Image by Ronny Overhate from Pixabay We live a fast-paced lifestyle. Our culture is driven to succeed, to acquire, to achieve. With the internet, we learned to rely on instant answers to our questions, instant delivery, and instant gratification. It often seemed the world was spinning faster than ever. And now, due ... read more
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Mastering Anxiety During Tough Times
Image by Shift and Sheriff from Pixabay Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. A.S. Roche Mnemonic (ni-mon-ik) is a term I learned when I studied education. It’s a memory technique that helps us recall important and ... read more
Does the Posture of Our Hands Reflect the Posture of Our Heart?
My poor posture in sixth grade probably had something to do with boys. I towered above them, so I slumped in an effort to conceal my height. “Straighten those shoulders up!” was an admonition I heard from my dad often during my adolescent years. By the last two years of high school though, I’d finally outgrown my ... read more
It’s Not Raining Rain To Me; It’s Raining Daffodils
Gibbs Gardens (Ball Ground, GA) My daffodils bloomed early this year, in the middle of a dreary and wet February. Their sunny yellow color seemed misplaced on the gray, misty day when they first appeared. They were, of course, a welcome sight because daffodils mean spring is near. Where flowers bloom, so does ... read more
The Five Finger Prayer
“If time with God is not on your schedule, you’re not on the path of God.” I cringed at the minister’s words, remembering the early years of motherhood. Marriage, parenting, teaching school, and a myriad of other responsibilities made it difficult to find a set block of time to dedicate to God. Other than the ... read more
Weeding Our Spiritual Garden
“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). NIV My boxwood scrubs were neatly trimmed. The ugly weeds that had sprouted from the soil underneath them gone, the crawling ivy threatening to choke them ripped away. A fresh layer of pine straw ... read more
Surprise—The Heart of the Christmas Story
Image by mskathrynne from Pixabay "...She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them." (Luke 2:7) Surprise is divine; it’s the heart of the Christmas story. after all. For what could be more astonishing than our Savior coming to us simply and quietly in ... read more
The Ripple Effect of Words
Last week, I attended the funeral for a woman I hadn’t seen in thirty years. She was the mother of one of my best friends in high school, who I’d also lost touch with. But I still carried both of them in my heart because of the impact they’d had on my faith journey. Not surprisingly, the service revealed the lovely ... read more
Too Busy Not to Pray
“I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” ~Martin Luther I’ve been in one of those hectic seasons of life. Overwhelmed with the busyness of moving and being without stable lodgings for six weeks, I grew weary. My life became a disorganized mess. As I focused on my to-do lists ... read more
Satan and Scammers Have Much in Common
The voice mail on my phone was robotic: You and your Social Security number have been suspected of fraudulent activities, so once you get this message kindly call us back as soon as possible on our number before we begin with the legal proceedings against you. That is XXX-XXX-XXXX. I repeat XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thank you. I ... read more
