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How to Step Out in Faith When the Next Step Feels Scary
It’s late August, and the ironweed boasts deep purple blossoms among fields of green and gold. We stand at the end of the driveway with anxious hearts. Today is an opportunity to learn how to step out in faith. We all feel just a little bit scared. I honestly believed I’d be more nervous than our extroverted five-year-old when the first day of kindergarten came, but it seems she’s the one with the jitters. We review the directions to her classroom for the third time. I remind her to focus on eating her sandwich at lunchtime. We discuss important topics like hand sanitizer and hydration: the stuff moms worry about.…
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12 “Walking in Victory Scriptures” for Life’s Battles
The Window Trail leads me through a stand of tall hemlocks, and I pause on to peer through the feathered branches. The valley beyond this veil is vast, shrouded in cyan blue like a mystical otherworld. I’m in the woods today because I’ve been feeling discouraged. I’ve brought my Bible, and as I walk, I meditate on several “walking in victory Scriptures.” “Walking in Victory Scriptures” for Life’s Battles Perhaps you’ve also been feeling discouraged in some realm of your life. If so, here are the Scriptures that encouraged and inspired me on my walk and in the days beyond. 12 “Walking in Victory Scriptures” 1. Romans 8:31 (ESV) “What…
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8 Bible Verses About Courage for Your Insecure Moments
The thick Carolina air presses on my lungs like I’m caught in a stranglehold. Running along this wooded path, I wonder if I have what it takes to do what God has called me to do. I try to conjure up some Bible verses about courage, but I come up empty. Lavender thistle blossoms bow and rise in unison, and yet there is no breeze. They must be praising their Maker. I join them, and the heaviness in my chest seems to lift. Perhaps it wasn’t the Carolina heat strangling me after all. I’ve been wrestling hard this weekend. I’ve wrestled with the realization that I am different than the…
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10 Empowering Bible Verses About Identity in Christ
Our daughter, Bekah, asks for a mother-daughter date, and I take her to the lake on a cloudless afternoon. I’ve been feeling less than in pretty much every area of my life lately, and I slip my Bible into our bag with hopes for a few quiet moments to soak in some Bible verses about identity in Christ. Perhaps you need this, too. Maybe you’ve been feeling wounded by the world, and you need God to remind you of your unchanging identity in Christ. Today, I invite you to join us at the lake. I’ll share my heartwarming conversation with Bekah, and then we will dig into 10 empowering Bible…
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How to Stop Living on Autopilot: 3 Ways
The multiflora rose bushes are exploding with white blossoms when it hits me: I’m living on autopilot again. I claim I want greater joy in my life, but my decisions don’t cultivate the joy I crave. If you want to learn how to stop living on autopilot, you are in the right place. Today, we’ll talk about practical ways to slow down, be mindful, and live with purpose. How to Stop Living on Autopilot Most of us know all about autopilot. We push through our days with no margin time to notice the beauty and thousands of stressors streaming through our minds. How do we stop living on autopilot and…
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Feeling Left Out? This Is for You . . .
I open the refrigerator in search of milk, but the sticker on the door catches my eye. It reads, “Star Student Award.” The white paper is creased and is very well-loved. The little girl who earned this sticker was feeling left out until the day the teacher handed her the sticker. She wore it for two days. The day she earned the sticker, she bounced off the school bus in the blazing heat with a fleece jacket over her shirt. She said she wanted to surprise me. She ripped the coat wide open to unveil the prize she’d been longing for all year: the principal’s star student award. My sweet…
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How to be Happy with What We Have
Today I’m welcoming a writing friend as a guest blogger. While welcoming guest bloggers to my site isn’t something I’m regularly pursuing, Daisy and I met long before I ever imagined I’d have a blog, and her words have been an encouragement to me. We met through Grove City Alliance Church, and Daisy passed her role as the Prayer Shield Coordinator onto me a few years ago. We reconnected this spring, and it’s an honor to share her words with you today. Daisy is the published author of Homespun Faith, a compilation of devotionals. She writes on her own blog at homespunfaith.com. How to be Happy with What We Have…
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How Can I Have a Closer Relationship With God?
The curtains wave in the breeze and a dozen songbirds chatter on the lawn. I sit with iced tea and a deep longing in my soul. At first, it feels like physical hunger. But as I sit in the silence with the longing, a question rises up from within me: How can I have a closer relationship with God? How Can I Have a Closer Relationship With God? Francis Chan speaks through the computer screen. There’s a tent on the stage. It’s a red and white camping tent, a modern-day illustration of the place Moses went to meet face-to-face with the Creator of the world. God spoke to man in…
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8 Bible Verses for When You Are Scared of the Future
Have you been looking toward the future and feeling uncertain or fearful? In these times, God’s Word offers comfort and hope. Today, we’ll explore eight Bible verses for when you are scared of the future. I invite you to join me as we travel back in time and talk about God’s care for us when we feel afraid. Then, we’ll see what Scripture has to say about overcoming the fear of the future. 8 Bible Verses for When You Are Scared of the Future I remember it as if it were yesterday. I’m fiddling with the latch on my green Care Bears lunchbox when Mrs. Nagel gently encourages me to…
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How to Live for God and Find Deeper Joy in Life
The rhythm of the elliptical is like a cadence keeping time with my prayers. I pray while I exercise. Today I’m praying for single-minded focus to help me live for God in a world so full of distractions. I stare at a beautiful landscape background on my computer while a worship mix stirs my soul. I’m listening to Israel Houghton’s moving rendition of “To Worship You I Live” when a question startles me from my daze. How to Live for God I think of Paul’s words: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21 NIV). The song prompts me to consider what I live…
