"When I called to you, you answered me; you made me strong and brave." Psalm 138:3 No life is untouched by the difficult, the unpleasant or the painful, and every living breath demands the fullness of brave be lived out in becoming who we were created to be. Our stories bring hope and healing in the telling because most of us don't consider ourselves brave. The battles for courage arrive with such force that fear often trumps brave...over and over again. As the years drift by, we find ourselves trudging through the same muck, bound by its chains and unable to experience true freedom. But it was never meant to be this way. When I began developing this series, I knew God was calling me to step into a place of brave I've never traveled fully before. Oh, believe me, I've tried, but Continue Reading
Above All Else…Guard Your Heart: Identity Collaging
We live with a continual threat of identity theft. The threat is so widespread, there’s even an Identity Theft Resource Center to keep us informed of the latest sneaky scams and the best ways to protect ourselves and our privacy in this online world. We’re told to use strong passwords, only log into secure wireless networks, never save credit card information when shopping online, don’t accept social media invites from unfamiliar people, and the list grows with each new confirmed threat. But, when I think of identity theft, I’m also reminded of how often my true, God-given identity is threatened daily, and has been from a very young age. Truthfully, I’ve struggled with my identity in some form or another my entire life. Who hasn’t? Because life is hard and it’s often not Continue Reading
5 Truths for Parenting with Great Expectations
Learning to parent with great expectations is one of the earliest lessons I learned as a way to plant hope in the hearts of my children. Hope not only for what they could do but for what God could do and wanted to do through them. Continue Reading
Cultivating a Confident and Humble Heart
Don't we all want our children to become confident and humble human beings? For years I hung a magnet of “100 Ways to Praise Your Child” on the front of my refrigerator. Until one day I decided to toss it in the trash because it was doing more damage than good. Although the intentions were admirable, it fell short of helping me cultivate a balance between confidence and humility. Like most parents, I wanted my children to develop a strong sense of who they were regardless of whether they succeeded or failed. And by focusing on praising them for every accomplishment, I was placing too much emphasis on the reward and not enough on the process. It's in the process, not the reward where refining and character building takes place. Even when the process includes failure and Continue Reading