When the Bad Thing Doesn’t Happen
If all our worries came true, we would be pretty miserable. Most things we worry about never happen. Studies show that at…
Helping Women Move From Fear into Faith
If all our worries came true, we would be pretty miserable. Most things we worry about never happen. Studies show that at…
For years I strove for The Perfect Christmas. My gene pool generously blessed me with an extra dose of perfectionism. If you…
Is the love gone from your marriage? Are you emotionally distant from your spouse? Have you reached an impasse? Everyone struggles. There…
Imagine yourself a pilgrim in 1621. You and your entourage have mistakenly landed in the wilds of Massachusetts (rather than Virginia) during…
When I grew up in the deep south, we called our evening meal supper, and reserved the term “dinner” for fancy meals.…
I asked God for a word that would help me accomplish His plans for me in 2020. The word, Focus, came to me, oddly enough, during the Total Strength class at the YMCA.
I find myself still wandering around in the old year working on the lessons begun there. I’m not as excited about a new year as I usually am. I want to be dazzled by the new number and the new decade but it hasn’t hit me yet.
So I come to you Lord, humbly, again offering myself completely to you. I don’t have it all together, but this is what I do know: You are my everything. I fervently long for your will to be done in my life so that I will bring you glory in this bright and shiny New Year.
I don’t want to carry gratitude around in seasons.
I want to carry it in my bones,
I want to rest it in on my tongue
like it is a language
that I never stop speaking.
~Arielle Estoria
“At the basis of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace.”
It felt good just to hear myself say the words and to hear her listening. She went on to tell me about a difficult situation she and her husband have been navigating with a third party. Immediately the magic happened again. We were entering into each others’ lives and caring and responding. It helped me to get my mind off of myself; pray again for her and also feel relieved of my sad feelings.
There were so many times I felt like I couldn’t change another diaper, or survive another tantrum or comfort my daughter through the night when morning would come so quickly. That I’d never be able to enjoy a so-called normal life. But I also recognized the Holy Spirit coaxing me to keep going (without seeing).
I realized today when I tossed those pillows on the swing that the way I’m wired hasn’t curled up and died. My gifts for gathering people and warming up our home so people will feel loved and welcomed. This is who I am. I just haven’t known how to be that person in a different place.