Blog
From and about women who love Jesus and want to share His message through Scripture, everyday inspirations, and relatable stories.
Another semester of Bible study at my church had come to a close. My thoughts turned immediately to how I would meet God now. How could I hear from Him if I didn’t have a fill-in-the-blank workbook to guide me or a teacher on a video to tell me all the rich insights I needed? Would I be able to understand God for myself through His Word in Scripture?
The afternoon sunshine streamed through the family room window while my daughters—then just two and four years old—were playing independently, sitting amidst the many small toys strewn on the carpet all around them. They were each enraptured in their own play, virtually silent; I lounged alongside them, reading quietly.
A line from one of my favorite hymns, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” has been running through my mind lately: “Morning by morning new mercies I see/All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. . .” I affirm to myself that God provides all that I need, with new mercies every morning.
My only child is about to graduate from high school.These final months have flown by in a flurry of last this-or-that celebrations, college applications, campus visits, and the standard end-of-an-era fanfare.
Why do you work at the job you have, care for the people you care for, lead that team, volunteer, train, learn, keep showing up?
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much is taken from survivors of sexual abuse and how much is out of our control. Although it feels as if the abuse robs us of everything, there are some things that abusers cannot steal and that remain in our control.
Embrace the finite. Writing the words in my journal, I was unsettled somewhat as I read them again. I love permanence. It’s not only the idea of having started, persevered, and completed something, but permanence is the assurance that something will remain consistent and unchanging.
“Oh, I just love fall!” I said with a happy sigh, staring out the window at the falling leaves. In a high-pitched voice, one of my kids said, “I love fall!” and another one followed suit, “And winter, when the snow falls, I love winter!” and the third chimed in, right on cue, “And isn’t spring just wonderful?”
I have always suffered from severe anxiety. As a child, I would lose sleep over what others would think were insignificant details from the day. A questionable comment by an acquaintance or a difficult assignment in the days to come never failed to rob me of a good night’s rest.