The Glorious Ordinary (a Guest Post by Sarah E. Frazer)

Today, I’ve got a special treat for us. I’d like you to meet Sarah E. Frazer.

I met Sarah last year when she hired me to do a number of editing jobs for her on Upwork. We quickly went from being total strangers… to respected clients… to Five Minute Friday neighbours (that’s how I got hooked)… to being good friends.

Sarah and her husband have an amazing testimony of how God radically changed their lives through the International Adoption of their beautiful special-needs baby girl from China. I know all of my Adoption Mommy friends will be so encouraged by her story!

She has also just published her first devotional book called “The Glorious Ordinary.” This book is so much more than just a devotional. Sarah is passionate about the Word of God and equipping men and women to grow in their knowledge of Scripture and in Prayer.

I also needed to hear her message this week!

So without further adieu, here’s my friend, Sarah E. Frazer.    

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“All to Jesus, I surrender;

All to Him I freely give;

I will ever love and trust Him,

 In His presence daily live.”

– Judson W. Van DeVenter

When I was eight years old, I surrendered my life to God and I asked Jesus to be my Savior. I was baptized later that summer.

When I was thirteen, I attended a Bible camp where I once again committed my life to God. This particular camp had a certain ritual that the campers would perform. At the end of the week, anyone who had committed their life to God would show their commitment by throwing a stick in the fire. So I did.

Then, as a sixteen-year-old girl, I dreamed about the mission field. I had the privilege of going on a short-term missions trip that summer, and it was there, on the edge of a river in the jungles of Peru, that I made the emotional decision to give up my dreams for God’s—even if it meant not going on the mission field.

Fast forward fifteen years later, and I’m in the middle of motherhood with four small children. My dreams of surrendering to God didn’t include dirty diapers, loneliness, and postpartum depression; my dreams had been steeped in adventure.

But God is teaching me that the path of surrender doesn’t always lead to the desert or jungles. Surrender is simply about coming to Jesus.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

– Matthew 11:28

Coming to Jesus has everything to do with surrender. A surrender of our will. Our desires. Our strength. We empty ourselves. We recognize and come to Jesus with open hands. We pour out the little we have so we may fill ourselves with all that He is.

What does daily surrender look like? It means I wake up each morning and say, “I’m okay with interruptions.”

I’m a planner-loving control freak of a girl. I love to have my lists and detailed plans for the day. But life doesn’t work that way, does it? Whether you have children or not, we all face interruptions. The only thing I can count on every day is that things won’t go the way I planned.

Daily surrender means I lay the burdens of yesterday at the foot of the cross. Those moments you want to take back—leave them at the feet of Jesus’ forgiveness. Christ died for my shame and it will not benefit me to pick it up and carry it around.

Everyday surrender means changing. No one likes to change—especially someone like me! If I am to surrender, I must let go of how I used to do things. I must forget the old ways and invite Jesus in to teach me a new way. If I believe my God is sovereign and in control of my life, then I can be okay with surrendering my plans to Him. God is not just in control of my destiny but also my ordinary day.

It is easy to surrender to God during an emotional church service or at the beginning of something hard. The surrender during the “mountaintop moments” of life is not the type of surrender God is asking of us. Surrendering to God on an everyday basis is the request. It requires mental activity. It requires trust.

The beauty of surrender is what we gain when we surrender. So many people dwell on what they lose when they surrender to Christ. We gain so much more when we give our lives to Him! In Romans 12, we discover what we gain when we daily surrender. Surrender is meant for the daily—sometimes the hourly. Sometimes we submit our plans to God in the beautiful hours of the morning, but by late afternoon our resolve is weakened and we are snappy and irritable. May we remember that surrender is never complete.

You see, it’s easy to make an emotional decision to follow Christ when you are a 13-year-old girl at summer camp. It is quite a different thing to wake up on a Tuesday morning at the age of thirty-three and look in the mirror and say, “I surrender all to Christ.” We can have the mountaintop moments, but true surrender means getting up every day and saying,

“I surrender this day to Christ. I lay down my expectations. I accept the interruptions. I plan for things not to go as planned.”

When I lay down my own desires, I can let God guide me. I can serve others freely. My life can reflect the peace God promises!

O God, I surrender my day to you. Not my tomorrows but today. I give you these few hours to interrupt my life for the service of others. May I find peace and joy today in surrendering to you. Amen.

Sarah’s New Book 

You can read more in my nine-week Bible Study called The Glorious Ordinary: An Invitation to Study God’s Word in Your Everyday Life.

Each week focuses on living day-by-day and includes:

• a short devotional,
• five days of homework,
• memory verses, and
• suggested ideas for prayer.

It was through the challenges we faced while waiting through the adoption process and the incredibly difficult year that followed the arrival of our special-needs little girl from China that God revealed these truths to my heart.

Be Encouraged

So, if you find yourself in a hard place:

• a season of waiting,
• a new normal,
• hard and hurtful circumstances, or
• a place of heartache

let me encourage you that the answer is in one place… God’s Word!

Even though walking is so ordinary, don’t get discouraged. I understand that the deepest part of your heart just wants this hard place to be over. I ask you to walk through whatever circumstance you are facing one-day-at-a-time. You aren’t alone and you are made to be exceptional, right here, right now. 

Read more about the book here.

Meet Sarah E. Frazer

Sarah lives her life with an amazing husband and four littles (one adopted). Her inner-planner girl would like to say she is super efficient and has the house, homeschool, and husband all neatly organized. But, she doesn’t. Join her as she learns how to find the thrill and inspiration of walking one day at a time @ sarahefrazer.com

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