Forgiveness is a Choice of the Heart

“Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” Col. 3:13 TLB Forgive? How do you forgive the one who… * sabotaged your husband’s business. * introduced your child to drugs or alcohol. * stole your identity, leaving you with a financial mess. * abused you sexually as a child or did so to your child. * lured your teenager from the internet into running away. * kidnapped your child and sold him/her for sex trafficking. * drove down the wrong side of the expressway at night in a drunken …

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Why God Is Sometimes Silent & How You Can Hear His Voice – Part 3

For those of you who are just joining this series on the seasons of God’s silence, I want you to know I treasure your emails and comments. Your emails remind me there’s a reason this is one of the topics I speak on often. It’s because we’ve all been baffled by those seasons of silence when our prayers seem to hit the ceiling and God feels so far away. But God never allows us to experience His silence by mistake. In Part 1, we discovered that sometimes God seems silent because our lives are just so loud. We allow ourselves to become so busy …

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Why God Is Sometimes Silent & How You Can Hear His Voice – Part 2

Yesterday, I mentioned that WHEN GOD IS SILENT is a topic I’m frequently asked to speak on because it is where we all live. But it also seems to be one of the top five posts I’ve ever written in terms of hits.  Such a loud and clear message about where so many women are… wondering where God is… wondering if He cares. Have you been wondering where God is – wondering if He cares? This series of posts gives you some answers! Click To Tweet My heart hurts with each one who feels far from God or is in a desperate …

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Why Is God Sometimes Silent & How Can We Hear His Voice?

Hey sweet moms! I was thinking of you today and wondering how many of you are struggling to hear from God in some are of your life.  “WHEN GOD IS SILENT” is one of the messages I’m frequently asked to speak on because it’s an evergreen topic we have all had to walk through at some time or another. Maybe you’re there now. We’ve all been there.  The place where we are desperate to hear from God or to see Him move in our circumstances, but it seems as though our prayers hit the ceiling and our hearts feel far from …

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Tools for Seeking God

Psalm 5:3 “In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” Motherhood is not for the faint of heart! When young and inexperienced it is natural to have glorious dreams and plans of holding a precious baby to your breast, breathing in the sweet smell of soft skin, and teaching and raising your little cherub to be a good citizen and follower of God. It isn’t until you are in the midst of the experience that feelings of inadequacy start to slip into your dreams. So …

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Hope for the Hard Days

I spotted it the moment I stepped out of the bathroom-a smudgy blue footprint in the middle of the walkway. Instantly, my stomach twisted at the sight. Because every mom knows where there is one footprint, there is more. I’d been alone behind that bathroom door for less than five minutes- just enough time to speed-wash my hair and slap on deodorant. But after a decade of motherhood, I knew that a few moments was ample time for a three-year-old to ignite a disaster. I wrapped a towel around my dripping hair and followed the path of blue blotches out …

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Mama, Don’t Rush Your Babies Growing Up

Do you remember the old song by Willie Nelson called “Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys?” In it the song says over and over why they shouldn’t let their babies grow up to be a cowboy. It gives lots of reasons why the cowboy life isn’t a good one and tells mamas to let them be “doctors and lawyers and such”. What I’ve always wanted to scream is mama, don’t let your babies grow up…and then reality hit me, and I realized that no matter what you do they are gonna grow up. So, instead of …

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When fear ruins all your fun

When Fear Ruins All Your Fun

“I don’t want to go on that. It’s too high.” My five-year-old daughter tipped her chin toward the sky and squinted at the super potato sack slide. We were on a special family outing to the local amusement park—a surprise trip, which my husband and I anticipated our kids would love, love, love. We were wrong. “How about the race cars, then?” I suggested. “Do you want to ride those?” “No.” “The floaty boats?” “No.” “The ladybug buggies?” My daughter shook her head and stared at her shoes. I heaved a sigh and raised my eyebrows at my husband. “Come …

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Don’t Forget to Include Jesus in the Recipe

After our mandatory quiet time was over, I shuffled around the kitchen in a daze adding ingredients to our bread maker for french bread. Flour, a bit of sugar, warm water, one farm fresh egg, a pinch of salt and a little oil; no sooner than I hit the start button I knew I had forgotten the most important ingredient. You know the one that makes the magic happen, the key ingredient that makes the dough rise and acts as a catalyst binding every ingredient together–creating soft, fluffy, warm dough and when it’s baked, it gives away to golden, crisp …

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Living With Blinders

Like a horse with blinders on, I put one foot in front of the other, doing the next thing, completely forgetting that there are things going on in the periphery. I tend to live my life this way. It’s my default. If I am not intentional about noticing things around me, I will continue “getting things done” and miss what is past the blinders.      The problem is: the important things are in the periphery.    Directly in front of me is the giant pile of laundry, last night’s dishes that still smell like salmon, beds that haven’t been …

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