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3 Ways to Cultivate Joy when You’re Struggling in Life
It had been the longest winter of my life – the winter of counting down the weeks, the days, and the hours until my health returned. I spent it mostly staring at the dead landscape out the sliding glass door – beige earth folded under ribbons of grey sky that felt dismal and bleak. I’d been trying to cultivate joy by looking to the future, but the discouragement of my illness was like a black cloud blurring my view. You might not be stuck on the couch with a long stretch of illness, but I imagine you have your own brand of discouragement lingering low. Discouraging seasons take all shapes…
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How to Feel God’s Presence in Your Life
Not long ago, I texted a friend and told her about long days in a house filled with noisy children. “I want to know how to feel God’s presence when life mostly feels overwhelming,” I vented. Her response came seasoned with wisdom. First, she reminded me that regardless of whether I feel God’s presence or not, his presence is always with me. “Feelings are futile,” she offered. “Instead of aiming to feel God’s presence, what if you aimed to be fully present to the moments unfolding around you?” She then offered the following six words: “Breathe deeply, love deeply, laugh deeply.” These words have echoed in my mind since she…
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Instead of Pleading With God, Try This Prayer Posture
Layers of ivory piled heavenward for weeks—the kind of snow that melts and freezes a half-dozen times, leaving crusty layers like some seven-layer dessert gone horribly wrong. I’d been pleading with God to lead me out of a tough stretch. I had no idea he was about to open my eyes with a very clear object lesson in the form of a pleading child. We kept the yellow snow shovel propped right next to the front door that year. Every morning, we scraped the icy cement and threw out the salt. I didn’t appreciate the morning call to shovel the entryway. However, the four-year-old at my side saw it as…
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Seven Secrets for Deeper Joy in Life
It’s an unseasonably warm Thursday afternoon, aspen leaves covering the ground with a golden blanket—kind of like they’ve absorbed every ounce of joy in life and put it on display for the world to see. I rush through the aisles of the discount grocery store, filling my cart to the brim as other shoppers scurry to get in front of me. I’ve forgotten all about slowing to live the kind of life that breathes, laughs, and loves. When the last loaf of bread is scanned and placed gently on top of my pile, I push the cart to the counter where toddlers sit and elderly ladies pause to pack their…
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One Word to Help You Navigate Holiday Sadness
The burning bush blazed crimson, and I vividly remember the year when suffering marked our family’s holiday celebrations. I was alone, ill, and stuck on the couch. For the first time in my life, the joy of the holiday season was replaced by deep and lingering holiday sadness. I didn’t want the lot that had been assigned to me. I had prayed and believed for health, and I’d fallen into a stretch of sickness that was more intense than anything I’d ever experienced. Aside from a short half-hour in the mornings, I was forced to lie completely motionless and drown in my haze of illness. After a month on the…
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Transform Your Mind by Overcoming These Toxic Mindsets
There are monarchs on the milkweed, and the sun sinks fiery white above the overgrown weed fields behind the house. “They’re not weeds,” five-year-old Caleb contends, “They’re flowers.” I smile at his words. Maybe he knows the hidden secret about how to really transform your mind when the weeds creep in. “I guess it depends on what you want to call them,” I tell the little guy. “One person’s weeds are another person’s flowers.” We walk to the spot where the fields border the yard – where the monarchs stretch their marmalade wings on the sticky milkweed leaves – and I clip a bouquet for the dining room table. A…
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Rewire Your Brain and Get Unstuck in Your Life
A menagerie of black walnuts has fallen from above and is crushed on our gravel road. I walk over the coffee-colored streaks and consider the months ahead. When the walnuts fall, summer is nearly over. Looking ahead, no part of me is ready for the long winter months to come. Just how do you rewire your brain when your future feels bleak? I cringe at the thought of long evenings inside the house, whiteouts rolling in from the west, and evening walks down this same country road with toes numb from the cold. How to Rewire Your Brain I’m mulling it over when the words of Dr. Caroline Leaf come…
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7 Encouraging Bible Verses for Struggling Moms
As I sit to write these words to you, there’s a pile of luggage at the bottom of our stairwell. It’s an array of minion-decorated backpacks, colorful duffel bags, and pink handbags adorned with flowers and fairies. Looking at it makes me feel overwhelmed. I share this with you before I share today’s Bible verses for struggling moms because I want you to know that I have walked in your shoes, friend. I have endured months of sleeplessness with infants who refused to sleep. The demands of motherhood have worn me thin, and I’ve locked myself in the bathroom while little fingers wiggled under the door. Bible Verses for Struggling…
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How to Rejoice in the Lord in Every Season
The tulip poplar leaves are just beginning to emerge like tiny hands waving at the cobalt sky. For six fleeting months, they will greet the dawn with their flapping waves as if they’re living to the full. As I gaze at them, they’re a reminder of how to rejoice in the Lord no matter what the season of life looks like. How to Rejoice in the Lord in Every Season A red-winged blackbird glides over the field behind the house, and our caged quail calls for a mate. I turn the pages for words about how to live this day to its fullest, and I find them: This is…
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How Do We Glorify God in Our Daily Lives?
How do we glorify God in our daily lives? The Bible offers plenty of examples to help us give God honor and glory in our everyday moments. Today, we’ll unpack a few of these insights as we aim to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God. I invite you to join me in the woods, and we’ll take a closer look at honoring God in even our most ordinary moments. How Do We Glorify God in Our Daily Lives? I’m on my knees with my camera lens inches from a dwarf ginseng. As I watch its tiny snowflake head bob in the breeze, I suddenly realize we’re not alone.…
