LOVE

SOBER

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I am entering  2018 joyfully sober.

Today, as I thought about the coming year, the word  SOBER kept ringing in my ears, so much so that I looked up the definition.  Of the many differing definitions, this is what stood out to me,

Quiet in demeanor, Free from exaggeration, showing self control

Going into a new year, we tend to be SO LOUD. There’s so much to prove because no matter how great, or how horrible the current year has been,  the next year must be better,  bigger, and greater.  So we eagerly pop off to our friends, loved ones, and followers, proclaiming all of the many things we are going to accomplish in the coming year.  Yet, today as I pondered my own desires for 2018,  I challenged myself not to be intoxicated by the possibilities of a new year, without being disciplined enough to count up the cost of my goals.  Jesus said,  Continue reading →

Rejoice! God is with us!!

…The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means, ‘God is with us’)  Isaiah 7:14

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Today, I join my praise and worship with Christ Followers around the world, pausing and giving thanks to my Heavenly Father for sending Jesus, to ransom my life from the bondage of hopelessness,  shame, and fear.

To ransom is, to free from captivity or punishment by paying a price.

Because of Jesus, I was delivered from captivity! Before I encountered Jesus,  I was a hostage to my circumstances. Bound by the unjust things that had happened to me, and limited by my own ignorant choices. I was without hope, constrained by shame, and  enslaved to fear. Thanks be unto God, because He did not leave me in that state of darkness and confusion.  Instead, He sent Jesus, just as He had promised the Prophet Isaiah, some 700 years prior, that He would. It was the Father’s unconditional love that made a way for me to be saved, freed, delivered.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him would be saved.   (John 3:16-17)

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Your Presence IS the Gift

The past two weeks have been challenging, not so much for me personally, but for my loved ones. Two who received devastating diagnosis news about a parent, and several who have been in the throes of the fear and anxiety that just being alive can bring. I was in the middle of a blogging challenge, and feeling deep disappointment within myself for simply not being able to create the extra time to BLOG, while being present for my loved ones, investing time into the women’s organization that I lead, and accomplishing the daily responsibilities of my full time career! In the midst of my wallowing in self-pity for “just not being enough” to get it all done, I felt like I was jolted awake by this thought,

While it’s nice, maybe even “noble” to have a desire to inspire people I don’t know through my writing, it is a part of my  DIVINE PURPOSE to care about, encourage, uplift, pray for, listen to, and BE PRESENT for those who are right in front of my face!

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“Hot and Bothered” #30Layers30Days -#TBT , #BlogLikeCrazy

I am,  HOT, frustrated, and set a blazed,  for broken women who are alone, silenced and put to shame. 

I am BOTHERED, annoyed, yes PISSED,  that we live in a culture that requires women to hold up tattered banners of  UN-BOTHERED-NESS!  Continue reading →

Where I Live – #30Layers30Days + #BlogLikeCrazy

Growing up it bothered me when I’d hear people say, “I stay there,” in reference to their home, opposed to saying, “I LIVE there.” I would often correct my friends,  “Don’t you mean live there?”   Most people use those two, live and stay, synonymously in this context.  Yet, to me there is a significant difference between the two.  Continue reading →

“Over Too Soon” #30Layers30Days + #BlogLikeCrazy

Had you caught me several years ago,  I would have had  no problem writing about some experience that I thought was “Over too Soon.”  I likely would have written about the unexpected death of my mother, how the loss of her tangible presence had devastated me, and how I was certain that at just 49 years old, and fairly healthy, she was gone “Too Soon.”  Or maybe I would have kept it light and discussed some pleasant vacation, event, or moment that I desperately did not want to come to an end. Those options would have worked perfectly then, but certainly not now.

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“The Idea of You” #30Layers30Days #BlogLikeCrazy

The idea of you precedes your conception. You were known before you were knit together. The Master Creator envisioned all that you would be, and He spared nothing, from the inside out, designing you perfectly.
When the Master Creator completed You, His Exquiste Masterpiece, He marveled at His own expertise, and with a loud voice He declared, “It is Good”. And just like that, You were complete. Whole. Lacking nothing.  You were, as Perfect and Beautifully you, as you would ever be!
There was only one thing The Master Creator would leave up to you and me, and that is the faith to believe that this could even be. He designed you with the ability to choose what to believe and what to reject, and He determined that your belief would be the fuel to guide your steps. Continue reading →

Hope for the 4th Quarter

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Welcome to the 4th Quarter of 2017! I don’t know about you, but I have spent a good portion of this year being shocked by its pace. At the beginning of each month, I have found myself stating, “Is it [insert month] already?!” Only to discover the same definitive answer each time,  “Yes it is“!   I can’t count the number of conversations I have had with loved ones, friends, coworkers, and others in passing,  who have not only confirmed by sentiments about the pace of this year, but who have also shared in my anxiety laced fear that,  THERE’S JUST NOT ENOUGH TIME!!!!!.

But, What if I told you that  there IS enough time?  Will you accept that? What if I told you that the culprit of your anxiety is something you and I have full control over?  Will you, for the sake of this discussion, entertain the notion that the deficit has not been in seconds, minutes, hours, and days, but instead, that the true deficit, has been in your FOCUS?  Does that encourage or discourage you? Continue reading →

Be Prepared to Carry Your Cross…

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Have you watched the movie  The Passion of Christ? I have only seen it once at the movie theater when it was first released. I found myself crying and burying my face in my hands so many times during the graphic depiction of the Crucifixion.  I can remember thinking to myself,  “You need to face this,” but no amount  of “self-coaching” would allow me to keep from turning away periodically. It was so difficult to watch , and I can 1491356395900only imagine that it was much worse than what was depicted on the screen.  Tonight’s passage is from Luke 23:26-30. I read it several times focusing on each verse.  I kept coming back to verse 26,

As they led Jesus away a man named Simon who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming from the countryside.  The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

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God is IN the Details…

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I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can be a little abrupt and disorganized. Don’t get me wrong, I have the capacity to be extremely organized and strategic, but it’s definitely in doses.  The thing is,  I am  just not naturally “wired” that way. If I want to be well-organized, I have to really put in the effort because my organization and meticulous skills come and go in phases. Since this is something that I am actively working on, I was truly enlightened and inspired by Jesus’ attention to detail in today’s passage, found in  1491263408617Matthew 21: 1-11. Continue reading →