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When talking about God's love, a friend mentioned the word “commitment,” and it got lodged in my head and led us here. In thinking about commitment, my hubby came to mind. The dude is committed. He's also detail-oriented, observant, and tho...

Well, here we are again. It's our third article on dying to self, and we'll be covering our second choice. For review, our first question to consider was: Jesus or me - who's going to be Lord? That brings us to choice number two: Who's going to be...

This past year I taught a workshop on “Dying to Self.” Sounds like a fun topic, doesn’t it? Well, if you ever want to learn about something, sign up to teach it. Even after my last workshop and putting my notes away, this subject continues follo...

When I turned 40 I received numerous gifts and cards. One precious gift I got was an album in which numerous friends contributed heartfelt notes and such. One evening I sat down and showed my hubby my special gift. I watched as he began paging...

One of my favorite stories in the Bible tells of Jesus' interaction with one of the two criminals who were hanging on crosses next to Him. Because the passage is so short, here it is: Luke 23:32-33,39-43 (NKJV): “There were also two others, c...

One day recently I found myself standing in our pantry between the pancake mix and enchilada sauce, telling my husband as I choked back tears, “I just felt embarrassed.” (Or something close to that. You know how I am about details.) But let me bac...

Last week I did something that bothered me more than a little. After my “failing” I sat in my vehicle, trying to make sense of “it” and figure out if there was any undoing that could be done. There wasn’t. I fought the urge to shut down and never...

I was two-thirds finished with this article when I heard a beautiful true story of forgiveness. Since that's the topic we're on right now, I thought I might as well take the time to rewrite a few things as it was just too perfect not to include....

We're going to spend some time on forgiveness. If you're not interested in living with more joy and freedom, and you don't care if you have a sour, crotchety look on your face, these next articles probably aren't for you. (You know it's true -...

Recently, I had a conversation with two different women concerning the topic of “shame.” One said she felt shame as she gained back the eight pounds she had recently lost. She said it was her fault and her fault alone. The other woman, well, I can...

Let's talk about spiritual “eating” habits in light of physical eating habits. What kind of eater are you? I've heard people say they occasionally forget to eat as they get preoccupied with the tasks at hand. (Crazy people! I've NEVER forgotten to...

We've been talking about communicating with God for a while now, but we've only scratched the surface. We haven't touched on how God speaks through music. I'm not referring to our worship/praise time - hopefully our hearts are turned to Him in those...

One night I had a nightmare and woke up drenched in fear. I had to take a moment to calm my heart and back up into my husband - that's my fend-off-the-monsters position. My husband's “got my back,” and I can keep an eye on the other direction. It'...

Have you ever felt like asking someone, “How did you know?!” after they prayed for you? Has your jaw nearly hit the floor while listening to a speaker answer questions you recently asked in your head? After pouring your heart out to a friend, did...

One tip I was given for studying the Bible was to keep an eye out for things that repeat within a verse, chapter, or book. Take note if a word or phrase appears more than once - God is trying to get a point across or draw attention to something. But...

When I was about 20 years old, a friend and I were down in Oklahoma shopping at a mall. We wandered into a store and walked around for a few minutes. As we left the store, my friend turned to me and said she was glad to leave as being in the store...