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Getting Through the Muck
After a month at the beach, you can expect Beach Lessons in my posts! Here’s the first. This year we had a some seaweed just beyond the shore. If it’s out a ways, I don’t mind walking in the shallow water. But walking on and through wet, grassy gunk is not something I enjoy. But, what’s just beyond the seaweed? From the 18th floor balcony of our rental, I get a great look at the clear water beyond the dark mucky stuff. There is a sand bar out beyond as well. It’s shallow enough to stand on and draws many, including me at times, especially when it is clear and…
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A Short Fuse
Being Scotch-Irish through my dad’s side of the family, I grew up seeing a short fuse in action. And I inherited that short fuse! For a long time I just blamed it on my family background. But eventually, the Lord convicted me of my impatience and quick response of anger. I’m still learning about patience, but over the years I have seen God’s work in helping to lessen my quick, hot anger. One day I came across this quote from an unknown author: The wind of anger blows out the lamp of intelligence. Quite convicting. Proverbs 29:11 says… A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man holds it…
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A God Assignment: Eyes on Others
Where are you right now? What neighborhood do you live in? Where do you work? Who do you Iive with and are responsible for? Where do you shop? And what’s on your heart? What have you learned? Who do you often pass by and hardly notice? Questions worth considering from time to time. Chris Tiegreen said: God has not placed us where we are simply for the output we can produce, whether at a factory, at a desk, at school, or at home with children. He has put us there because that is a context in which He wants to display Himself. Really? At my nail salon? In my workplace? Within…
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Be Alert to Satan’s Tactics
My pastor is preaching through Revelation this year and as we got to chapter 12, we studied John’s vision of spiritual warfare in the heavens and the earth. Another quote from my favorites list (see past posts) is by one of my former presidents at LifeWay, Thom Rainer, who said, Satan has a simple agenda…to keep people lost. But another tactic of his is to keep saved people ineffective as disciples. Pastor Robby Gallaty recommended a book by C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, and since I hadn’t read it, I ordered a copy. It truly exposes how subtle the devil is and how naive we can be about how…
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Something Better
Unanswered prayer. A loss you can’t wrap your head around. A betrayal from someone you thought loved you. A life threatening health diagnosis. How do you handle this type of experience? My answer would have to be: different ways at different times and in different life phases. Even when I struggle to hold on to hope, my goal is to find a way to trust what I know is true about the Lord’s love and faithfulness. George Muller once said, Our heavenly Father never takes anything away from His children unless He means to give them something better. Priscilla Shirer prays it this way: God give me what I ask…
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Texas Legacy Tour Part 3: Life’s Influencers
Do you have a mentor, someone who influenced your life spiritually, that you cannot imagine not having in your life? This is part 3 of our Texas Legacy Tour, so read the previous posts to catch up! One sweet part of the trip was the opportunity to see some amazing people we’d known, served alongside, raised kids with, and matured spiritually with from the time we married until we left Texas for Tennessee. Mentally I began making a list of women who touched my life. Some are with the Lord, others still living. Going all the way back to my first years of marriage, I remembered a woman who showed…
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Texas Legacy Tour Part 2: Tearing It Down
As I begin part two of this Texas Legacy Tour Series, I can’t help but reflect back on the biggest shock I had.(Please read to Part 1 if you haven’t read.) I grew up in Houston and lived in a home from 6th grade until I married at 19. Eleven years ago, I was in Houston for a convention and drove out to the location. Thinking it might be less than I remembered, or run down, I was pleasantly surprised that it looked as good, maybe even better than when I lived in it! They even got grass to grow in a shady spot my dad never been able to…
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Texas Legacy Tour Part 1: The Trip Begins
Perhaps it’s my age, although I’m not old! It’s a state of mind more than chronological years! But I think back over my life a lot these days. One of the items on my retirement bucket list got checked off last week. I wanted to make a trip back to Texas where we had a lot of history. My husband was born and raised in Texas and I grew up there. We met, fell in love and married in Texas. Our parents were born and are buried there. It’s also where we spent the first 25 years of our married life, became parents and raised our daughters. It’s also where…
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Who Said It Would Be Easy?
When my husband and I surrendered to ministry, our lives became harder than ever before. Everything started breaking, including cars, furniture and appliances—big stuff on a very limited budget. We began to question whether or not God really called us to full time ministry. Shouldn’t it be easy to follow Jesus, especially since we were committing our family and vocations to His work? We only have to read the book of Job to answer “no” to the title question. In reading Disappointment With God by Philip Yancey I was stunned as he reminded us God never told Job what was happening behind the scenes. Job never knew about the bet…
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Running My Race
If life is a race, how are you doing? If you are alive, you are still somewhere on the racetrack heading toward the finish line. What lane are you running in? Sometimes I do not like my lane. I really would like to run in her lane. I like her lane better. Why can’t I just run her race? Have you ever felt that way too? God planned our lives, unique to us, designed exactly for who He created us to be, before we were even born. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of…
