When I was six years old, I skipped off to school with a new box of crayons, a Swiss-polka-dotted dress, and fresh hope that I would be smart. But first grade only confirmed my greatest fear. I was “not enough.”
As soon as my first-grade teacher held up that initial spelling flashcard, I knew I was in trouble. Read more…
I went to bed, pulled the covers over my head, and had a big ole pity party. Once again, I had been rejected…come in second place…told I wasn’t quite what “they” were looking for. The scarlet letter loomed large. It wasn’t an A like Hester Prynne’s in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book I had read in high school, but a big fat R that I chose to wear when life turned ugly. Read more…
If there’s one thing I know it’s this: The measuring stick will get you stuck! Comparison is the devil’s tool that has stopped many of us gals from stepping into our God-given destinies…and it’s time to stop!
Comparison has been a problem since the beginning of time. Cain compared himself to Abel, and we know how that story turned out. Read more…
For forty years, every weekday morning, my husband’s alarm clock went off at 5:30. He got up, showered, shaved, brushed his teeth, got dressed, and placed his jingling keys in his pocket. He cleared his throat, blew his nose, and, well, did other noisy things. When he opened and closed the door leading to the garage, the alarm in the bedroom beeped three times…loudly. Read more…
My mom wore a two-carat diamond necklace that hung from a gold chain around her neck. My dad had given it to her for an anniversary. Before you say, “Good for her,” keep reading.
One day, when she was shopping in my little hometown, she walked through an alley separating two buildings. This spunky seventy-something year old held several packages and her purse looped over her wrist. Read more…
As a little girl, I never felt I was worth very much. I always felt that I wasn’t pretty enough, smart enough, or good enough. I sensed my parents tolerated me, but certainly didn’t delight in me. And if your own parents couldn’t love you, then who could?
Then there was the definitive day in the eleventh grade that took my self-worth to an all-time low. Read more…
Once, a young girl named Martha Taft was asked to introduce herself to her elementary school classmates. She stood up with self-assurance and said, “My name is Martha Bowers Taft. My great-grandfather was president of the United States. My grandfather was a United States senator. My daddy is the ambassador to Ireland. And I am a Brownie.”
I love her confidence! Read more…
He did it again. The devil whispered a lie into my head, and I believed it. Of course, I didn’t know it was him. I thought it was just me. But it wasn’t.
Did you know the devil wants to sneak up on you? He prowls around like a lion just looking for the right opportunity.
If Satan came to you in a little red suit with a pitchfork and announced himself as the devil, Read more…
For years we were joined at the hip. Not a day went by when we didn’t talk on the phone at least once.
But sometimes friendships come unhinged. People change. Perspectives change. Purposes change. Passions change. While nothing went terribly wrong, and no hurtful words were exchanged, the void was vast beyond bridging. I felt tossed away. Discarded. Read more…
Sometimes I feel like such a mess, I wonder what God even wants with me. And then He reminds me that ALL His children are a mess in one way or another.
A common theme throughout Scripture is overcoming failure.