Encouragement for the Field
Life can get hard Y'all. Sometimes we just need a little push to keep us going till we make it to the end of our week. Wednesday Word of Encouragement is that quick word of encouragement to help us get there.
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How to Start a Brand New Year
As I sat contemplating new goals for 2024, I suddenly became aware of two things. Others around me were blowing past me with all sorts of mind-blowing goals with matching palettes and color schemes to match. Me? I was finding it hard to get started this year. Giving up on my calling wasn’t an option, so I allowed myself to ask some very important questions. How do you get moving when you have no energy left? How do you refuel when you feel totally depleted? Finding the answers to these questions meant spending some time with Hezekiah and God’s people in 2 Chronicles 29. Hezekiah was facing a starting over…
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Learning To Be a Mary in a Martha World
Mary and Martha. Two women who both loved Jesus. Both were very much alike. Both sat at His feet and listened. Both read their Bibles and attended church. Both served others. Yet, Martha was troubled about many things. She was stressed and anxious. She was also discontented and quite grouchy. (Adding my personal description.) Martha became distracted by her to-do lists and trying to make everything perfect. She became distracted by all the concerns she let flood her mind. Martha started worrying about things God didn’t want her to worry about. Then Mary became distracted by what Mary was doing and began to question. Why doesn’t she?…. You fill in…
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When You Are Desperate For a Miracle
Have you ever felt desperate for a miracle? What if it doesn’t come? How could you imagine life being good again? Desperation is a terrible place to be….. Or is it? Desperate is a state of being reckless or dangerous due to hopelessness and despair. Being desperate can make people do desperate things. It can bring a person to that place of not knowing what to do and being willing to look anywhere for answers. A place where you are ready to do anything to get relief. It brings people to their knees. Is desperation for a miracle a terrible place to be? Or a powerful place to be? Perhaps desperate…
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What Strength Looks Like on the Hard Days
“I am not strong enough to do this.” Words that spilled over from my heart that was flooded with tears. Words I expressed with absolute sincerity to God in a moment of weakness. I had lessons to learn about this thing called Strength. The dictionary describes it as having the ability to have or exert great bodily or muscular power, the act of being physically vigorous or robust. We pray for strength. Sometimes, we even beg God for it. It is promised to us as His people in His word. God himself promises to be our strength. Psalms 46:1-3 (ESV) says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present…
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Waiting on God is Never a Bad Idea
Do you ever question God when it seems all you do is wait for Him to move? Do you ever feel like just answering your prayer would be a much better idea than spending so much time waiting out the hard seasons in your life? Recently, my new puppy took advantage of my quick exit before I took the time to put my ink pen out of reach. When I returned, she had chewed a hole in the ink casing and spilled ink on my brand-new throw that was a gift from my daughter. In a heated rush to see if I could salvage the throw, I hastily decided I…
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Faith and Hard Conversations
Do you ever find yourself needing to have an honest conversation? The kind you don’t have to sugarcoat any of the hard stuff. You can throw it out there and know that it will land safely. The kind of conversation that Habakkuk had with God. Because God doesn’t always answer our prayers like we want. Sometimes the tears will still fall. Our hearts will still break. And it will take us a while before we can boldly say that through it all, God always has a plan for our good. He never once loses sight of us or abandons us. He never stops loving His people. Habakkuk knew the pain…
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Finding Joy in the Joyless
Do you often find yourself feeling overwhelmed by all you have on your plate? Do you ever ask God why not just give you one hard thing at a time versus everything hitting at once? Do you ever long to find joy in the joyless? I will be honest that I asked The Lord these questions just this week. I asked them on a morning that started before I had time to completely wake up and dragged me full force into the morning light. It gave a surprising twist to the whole concept of a “deer in the headlights look.” Later I sat in the aftermath of the day; my heart…
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A Job Well Done
As a blogger that is an Enneagram 4 with over-the-top perfection tendencies, I can so strive to neatly divide all my posts into neat categories. File them away so they look all neat and organized. The thing is if you really know me most of the time I am far from neat and far from organized. Most days I am a little scattered here and there and far from anything perfection-related. But today I got a wild hair and am throwing this out there and filing it away under Wednesday Word of Encouragement. All organized for another day’s reading but coming to you hot off the presses on a bright…
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Learning to Travel Well
I have a confession to make. I am terrible at directions. When my husband and I traveled before GPS, he would always drive while I would nervously be in charge of the maps and printed directions. There have been times with a map in my hand we still managed to take wrong turns and go entirely off-road. After many laughs and a few heated arguments, we always ended up at our destinations. But only after we spent way more driving time than needed to reach our desired location. I would love to say I have only been navigational challenged traveling the physical roads of life, but honestly, I have been…
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Where My Heart Finds Rescue
Endurance. A word when I think on it’s meaning can stir up lots of mixed emotions. Dictionary.com https://www.dictionary.com/browse/endurance?s=t describes endurance this way, “It is the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.” My way of describing it most days is a bit more dramatic. I describe it like being on a ship that is being tossed in the crushing waves, the sails are ripped to shreds, the hull has a big hole in it from slamming against a rock and you still make it to shore alive and in one piece. Strike up the band. You endured. A less dramatic way…
