I wrote this devotion a while back, but I needed a reminder of what I learned that day. This New Year, wonder if you do too.
I set out to tackle a task I had put off for many years. I didn’t really want to do it at all. It was the job of cleaning out my ministry storage closet. Read more…
Family can get really messy over the holidays. My family growing up was one big mess on every-days. Fighting. Arguing. Yelling. Crying. And eventually, a lot of forgiving.
If ever there is a place to learn about forgiveness…to practice forgiveness…to struggle with forgiveness…it is in the context of family. And interestingly, it is in the context of family where the word forgiveness first shows up in the Bible. Read more…
Have you ever felt stuck in your faith? Like you can’t seem to grow any deeper? Stand any stronger? Believe any better? I know I have.
Sometimes I feel like a trapeze artist who’s stuck hanging over the vast expanse in a circus tent, wondering why I can’t fly through the spiritual life with the greatest of ease like so many others seem to. Read more…
I was really upset with her. I don’t need to tell you the details because I want you to fill in the blanks yourself.
I was really mad at _______ for ________. I’m not worried about you not having anything to put in those blanks because you’re human. We’ve all been really irked at someone for hurting our feelings, Read more…
[Before we begin today’s devotion, I want to say how overjoyed I am that nearly 200 women clicked on comment last week and took my challenge to forgive someone who had hurt them! Forgiveness begins with a decision, but the feelings of forgiveness can take a while to catch up. When negative feelings about that person rise to the surface, and they probably will, …
I’ve got something really special to give away at the end of this devotion! But for now, here’s today’s encouragement!
I walked to the mailbox and then to the recycler. Don’t need this one, or this one, or this one I whispered as I dropped the shiny flyers in the red box.
I don’t know about you, Read more…
Let me tell you about a girl named Margaret. For almost forty years, she lived with word-inflicted wounds that nearly destroyed her life. From the first day she attended her one room schoolhouse, she and her teacher, Ms. Garner, didn’t get along. Ms. Garner was harsh, bitter, and cruel, and could not tolerate Margaret’s childish idiosyncrasies.
Margaret was nine years old when she frantically raced into class, Read more…
The fog was thick. I was late. My husband was tense.
It was a Friday morning, and my husband, Steve, was driving me to the airport for a speaking engagement in Kentucky. We were one of a parade of cars inching our way down the highway, feeling our way through the curtain of grey. With squinted eyes, white knuckles, Read more…
Carley and Dan are a couple who have gone the extra mile…not to go the extra mile. They constantly keep score as to who put a new bar of soap in the shower last or who replaced the toilet paper roll last or who opened a new tube of toothpaste last.
“It’s sort of a contest to see who can use the smallest sliver of soap or use the last drop of toothpaste,” Carley boasted. Read more…
I set out to tackle a task I had put off for many years. I didn’t really want to do it at all. It was the job of cleaning out my ministry storage closet. A closet filled with boxes of memories collected over twenty years.