There is a level of heartache that goes beyond the normal highs and lows of life. It cannot be quantified. Words don’t do it justice. It keeps you up at night, doggedly chasing you, taxing your mental reserves all day long. Even if you’re not an emotional person, tears threaten to fly down your face without…
Category: Grow as a Disciple
Do You Rightly Value the Whole Body of Christ?
Can you imagine if your whole physical body was a clamorous, jibber-jabbering mouth? Or if it was a big lumpy wad of knuckles? What if your whole body was made of tendons, with no bones, muscles, or tissues? It is such a gift to have all our myriad body parts, so that we can rightly…
8 Verses That Help Me Fight For Contentment
There have been so many different seasons of my life when I’ve had to *FIGHT* for contentment. 7-months-pregnant in a grimy, coal-heated, 80’s-era-floral-couched, bugged (not the insect kind) apartment in China Months later, when my husband got gravely sick, and we went YEARS with tons of investigation but no medical answers or reasons what had…
Modern-Day Chariots: What Are You Trusting In?
In King David’s day, it went like this: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” ~Psalm 20:7 What are our modern American “chariots?” What do we trust in? I have some ideas. Scan them and see if any of them strike a nerve…
What Is Happening In Your Heart When You Yell?
Last week, I shared how yelling is connected to my stress level, and many of you identified & shared your own struggles. Today I want to dig deeper. A common theme, for me and from you in the comments, was that we tell ourselves lies about the yelling that we do. We lie to minimize the…
Stress, Yelling, and SIN
Unfortunately, this last week in particular, I and my children have seen incontrovertible evidence that (at least for me), stress and yelling seem to have a direct relationship. When stress increases, the volume and frequency of my yelling increases as well. So this weekend, I asked a group of godly women to exhort me in regard…
Who is the Captive: Your Thoughts Or You?
Last week, I noticed I was feeling anxious. I’d been running the budget numbers again, trying to do accurate projections for what would happen when. We’re trying to sort out what we should do with our house, and when/if we should list it. Normal things to think through in a time of transition. But I…
Content With Little, Content With Much
When we moved overseas in 2006, we sold or gave away virtually everything we owned. Personal items, baby books, and a few items we couldn’t sell and really liked went to my parents’ garage. Everything else? (Imagine me snapping.) Gone, just like that. We moved to a somewhat-grimy, moldy-bathroomed, garishly-embroidered-floral-couched apartment in the middle of nowhere…
Releasing Our Dreams; Finding God’s Adventure
Years ago, when I worked for Governor Huckabee, oh the dreams that I had! Having worked for the States of Arkansas and Texas, ladies, I was determined. I’d work my way up through the political ranks, and one day, be a Senator. And to tell the truth, when I get put out with political goings-on,…
The Sovereignty of God in the Waiting Room of Life
In life, we’ve been in limbo a number of times, and it’s where we currently sit. The waiting rooms of life happen to us all, and often without warning. Waiting for the tests to reveal, “What is this illness ravaging my body?” Waiting for the right employer to offer a position. Waiting for a proposal from…