Helping Women Find Their Identity in Christ
I have a confession to make. I don’t love surprises. Of course, I love a surprise gift or a surprise text from a friend, but I don’t love surprises that bring unpleasantness into my life: the unexpected medical bill, the conflict with a friend I didn’t see coming, the problem with a child that pops […]
Several years ago, I read a story about a woman with brain cancer that decided to get help from a death-with-dignity program that allows terminal patients to end their lives on their own timeline. Rather than go through the inevitable suffering that would come from dying of her brain cancer, she took a pill that ended […]
When I was little, my mom used to tell me that God knew me better than I knew myself. I protested, “No, He doesn’t. No one knows me better than I know myself!” My mom gently tried to persuade me otherwise, but I couldn’t understand how this could be true. Now, as an adult, I […]
“Oh no!” I groaned when I heard the clanking sound. I rushed upstairs and looked in the laundry room to find the error light blinking on the dryer and the lint screen lying close by on the ground. I had forgotten to put in the lint screen, and my dryer was making strange sounds. Appliances […]
Some people in the Bible inspire me but also intimidate me a little. I think about Paul throwing a serpent in the fire, Daniel praying with the windows open in a pagan kingdom, and Esther seeking a meeting with a king to save her people — and I feel small in comparison. However, Peter is a person I can relate to. He often said the wrong thing or […]
My kids own a Charlie Brown Christmas board game that has a winding path from the start to the finish line. Although there are many different actions that a player may have to do (depending on what square he lands on in his journey), a player can land on North Pole slides that shoot him […]
When we bought our first home, we found a house we loved and put in an offer. Naïve to real estate protocol, we started with a low offer. Apparently, too low. To our surprise, the seller did not accept our offer or even counter with a different offer. He ignored our offer altogether! In the […]
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” — Matthew 2:9-10 Last week, I posted an article on the wise men […]
My 3-year-old leaps into my arms and holds tight when afraid. Though she has moments of independence, she knows where to flee when feeling insecure. I smile when I think of the ferocity with which she clings to me. I struggle to peel her off of me when she latches on — even though she […]
My daughter came home in an excited fluster the other day, relaying to me that her teacher introduced a new VIP section in her classroom where students doing their work and displaying good behavior will be selected to sit in the VIP section for a week. This special promotion comes with rewards such as honor in […]
Depression steals into our lives wrapping us in a blanket of gray. What can we do in those times? In Part 1 of the podcast segment, we discuss how thanksgiving and prayer can help lift us out of depression. In Part 2, we wrap up with three more strategies including knowing it’s a season, keeping […]
When I first moved to Georgia at the tender age of 21, a newly married bride with not a clue about how to be a wife or an adult for that matter, I slipped into a profound depression that lasted for three years. I really didn’t realize it at the time, but I had walked into […]
“Call her back.” I felt God’s nudge when I hung up the phone with the call center representative. After making an appointment, I had felt led to ask her if she needed prayer for anything. She gladly consented and shared her needs. I prayed with her on the phone and then hung up. I then […]
“Two paths diverged in the wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” I’ve always liked this line from Robert Frost’s poem, and I like these words even better as I’ve grown older and experienced the truth that these words represent. We will often have two […]
A few years ago, I had a medical issue and went to the urgent care. In response to the pain I was experiencing, a compassionate nurse acted very concerned by my symptoms and administered several pain medications before the doctor even assessed what was wrong with me. The doctor, on the other hand, appeared a […]
“Addiction to approval.” A jolt went through me as I stared at the phrase on the page of the Joyce Meyer devotional in front of me. I had never heard of that term and even questioned that God was truly speaking to me. I prayed for confirmation and understanding, and shortly after, I opened the […]
“This world is shaking, but we will not be shaken / My heart is breaking / but it’s not broken yet,” a popular worship song says. All of us can attest to living in a world that is shaking us and may even be breaking our heart. Even if we’ve been fortunate not to have […]
“Use it or lose it” is a principle we can observe in our everyday life. An athlete continually practices to maintain a certain level of performance and grow better in his sport. A musician devotes time to practicing his instrument and learning the music in order to walk on stage and play a concert. Speaking […]
“Ma,am, they won’t let you in with a purse that size,” the security officer said to me. My husband and I had just parked our vehicle and left the parking lot to walk to a stadium for a NFL pre-season football game when an officer stopped me to warn me about the size of my […]
“Why are so many Christians finding it difficult to hold fast to their faith?” I looked up from the remote I was holding, my jaw agape. In the wake of a thunderstorm, our cable had gone out. When I tried to turn on “Paw Patrol” for my 3-year-old, I saw instead a blue screen. When […]