicians, but they could not help, so unto Jesus she came.  And when the crowd they tried to restrain her, she whispered these words through her pain.  Touching Jesus is all that really matters, than your life will never be the same.  There only one way to touch Him, just whisper these words through your pain." Last week I talked about the women at the well, you know the one that really didn't care she was an outsider, whose life was a mess and yet when she met Jesus she was changed.  Well this week I want to talk to you about a women with an issue that she couldn't control.  A women that by her disease was made unclean and couldn't even go into the temple.  She risked everything for the hope of being healed.   You see when we look at a cultivating a tribe we need to look at the women with the issues.  I relate with this women probably more than I

            I will never forget I walked into church one and I got "Oh girl, I love your outfit."  and "I love those shoes."  not one person asked me how I was.  Not one person asked what was new with me.  Although I got a lot of compliments on my outer appearance. I said the polite thing "Thank you so much"  but I wanted to yell "Seriously I did learn how to color coordinate in preschool, and yes, I know its cute that is why I picked it."  My husband laughed at me. Because honestly I love women who love fashion, but I love people more.   Others will now tell me the like my shoes just because they think it is hilarious, and it is, but it is a gentle reminder for us as women to see more than the outside, if you love purses, awesome. I love thrift stores, shopping for deals, and NEVER paying full price.  But the this is where we are as women sometimes, we don't want others to see our mess, our lives, how imperfect we are, so we hide behind shal