Posted on

Can God really use you if you are struggling?

There is something new in my life.  In addition to seminary.  In addition to traveling and speaking.  In addition to the five pounds I’ve gained in 2019.  I’ve applied to become a member of the Apostolic Network of Global Awakening.  You know what?  I didn’t know this, but officially, I am an “itinerant minster.” (I can never spell that word)  What that means is that I travel and speak.  As such, I’ve applied to join a network of other “itinerant ministers,”  missionaries, and churches so that I can be trained, supported, and be connected to others doing what I am doing.

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

The hidden art of slowing down and finding rest

I know how to do many things. I know how to grow a beautiful cottage garden. I know how to use the quadratic formula to find the roots of a polynomial equation. I even know how to look up biblical terms in their original Greek and Hebrew. But there is something that I have absolutely no clue how to do.

Slowing down.  

slowing down

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

What is your motive when helping a friend?

I met her in the produce aisle at Kroger. I was shopping, she was shopping, and she struck up a conversation. I’m an experienced “talker” (I talk to anyone and anything, including my flowers, the birds and myself) so we chatted. For about fifteen minutes. Before we parted ways, she said she would love to get together for lunch so we exchanged phone numbers.

What she didn’t know was that I was desperate for a new friend. I was in the transition between being a single college student to being a married working woman, and I was lonely.

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

What heroes inspire you to live a better life?

What are heroes?  Are they just people in movies and comics who wear capes and do heroic things?  Real life heroes are people who inspire us.  They are people who motivate us to be more and do more.  Recently I was listening to a podcast about heroes. The speaker asked the listeners to make a list of people that they admire and why they admire them. I took some time to think and pray to consider who my personal heroes are.

Heroes

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

This is the eulogy I want to be read at my funeral

I’m writing something different today: the eulogy I want to to be read at my funeral.  No, I’m not planning on going to “my great reward” anytime soon, but I am reflecting on what I want my legacy to be. It does not fully describe the life I am living now but it describes the life I desire to live.  It is a description of “the me that I want to be.”  This is what I would want a friend to read at my funeral:

I met Lisa at Sams Club. You know how she loved to shop and she loved to talk! Oh my Lord, she would never be quiet. I was a cashier and she liked to come to my aisle to checkout. We would chat as I scanned her items.

She loved to give gifts, so one day she brought me a beautifully wrapped bar of soap. It touched my heart that a customer who hardly knew me would bring me a present. That’s the kind of person that Lisa was. She loved to make people feel special by giving them a gifts. It gave her an excuse to shop!

And oh my, you know she loved to shop.  It was her spiritual gift.

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

How to know God in the season you are in now

Enjoy this guest post by my friend Janet Hines.  Janet was in the mountains of Honduras as we collaborated on this post.  I admire her so.  You can learn more about her by reading her bio at the end, or visit JanetHines.com.  Let’s welcome Janet!

I live near the Gulf of Mexico. There is a weather phenomena we occasionally experience. A system will develop over the water and move on to land. But it sits and like a train keeps producing storms that dump heavy rains and they just keep coming. No one can predict when they will stop. This is referred to as “training.” On radar you can see the individual “cars” that are capable of producing inches of rain in a short amount of time.

What I have learned in the “training” storms on my journey is that they are in fact “training” sessions. I learned more about God in those seasons. I still do. It is there I began to know God. My relationship with Him changed and continues evolving today.

I had always known about God, but it was in the middle of the journey where I dug deeper into my relationship with Him and sought the promises He made. Our relationship became new. I learned what scripture teaches regarding the change we can expect.

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

The day I judged Derrick because of his skin color

It seems like a lot of my life events happen at Harris Teeter. It’s probably because I have shopped there once a week for over twenty years. If you do the math, that’s around 50 times a year for 20 years – that means I’ve been in a Wilmington Harris Teeter about 1000 times. If each visit is for half and hour, I’ve spent 500 hours in Harris Teeter.

On this day, I had loaded up my groceries into the trunk and I climbed into the drivers seat. I wasn’t quite ready to crank the car as I wanted to check my text messages. I looked up from my phone and saw a black man crossing in front of my car. Without a single thought, I reached over and hit the automatic door locks to lock my door.  I’m ashamed to admit it, but I have an unconscious fear of black men.

fear of black men

Why did I have a fear of black men?  I wasn’t born with it.  It slowly developed during my childhood.   (more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

How to live with a “Confident Humility”

I vividly remember the hardest Bible study that I have ever taught. I had spent hours preparing all of my research, word studies, and commentary quotes. I had my handouts and professional outfit and props.  But, to my dismay, people asked questions on topics that I didn’t know well, like the end times and rapture.  All of my jokes fell flat. And as I looked out on my audience, all I could see were bored, blank, sleepy faces.

Teaching that Bible study class was like plowing through concrete.  Excruciatingly difficult.

confident humility

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

You didn’t really mean to reject ME, did you?

“Today is going to require a lot of makeup,” I thought as I sat at my makeup mirror.  A couple that we knew had deeply wounded me by rejecting me.  This was not just a minor bruise…I cried for 5 days.  I even woke my husband up one morning, sobbing.  And on this day I was going to see them for the first time at a social gathering.  I was so broken that I wanted to stay home, but why delay the inevitable.

So I pulled out my purple eyeliner, purple mascara, and hot pink lip gloss.  My goal was to use lots of makeup and to put a happy face to mask my quivering heart.

reject

(more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy
Posted on

Giving our friends permission to be imperfect

At times, it looks like my walk-in closet has exploded all over my bathroom. There are shirts laying on the tub. Tank tops on the rugs. And two or three hangers of pants on the door knob.

Have you ever planned to wear a certain outfit, and when you put it on, it just didn’t work? Then you begin the mad dash of figuring out something else to wear.  You also have to decide which shoes to wear and what color jewelry matches your outfit.  Since you are now running late, you don’t have time to clean up after yourself as you try on outfit after outfit.

permission to be imperfect

As you rush out the door, you leave clothes strewn behind you. And most likely you leave your peace behind as well. (more…)

Sharing is caring. If this post encouraged you, will you share it on Facebook so that it could bless your friends,too? Thanks for helping me to reach more struggling women with encouragement, hope, and grace.
signature copy