Christian Living · encouragement · God's Love · Thankfulness

If Chaos is Controlling Your Family

Two things never cease to amaze me: 1) How quickly life moves from calm to chaos 2) How God consistently provides—especially in the chaos. The last five days of my life have been like something from a comedy show. If I were watching myself on TV, it would be hilarious. It's one of those segments… Continue reading If Chaos is Controlling Your Family

Christian Living · encouragement · The Word of God

The Need for Rest

Yesterday, as I reviewed my retirement accounts with my financial advisor, she commented, "Retirement looks much different now than in years past. People used to retire and live a leisure life; these days, people pick up another job just to stay busy." She is right, of course, although I believe there are more factors than… Continue reading The Need for Rest

Christian Living · Knowing God · The Word of God

The Trouble With Praying for Patience

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." ~ Galatians 5.22, ESV Have you ever prayed for patience? What happened? In my experience, whenever I have asked the Lord to give me patience, He answered by providing opportunities to develop patience. I wanted the actual… Continue reading The Trouble With Praying for Patience

Christian Living · Faithfulness

When You Feel Stuck in Monotonous Duties

God has the power to take what is ordinary and make it truly extraordinary. Give every task---significant or insignificant---to the God who sees in secret.

Christian community

Why we all need accountability partners to keep our faith strong

Near the beginning of 2018, a friend invited me to a small Facebook group comprised of people seeking to eat healthier and be more physically fit. For the month of March, the administrator posted a challenge for us to meet a daily step count or mileage goal. Prior to this challenge, I had been hitting… Continue reading Why we all need accountability partners to keep our faith strong

Forgiveness

Why You Can’t Keep Delaying Forgiveness

Last spring, we decided to remove the bushes and rocks from our front planter bed and add a better variety of plants. Once the bed was clear of roots and rocks, we laid a strong weed barrier over every inch of dirt. We laid out our plants, cut small holes in the weed barrier, and… Continue reading Why You Can’t Keep Delaying Forgiveness

Christian Living · God's Love

Are you chasing death or seeking life?

After two years of living in ag-lovin' West Texas, I finally had my first brush with a rodeo. My son tried out for an event called "Mutton Bustin.'" If you've never heard of this little rite of passage, I'll sum it up for you: young kids get plopped on the back of a sheep and… Continue reading Are you chasing death or seeking life?

Marriage and Family

Social Media Ground Rules For Your Children

We take so much care with driver’s training, yet so little care with technology training. Our electronic devices provide children access to one of the most powerful and dangerous tools of our age—the internet. Occasionally, we are lulled into a false belief that parental controls will prevent our children from being “one of those kids”—those who post inappropriate pictures, suffer from bullying, or get lured away by predators.

Study · The Word of God

How to Get Started (or Re-started) With Personal Bible Study

Recently, I was having a nice chat with a friend of mine when she admitted to struggling with regular Bible study. She read her Bible daily but said she rarely sat down to dig deeper. She asked me, "How do you study and stick with it?" What an excellent question! Studying the scripture on our… Continue reading How to Get Started (or Re-started) With Personal Bible Study

Christian Living · Knowing God

How God Feels About Our Excuses

Several years ago B.K. (before kids) my spouse and I hosted a "Singing in the New Year" party. We invited  people to enjoy food, games, and offering praise to God as the new year ushered in. Out of the forty people we invited, only half showed up. We had a fantastic time and the twenty that showed up suggested we do it again the following year. The other half that didn't come said the invitation had not been sent early enough and they already had plans. It seemed a plausible excuse, so the following year, we sent out the invites immediately after Thanksgiving, requested RSVPs, and sent out a reminder about a week before the party. We still had a great turn out, but the people who didn't come the first time still didn't RSVP until a few days before, saying, "oh, I already had plans." If they already had plans, why didn't they send their regrets when the invitation was sent a month before?  Oh, the sting of weak excuses...