• Great Blogs,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  What I'm Reading

    Blog Share for the New Year

    If you are looking for some ways to strengthen your time with the Lord, check out these great posts! 1 Here are some great ideas for starting the year off right with your study of the Word from LifeWay Women, 5 Ways to Reset in 2022. 2 How do you start your morning? Set an example of the power of starting the day in the Word! Leaving a Legacy of Bible Reading, from LifeWay Voices 3 Most of us struggle to memorize scripture, but if I, at 70, can memorize, YOU CAN TOO!  Check out these helpful, practical ways to memorize, also from LifeWay Voices in The Diary of a…

  • Blessings,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  Trial,  What I'm Reading

    He’s Still the Same

    Today a friend shared a song with me that I’d never heard. It is Just As Good. Maybe it is one you are familiar with, but I wasn’t, and I fell in love with it. Please listen and watch this video. I hope this encourages you as it has me. I only need to remember the past faithfulness of God to walk into each day, especially when things are hard. Here is part of the refrain that spoke loudly to me: And I will build an altarAnd stack it stone by stone‘Cause every Ebenezer says I’ve never been alone I looked up the definition of Ebenezer and this is what…

  • Leadership Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  Trial,  What I'm Reading

    Rome or Bust!

    I love Paul. I love his love for Christ. I love his faith in God’s calling and promises. I am challenged by how faithfully he walked out his leadership role for the Gospel. He was a man of integrity who could be confidently followed. Having recently completed the book of Acts in my Foundations: NT260 reading, and in reading many of Paul’s epistles as well, I am encouraged by Paul’s faithfulness. Several passages mention how he “must go to Rome.” He knew it was important to share his conversion story in that city and before leaders who were indifferent to or who opposed Christians walking out the Gospel. And God…

  • General,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  What I'm Reading

    Do I See?

    God is continuing to refine and add to my focus for 2020. One way is through a study by Christine Caine that I just happened to be doing this January. You can read more about my 2020 focus in my first two posts for this year: Focus 2020 and Settle In. It’s both exciting and frightening (in a good way) to see how God is refining and speaking to me in this overall topic of having a heart for Him. In the first day, Christine labels the first week’s study, “When We Feel Hidden in Plain Sight.” She asks if we have ever felt hidden and unseen by others and…

  • Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  Trial,  Unity

    Do You Really Know How to Forgive?

    I’ve written on this topic before and you can read Embrace God’s Forgiveness here, but I believe this true life experience written by one of my daughters, Alycia Neighbours (see bio below), will touch you deeply. Our girls get a love for animals from me, except theirs includes menageries of all kinds of animals, while my husband and I are a one dog at a time kind of pet owner! My grand animals have included not only MANY dogs, and a couple of cats, but also bearded dragons, guinea pigs, hamsters, goats, horses, donkeys, pigs, lizards, a snake, and all kinds of fish! Be blessed by reading Alycia’s post and…

  • General,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  Trial,  What I'm Reading

    Settle In

    I’m not sure how you feel about our country, or our global world, right now. With elections in the future, crime and violence, anger and hatred all over the news and filtering into whatever we watch, read or hear, we could just decide to go live on a tropical island somewhere away from it all! Tempting isn’t it? Definitely for this beach girl. The thing is, God has not put us here to run away. He has placed us here to make a difference. He actually has a plan for us, for our lives and He wants us where He has placed us. I read a post by Noe Garcia…

  • Blessings,  General,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth

    Focus 2020

    This time of year I am always watching for direction from the Lord on a theme or passage of scripture He wants to develop in me for the year ahead. As I was reading and preparing for teaching at an event in 2020, the topic for the weekend grabbed my attention. It’s based on Kay Arthur‘s study, “Lord, Give Me a Heart for You.“ Our key passage for the event is Ezekiel 36:26-27: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause…

  • General,  Generations,  Leadership Lessons,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth

    Impatience in Finding God’s Will

    I love discipling Christian young women. They are so hungry to know Jesus and serve Him with their life. They are desperately seeking His calling, His purpose. They want to obey it and start living it out. But one thing I’m seeing as well is that they want that purpose to be clear and immediate. Their whole world is instant so why would understanding God’s will not also be instant? There is an impatience about their finding His will that sometimes leads to not being content, at peace, with where God has them currently. They may even be thinking, as I was in my younger life, that once we find…

  • Blessings,  General,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth,  Test,  Trial

    Thankful in Hard Times

    I had another post ready to go this week, but decided instead, to share a message I was asked to teach at a women’s event this past Saturday. I realized it was timely for this week of Thanksgiving. I even taught this last minute to my Sunday women’s life group at church the following morning. I’m so grateful I got to share God’s truth alongside my own journey of faith. As I prepared for this message, I had such a sweet time of reflecting on how faithful God has been to me all my life and how much I have to be thankful for. Teachers always learn more than their…

  • Beach Lessons,  General,  Lessons,  Spiritual Growth

    Grab It While You Can

    During our annual month long beach trip this year we had more cold, stormy, and windy days than normal for this time of year. But the last two days were especially beautiful and sunny. The water finally cleared up so we could see sharks and rays in the water from our balcony. And, as I walked on the beach those days, I could see the shells that were in the water. When there were strong winds blowing, the waves were crashing harder, and, of course, the water was much murkier. I’d not had many days of combing the shallow water for shells this trip, so, even though it was chilly,…