Key verse:  “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”  Philippians 3:13 (NLT) We had a big laugh that day driving back from Walmart. The sun was brightly shining when we had left the store so I had put on my sunglasses. The storm had seemed to come out of nowhere and the sky turned dark within minutes. I kept telling my mom that I couldn’t see anything and that I might have to pull over. Then it finally dawned on me that the reason everything seemed so dark wasn’t just…

Key Verse: “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” I Timothy 4:12 (KJV) Have you ever wondered if God was telling your story to someone else what he would say? Really, think about it for a second. What do you think he would choose to tell someone else about you? I sometimes wonder what He would say about me when I come across a scripture like Job 1:8 that says, “And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth,…

Key Verse: “I will praise you Lord, for you have rescued me.” Psalm 30:2 (NCV) I admit I long for rescue.  I don’t know but this has just felt like an extra long hard week. My heart has hurt and felt a little heavier with everything going on in the world.  And this girl has just longed to be rescued from it all. Anybody?  I have thought about the movie scenes where the knight on the white horse with colors flying rides up to save the princess and save the day.  Those scenes get me every time. I long for that kind of ending to my story. And it may…

Key Verse: “You, Lord, are all I have, and you give me all I need; my future is in your hands.” Psalm 16:5 (GNT) I have never forgotten that Sunday morning when my dad stood up and made his statement of faith. I don’t think I ever will.  I often have wondered how do you get that kind of faith. The kind that you can stand with feet firmly planted with absolute assurance that God is going to do what God said he would do.  No matter what.  Oh, I know we are quick to speak God’s word and write God’s word.  We sing the hymns and we raise our…

Key Verse: “She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all in her household are doubly clothed. She makes her own bed coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple.” Proverbs 31: 21-22 (CSB) My husband’s grandparents were small town farmers. Their income came mostly from selling cows and through a crop of tobacco each year.  According to today’s standards, they would have probably been described as poor.  There was no big fine house in a subdivision and no shiny new cars in the driveway. The clothes they wore were often hand me downs and his grandmother probably never owned one designer bag her entire lifetime.  What…

I did it again. I hung my All About Me sign on my door. It crookedly covered the letters on my ‘Everyone is Welcome’ sign. It wasn’t at all pretty.  I’m not sure how long it had been hanging there, and it took someone else to remind me to take it down.  As I pulled through the drive-thru, I smiled when the young cashier handed me my order and said there was no charge. The person in front of me had generously paid on my behalf. My mind was a whirl as I drove off. I thought how sweet they were for thinking of me.  I thought about how much I…

“Consider the ravens: They don’t sow or reap; they don’t have a storehouse or a barn; yet God feeds them.” Luke 12:24 (CSB) Consider….. I was stressed and worried so at a time like that why would God tell me to consider. Honestly, at a time like this it was hard to make a conscious effort to think “carefully about and believe”. I knew He was asking me to get still and it felt impossible to get still in the middle of all my stress. I admit that I’ve always been a stressor and worrier. People close to me already know this about me.  I spend a lot of time…