Do you ever feel like a failure? Or get upset because you don't live up to your own expectations of what you should be able to accomplish? Last week, we had VBS at our church. There was a girl who needed to talk about something, and my tongue tied itself up terribly. I just couldn't get started with the conversation! Now, it might have had something to do with the fact that I'd just been pulled from doing crafts with the younger kids, and she was an older kid who had just come from lesson time. Plus, she's a kid who doesn't say much. I had no idea what she'd heard during the lesson, she had no idea how to explain what she wanted, and I just stumbled around trying to get the conversation [...Read More]
The Secret of Endurance
September 15, 2015 By
Once upon a time, there was a young boy named Joseph who was his father's favorite. He came from a large family -- eleven brothers (ten older, one younger) and one sister -- but he was the beloved one. He had all the richest comforts his father could provide, the best robes and the easiest work. He had been chosen above all the other sons to be his father's successor. He innocently (or perhaps naively) shared this knowledge with his siblings -- which, of course, made them jealous. After all, he was only a teenager. He hadn't done anything yet to prove his worth. But eventually they got so jealous, they sold him to some foreigners who happened to pass through the area. Suddenly he went [...Read More]
Trust God With the Hard Questions
May 7, 2015 By
If you've ever studied the life of Abraham, you could probably identify his passion fairly easily. His long, uncertain journey of faith; his willing obedience to God's extraordinary commands; his unwavering confidence in God's direction and provision... everything that is recorded for us about him points to the passion that characterized his life: knowing God intimately. He lived out that passion as his highest priority. Even thousands of years and hundreds of cultures later, it is easy to see that everything he did was for the purpose of knowing God fully and obeying Him completely. One part of his life that speaks powerfully to this passion is his patience in waiting for a [...Read More]
So Easy to Worry
September 5, 2013 By
Sometimes, it's so easy to worry... And if you have a chronic illness, or some other prolonged trial, it's even easier. So many possibilities of things going wrong, so many situations to be prepared for. For instance, when... your spouse is a few minutes late getting home, the emergency sirens start going off for a test, you wake up with a sore throat, you have some unexplained muscle pain, your parents don't answer the phone, your best friend hasn't replied to this morning's text messages, your boss wants a conference with you (etc, etc, etc). Sometimes we even want to stew over a problem for a while. We don't want to hear the hard, but true, admonitions to be surrendered to God's [...Read More]
Is God Asking You To Wait?
March 6, 2013 By
I'm so grateful to be sharing my space with Barefoot Hippie Girl today! She graciously offered to contribute during this crazy-busy time for me. And I love what she offers here: wise advice from God's Word about waiting on God. It also happens to corresponds with the post on her own blog today {here}. So read away -- and please be sure to leave some comment-love for her! Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. (Psalm 37:7) But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. (Psalm 37:9) Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14) Who likes to wait? Not I, said the fly. I think our [...Read More]
Do Not Worry About Tomorrow
November 15, 2012 By
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life... Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to his life? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little [...Read More]
Election Day 2012
November 6, 2012 By
Choose not to be anxious today. About anything. But bring every aspect of the day -- and of the elections -- before God in prayer. Do not worry, but pray with thanksgiving in your heart, because that is God's will for you. Pray continually with earnest pleading and thanksgiving, according to the Holy Spirit's leading. And trust God to answer in His perfect way. Do not place your hopes in a man, some human who is destined to fail. After all, the day he dies -- or leaves office -- his plans are done. He is finished. So do not trust in man, but trust in the great unchanging I Am, whose purposes and ways are beyond human comprehension. Trust in the One who has all authority in heaven [...Read More]
