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How to Keep Walking With God Through Dark Seasons
Days are growing shorter. For our family, shorter days include more time together within the fawn-colored walls of our living room. I’m learning to appreciate the rhythms of indoor seasons. I also know I’ll soon face winter days when walking with God through the darkness feels difficult. Not long ago, on one of these cloudless black evenings, I looked across the room to see my husband walking across the dining room with our little girl standing on his feet. Sweet Bekah’s little body moved wherever her daddy moved as her feet rested on his much larger feet. I immediately thought about the way God wants us to cling to him.…
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For the Woman Who Worries About Not Fitting in
A few years ago, I stepped about a million miles out of my comfort zone and attended a conference for women who feel called to write and speak. The weekend was filled with informational seminars, discussion groups, and motivational speakers. I was anxious about the weekend for plenty of reasons, and one of my deepest concerns was a subtle worry about not fitting in. The fear of not fitting in can feel surprising as an adult. You walk into a crowded room, and you suddenly feel like a middle schooler looking for a place to sit in the school cafeteria. I wrestled through these fears as I navigated the first…
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What Does God Want Me to Do With My Life?
Have you been asking, “What does God want me to do with my life?” God wants to reveal his will to you. Let’s talk about how to find God’s will for our lives. What Does God Want Me to Do With My Life? The cherry blossoms will soon be salmon with life and hope. I’ve often wondered why God chose to awaken these trees with springtime signs of life before their taller cousins. Maybe he knew we’d all need something remarkably beautiful by the end of the long winter months. Maybe he wanted to give us the best first, a sign of blessings yet to come. After long winter months,…
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How to Let God Lead You When Your Plans Fall Apart
Snow falls like a quiet kind of awakening, and when I listen closely, I can hear the heavy flakes gathering. I stand among the marmalade beech leaves as they cling to finger-like branches, waving at the dusk like these chilling grey days are not only expected but welcomed. Maybe the beech leaves have learned the secret about how to let God lead you when the season doesn’t unfold with the lush vivacity you expected. I stare at them blankly. I’m having a hard time agreeing with their cheerful heavenward waving. Winter drains the life from my veins here in the hills of the northeast. My body craves sunlight in the…
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What Does It Mean to Lay Down Your Life for God?
Have you ever wondered what it means to lay down your life for God and others? Jesus spoke the following words to his disciples: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13, NIV). Perhaps you want to know how to live this out. I invite you to join me in my parents’ living room shortly after the birth of my third child, and we’ll explore what it might look like to lay down your life. How to Lay Down Your Life We’re watching the little one stretch his legs in his blue bouncy seat when my grandma says the words that…
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Four Ways God Speaks to Us and How to Hear His Voice
“If God really speaks to us, then I’d sure like someone to explain the ways God speaks to us,” a younger friend declared as we walked beneath a canopy of blossoming apple trees. There was a hint of frustration in her voice. My friend had been pursuing God and sincerely believed she was following him into a new career endeavor. Her dream seemed to be coming to life. When everything fell apart, she found herself flat on her face, wondering how she could have mistaken God’s voice. My heart went out to her. I’d had the same experience several times, and these experiences can derail a believer’s faith. “I suspect…
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5 Ways to Change the World From Hidden Places
I don’t wake up thinking of ways to change the world when the 5-year-old pounds on the bedroom door at a quarter ‘til six. Mostly, I count the hours since the baby last stirred for a feeding and realize I have slept exactly 32 minutes since the fifth feeding of the night. Maybe you don’t have little people calling you at all hours of the day and night, but there are quiet places of difficult service in your life too. I know it because we all have our hard and hidden callings – places where conjuring up ways to change the world and make some sort of eternal impact feels…
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Is It Time to Reignite Your Spiritual Passion?
A few months ago I realized my spiritual passion was lacking. We weren’t in a time of crisis or severe suffering. Instead, complacency was knocking on the door. Sometimes the slow and steady rhythms of life are the exact ingredients leading to a spiritual slump. If you can relate, this post is for you. At the bottom of this page, you will find my latest free online devotional to help you reignite your faith. First, let me share the words I wrote as summer drew to a close – when I realized it was time to reignite my spiritual passion: How to Reignite Your Spiritual Passion We press close to…
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5 Ways to Pray for God’s Kingdom on Earth
The locker room is eerily silent as the team gathers on wooden benches with heads bowed in reverence. The team captain breaks the silence, and adorned in thick knee pads and matching blue and gold uniforms, the team utters the words in unison: “Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name . . .” We say the words, but we’re not really thinking about praying for God’s kingdom on earth. We speak the words without much thought or worshipful adoration. It seems fitting to acknowledge God before a game that means so much to everyone on the team, but not many in the room can explain what the…
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How to Embrace Change: 8 Mindsets to Help You
It happened on a balmy August evening with locusts droning on like a reminder that the earth would keep spinning, even if my world had shifted in an uncomfortable direction. It was time to learn how to embrace change, and it wasn’t going to be a lesson that came easily. We will all face seasons of drastic change in life, and that August evening threw me like few others. In a matter of minutes, every dream I’d been dreaming – every plan I’d been carefully laying down like a piece of some giant puzzle – fell to the wayside, and I was left alone with a radically shifted set of…