Today I’m participating in Five Minute Friday, a writing community that freewrites for five minutes on a prompt. No editing. I’m going to try my darndest to actually do just that. Today’s prompt: Excuse. Look Up Sometimes’ new tagline is: nurturing Son-followers to embrace grace. I’ve been studying in Romans and realizing that grace is not an optional warm fuzzy…
It was our housewarming gift my parents drove 2,000 miles to hand deliver: a painting of the sea at sunset by Seward Whitfield. Over seven square feet of stunning. I soaked it in with delight. A shadowbox with real oyster shells and a glass marble pearl – two actually. The artist had forgotten he’d already tucked one inside. The three…
Not many words to share with you, friend. Just really needing this verse and thinking that I might not be the only one. Sometimes we know why we feel unsettled, and sometimes we don’t. But the war that wages in the unseen surely takes advantage of our weak moments. This is rather off topic, but then again, it’s not: we…
This story still moves me. I discovered the thoughts in an old journal, but I pray God uses it to breathe fresh hope. I’m getting just barely enough to survive. Drops of grace. Just when I think I can’t hardly take it, along comes one encouragement. But it’s just ONE. But at least it’s one. I’m trying to be ok…
Dear Friend, Wherever you are today, whatever you’re doing, may the nearness of God’s presence and His immense love for you soak deep. If you’re on the brink of giving up on something (or someone), may He bring comfort and clarity and infuse you with the strength to persist past your own limitations. Join me today on the Breathe Conference…
My mom recently reminded me of our spontaneous, haphazard planting spree fifteen years ago. To this day, it’s a source of delight on so many levels. I’d spent the damp spring week at my parent’s home, a showcase of Pacific Northwest beauty. Always one to improve status quo, Mom held up tiny bags of flower bulbs and grinned. “What do…
There are plenty of things I’m not. It does me a world of good to remember what I am. Who I am. Whose I am. It’s been a week of remembering, forgetting, and remembering again. I wish I knew who to thank for the compiled scriptures. I’ve had this awhile and recently stumbled across it. I streamlined the list to fit…
I woke up with a sense of dread carried over from the previous day. It hung over me like Eeyore’s rain cloud. As I lay in bed, not wanting to get up, all I could think was I’m stuck. Stuck in fear. Staying in bed was a dead end. I had to have enough faith to walk out the bedroom door and live this day. Wasn’t that the lesson God taught me…
I realized WE are the light of the world – God’s children. And I thought about matches. They don’t light until struck. And I wondered if the struggles that have struck us are God’s tool to shine more brightly through us. If our God is a consuming fire, and He is in us, we have nothing to fear: He will…
When I turned thirteen, my world expanded. I was finally old enough to babysit. Oddly, jobs were scarce. There were so many kids my age in our neighborhood, these coveted income-producing opportunities were rare. Thankfully, my next-door neighbor chose me. I frequently babysat for this family. Their three children weren’t much younger than me. I often played with them even when not babysitting. One of the differences…
