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How to Trust God to be Your Defender
The text message from my best friend felt like a punch to the gut. After fifteen years of friendship, she was accusing me of things that went so against my character; I couldn’t believe she’d accept them as true. A new person had entered her life and told her horrible things about me. I was very saddened that she would believe those lies over my character that she saw all those years. I desperately wanted to defend myself. I wanted to sit down with her, explain my side, make her see the truth. But my Bible teacher stopped me with words that would echo through my life for years to…
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Easy, Homemade Sushi Rolls Recipe
Have you ever wondered if it was possible to make your own sushi rolls? It turns out you can. The best thing about homemade sushi rolls is that you can customize them according to each person's favorite ingredients.
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Do You Feel Like You Are Drowning in Your Circumstances?
One sunny afternoon last summer, I took the kids to the neighborhood pool. We spent most of our summer days there. All the boys could swim well and were comfortable swimming in the deep end. This day was an unusually busy afternoon. My youngest wanted to go home, so my oldest had just taken her back home to be with her dad, and I was near our stuff at the deep end. All of a sudden, I heard my youngest boy coughing and sputtering and I saw his head bobbing up and down in the water. I called his name twice to see if he was playing around or struggling.…
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Word of the Year; REST
It seems to be a common trend for people to choose a word of the year. I started having a word of the year a few years ago, after a close friend referenced hers. Since then, each year, I get a sort of “focus” word or phrase for the year. My word of the year usually ends up being an area of growth where I need to focus in order improve in one way or another. It is typically a flag to alert my attention as I’m hearing various messages. It’s something to keep me on track with my personal and spiritual growth journey. This year my word for the…
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Communicating Expectations: A Key to Successful Marriages
Did you know that expectations can be a poison that ruins a marriage? As we grow up, we all have experiences and environments that shape us and our perspectives of the world. The problem is, many of us think that how we grew up is normal. We tend to assume that others think or believe the way we do. We often have an expectation that others know our intentions or our thoughts or reality. Unfortunately, we all have different experiences and see the world in a much different way. Communicating our expectations can be one of the keys to successful marriages. This is probably most prevalent early on in relationships.…
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How to Make the Right Decision
“I’m Afraid to Make the Wrong Decision. I don’t want to miss God’s Direction.” Not too long ago, I was wrestling with these thoughts while I was trying to make a decision regarding my career. I really wanted to be following God and his plan for my life. I didn’t want to quit something that I thought he had called me to do. Making the right decision was a real struggle. I couldn’t figure out if he was calling me to walk away or if it was the enemy trying to hold me back. I wanted to make sure that I took the right path and made the right decision.…
