I’m posting over at Proverbs 31 Ministries’ Encouragement for Today. I thought this might be an encouragement for you too. God sees what you’re going through! One day I was sitting on the patio with my new stepfather, Pete, waiting for the grill to heat up before placing steaks on to cook. My mom opened the door and gave Pete …
A friend told me of sitting with his father discussing the distribution of his “worldly goods,” when the time came to do so. “My dad had very little joy in his life,” Mike explained. “As we sat there discussing who was going to get what when he died, I saw a pride in him I had never noticed before. ‘I …
When I turned forty, all of a sudden small letters and numbers got smaller. A trip to the ophthalmologist proved that I needed reading glasses. But I had a hard time keeping up with them, so the doctor fitted me with mono-vision contact lenses. In my left eye I wear a contact lens for close up and in my right …
I love Romans 8:28. Now, let me be honest…sometimes I don’t. When I am going through a dark time of loss or disappointment, and someone throws a sloppy coat of Romans 8:28 on my open wound, I just want to scream. There. I said it. What does God mean by “all things” anyway? I looked it up in my Greek …
Did you know that God is pursuing you…still? I was in college when I first eyed my husband. He was sitting on the floor at a friend’s Bible study gathering with his back against the wall, dressed in scruffy jeans and a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway up his muscular forearms. His thick brown hair and chocolate-brown …
Today’s blog is short and sweet. Oh so sweet. Last weekend I spoke in Palmer, Iowa, surrounded by wheat fields, cornfields, and soybean fields. Combines worked through the night. Lights beaming. Engines roaring. Men working. Bringing in the last of the late harvest. On Saturday, we experienced a harvest of a different kind. Hearts. Souls. Lives. I stayed in a …
Yesterday I wrote a devotion for Proverbs 31 Ministries. In light of all that happened in Texas this past Sunday, I’m thinking maybe you might need this encouragement too. I had to go back and read the words I wrote to remind myself of the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:18. Yep, sometimes we need to preach to ourselves. So we …
I want to see God today. Don’t you? What I’ve discovered is that there is nothing that will shut my eyes to seeing God’s presence and working in my life than ingratitude. Ingratitude leaves us groping about in the dark for what will never satisfy the longings of the soul. The cure comes in capsules of praise, thanksgiving, and a …
One of my favorite devotion books is My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. On October tenth, he wrote, “All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately…Obey God in the thing He shows you, …
It was a bit too early. Little Tripp was snug in his mommy’s womb and not quite ready to meet the world. But the doctors decided it was time for his grand debut. My niece, Emily, developed preeclampsia in her last weeks of pregnancy. The doctors waited as long as they could, but decided it was best if Tripp were …