If you look at my hands closely you’ll see scratches, puppy nips, a few age spots, and a few scars. Those are visible reminders of past events. What you won’t see are the scars on my heart from loss, lies, accusations, betrayal, and rejection. Those are the emotional scars I tend to keep to myself. Why?…
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Philippians 4:4 So, how’s that going for you? Do you find your joy in Jesus? If Jesus was all you had would you still be joyful? Did you know Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians from a Roman prison? Is it possible…
I can’t! How often do you wake up thinking those two words? The day ahead has an unwanted appointment, a problem to solve, a relationship conflict to address, or an unpleasant task to perform and the first thought in your head is the groan of a simple … “I can’t.” I know it’s often more…
On a scale of 1-10, how good are you at living in the moment? How often do you replay or fret about the past? How much time do you spend worrying about the future? There’s a phrase that Rev and I repeated often… “I don’t want to lose today because I’m clinging to yesterday or…
What does it take for you to live your self-worth? Every advertisement wants us to believe we’re not enough. You and I can’t look at our phones, open our laptops, or walk into any store without being bombarded with ads that tell us we need to purchase their products because without them we’re not ……
I don’t know about you, but it’s hard for me to imagine a time when I would need to be bold that I could also experience peace. I think of being bold, strong, and courageous in times of crisis and the words peace and crisis do not typically go together in my world. Peace is…
Are you tired? Do you feel like giving up? I’m here to tell you … don’t! Don’t give up! It’s easy for us to look around and wonder what in the world is going on. Inflation. Wars and rumors of war. Crime. Relationship failures. Illness. Debt. Loss. Failure. Weakness. Sin. And on and on and…
If I asked you to think of someone who has integrity, would it take a minute or two … or would a face and name come to mind immediately? Wikipedia defines integrity as… The quality of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. And study.com says… Someone who…
I’ve had several seasons of life when I worried and whined about what was lacking in my life … times when I believed that if God didn’t give me my heart’s desire, I would never be happy again. The Lord was so patient with me. Personally, I would have grown tired of watching and listening…
I don’t know about you, but I can be my own worst enemy. Why is it so much easier to think about wh0 I’m not rather than remembering God’s unchanging truth about who I am? You’d think that after years of living with this bad habit, I’d learn to consistently take my negative thoughts captive…
I can’t tell you how many times in the past few months I’ve cried out to the Lord praying, “I can’t do this. I need You.” Life is hard sometimes, isn’t it? I hate the storms of life! I want clear skies and still water but like the disciples in the boat when the storm…
What is grace and what does it mean to embrace grace? Max Lucado wrote… God answers the mess of life with one word, “Grace.” I’ve often heard it said that grace is God’s “undeserved favor.” I typically share the following definitions for grace and mercy… And one more says… For Christians, grace is the free…
The need to forgive and be forgiven is a human condition that affects everyone. And forgiveness is hard. It’s hard to admit we need to be forgiven and at times even harder to let go of our pain and anger so we can forgive others. We just celebrated all that Jesus gave to make our forgiveness…
We love celebrating Jesus’ resurrection but there’s a part of us that wants to look away when it comes to the Lord’s suffering and death. We don’t want to see ourselves running away in fear with the disciples. We don’t want to see ourselves standing in the crowd shouting, “Crucify Him.” We don’t want to…
On Good Friday followers of Jesus focus their hearts and minds on Jesus’ suffering and death on a cross. In 1991, Pope John Paul II revised the 14 Stations of the Cross to align withevents as they were recorded in Scripture. So let’s pause today and… Walk the steps of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, through…
What do you do when life is painful? If you’re like me, you’re tempted to pull the covers over your head and hide. Wouldn’t we all prefer a life of comfort, peace, and contentment? The world wants us to believe peace and contentment are found in financial security, a successful career, and perfect relationships. The…
When life is hard and it feels like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling the enemy of our souls plants his favorite seed of doubt… “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1) And behind those words are the subtle doubt enticing questions… Jeremiah wrote these words after the Babylonians attacked, tortured, killed, and captured God’s…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried out … “Lord, I can’t do this. It’s too hard.” I can imagine that you’ve had times when you were grieving and prayed similar words through tears as well. I’m learning to walk through this season of grief and so thankful that the Lord is with…
What’s your purpose? It took me a long time to understand that I have just one primary purpose. Especially when I consider the definition of the word purpose… The reason something was made or created. The reason it exists. I used to believe that my purpose was to be a wife, a mom, a teacher, and…
You’ve heard the saying, “Pride comes before the fall.” And that’s what I thought it was … a saying our mothers told us to try to keep us humble. But as Rev would say, “That’s downright Biblical.” Solomon wrote… Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 What exactly is pride? What…
What does it mean to have faith? Do you define your faith by the church you attend? Is it based on your feelings or outlook on life? Does it change based on the latest popular opinion or philosophy? What do you do when you want to grow in faith? A verse in Hebrews defines faith…
