Sharon JaynesChristmas Inspiration 5 Comments

The Best Gift You Can Give

With Christmas just around the corner. it is easy to get so busy with the cooking, decorating and shopping that we forget why we’re doing all this in the first place. Sometimes, the very people we love get lost in the hustle and bustle of packed schedules, holiday parties, and Christmas musicals. This Christmas, let’s keep our focus on Jesus and celebrate the reason He came.  Read more…

Sharon JaynesExpectant Living, General Inspiration, Living Free, Living Fully, Take Hold of the Faith You Long For, Uncategorized 140 Comments

When You Don’t Want to Go Back to the Way You Were

I just got my braces off…again.

I have had braces on my upper teeth three times. Count them. One. Two. Three.

As the orthodontist explained, “Teeth have a memory. They always want to go back to the way they were.”

As soon as he said those words, I felt convicted. I have a tendency to go back to the way I was.  Read more…

Sharon JaynesUncategorized 74 Comments

The Problem with Itchy Ears

I am sitting at my computer this morning stunned. A little bit numb.

Last night I had dinner with a group of my best friends. The topic of some very successful, very influential, young Christian bloggers/authors came up.

One who has left her husband and entered into a relationship that runs contradictory to God’s Word. Several others  who applauded it.  Read more…

Sharon JaynesUncategorized 23 Comments

Why I’m Not Worried About the Election

I don’t know about you, but my emotions have been all over the board about this upcoming Presidential election. It is so easy to fall into the ravine of worry, anxiety, and outright fear. So let’s just talk about it a minute.

During one of my “less than trusting” days, God reminded me that He is still in control.  Read more…

Sharon JaynesA Sudden Glory, Dealing with Your Past, Dreams of a Woman, General Inspiration, God's love, Take Hold of the Faith You Long For, Uncategorized 9 Comments

When You Don’t Like the Story God is Writing

I often think of my life like a story God is writing…and so is yours. And to be honest, some parts of the story I don’t really like.

If it were up to me, I would have written some of it differently. My second child would not have died, and I would have a daughter who would be 26 years old this year.  Read more…

Sharon JaynesBalanced Living, Living Fully 41 Comments

Make Room to Breathe

It was one of my favorite trees. And it was dying.

We live on a lake, and my dying tree was truly a “tree planted by streams of water.” So how could it be dying? How could branches right in the smack dab middle of the bushy green be turning into kindling? It didn’t make sense.

I called an arborist to come out and take a look.  Read more…

Sharon JaynesUncategorized 43 Comments

Seeing God through the Losses that Puncture Our World

In my last blog I shared about my husband and I experiencing years of secondary infertility. But miraculously, one day I discovered I was pregnant!

Several months into the pregnancy, I sat on the floor playing a card game with my young son, Steven. It was shaping up to be one of the best summers ever. Steven was savoring every minute of the long hot days,  Read more…

Sharon JaynesDealing with Your Past, Living Fully, Take Hold of the Faith You Long For, Uncategorized 74 Comments

When You’re Struggling with Disappointment of the Worst Kind

My son keeps me laughing with funny videos posted on YouTube.com. One was from the movie Hercules.

Rumor has it that the script had the word “disappointed” in parenthesis, noting that the actor was to say the line as if he were disappointed.  Instead, when the actor got to that particular line he yelled out…DISAPPOINTED! Oops!  Read more…