~~A special Valentine just for you~~ In Max Lucado’s book, When Christ Comes, is a beautiful love story of a prince and his peasant bride The prince is stately, peerless, yet she is common, plain. “His attraction to her is baffling.” She is sometimes “sullen and sour, even cranky.” Not the type you’d want to spend the rest of your life with. Yet, he cannot live without her, so he proposes to her. Soon afterward, he leaves to build their future home and take care of his father’s kingdom duties. He promises her that he will return for her as …
A Mother’s Heart…10 Encouragements for a Better New Year
Did you make any resolutions? Have you already given up on carrying them out? We all need encouragement at one time or other but especially at the onset of a new year. Here are ten encouragements to inspire you to get a good grip on making improvements in your life this year. You already know these, but if you do them, all your other resolutions should fall into place. Here we go… 1) Gather up all the negative events of the year now closing: its sins, weaknesses, and failures; its heartaches and griefs. All that filled your year. 2) Lay …
He Came!
I grieve when I fail the Lord, when my obedience lacks its first response. But then I remember it was for failures that Christ graced a rough-hewn manger. It was for failures that He breathed His last earthly breath as He hung in disgrace for the failings of the world. It was to a failure, one who penned the precious psalms that touch our hearts in time of need and, yet, as a man after God’s own heart, sinned and ripped apart his fellowship with the Lord, then repented and repaired it. It was to a failure, one who had …
When Thanksgiving Gets Stuck in Your Throat
Not everyone will have had a happy Thanksgiving…especially this year. Many are out of work, have issues relating to health, children, or family. Some are facing the holiday season for the first time as they mourn the loss of a loved one or as a divorcee. So, what happens to their thanksgiving and praise when their peace disintegrates into chaos? As I go through trial after trial, circumstance after circumstance, what happens to my praise and thanksgiving? What happens when my day is darkened with a multitude of problems? Do I still sing to Him anyway? You bet! When my …
A Mother’s Heart…How Do You Measure a Woman?
Measure defined means a unit or standard of measurement; the extent, dimensions, quantity, of something; any standard of comparison, estimation, or judgment; and so on. Some of the synonyms are model, example, scope, portion, scale, test, pattern, and gauge. So, how do you measure a woman? *by how tall she is? *by the size of her brain? *by the size of her gloves? *by the size of her shoes? Well, yes and no. We, as Christians, usually use Proverbs 31 as the standard against which a woman (or wife) is measured; her worth being far above rubies, so it says. …
A Mother’s Heart…Do You Ever Feel Like a Herman?
Subscribe today for your FREE copy of… FACING YOUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M. In a shadowed corner of the house, outside by the side door, sits my hydrangea plant under a tree. Light cannot penetrate the plant’s leaves as it should to soak up the radiance of the sun because of the overhanging of the tree. I say plant because it totally lacks the definition of bush. I nicknamed him Herman. Don’t ask me why. I haven’t a clue. The soil under the tree must be bad. None of the plants …
A Mother’s Heart…The Smell of Freshly Sharpened Pencils
“It’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it!” (Eccl. 11:9a TLB) Those of us in, ahem, our later years were deprived. Deprived? Yup. We didn’t have things like… air conditioning computers videos or DVDs chat rooms and social media big screen TVs (or color for that matter) games like Wii text messages iPods cell phones – ‘cause the only blackberries we had came out of grandmother’s garden! Forced to be outsiders, we actually got exercise by running around playing tag, kick ball, or roller skating. We circled the neighborhood subdivision on our bikes until …
A Mother’s Heart…Spiritual Rearing
In 1956, he was a young preacher at the age of 37. He preached twenty-six services over four weeks in Louisville, KY. My parents and grandparents held a large reception for him when he came to town and I vividly remember meeting Dr. Billy Graham. I remember shaking his hand and looking up as he towered over my tiny body. I stood in awe. I don’t know that any words came out of my mouth. As I looked into his crystal blue eyes, I thought I had just met Jesus! I don’t think my parents took me to the crusade. …
A Mother’s Heart…50+ Things to Do with Bored Kids
Running out of things to do with the kids yet? Take a look at what I found. In my search for fun ideas, I found a bazillion things to do. Narrowing them down to fit here was difficult. My biggest resource was Pinterest. If you’re on Pinterest, do a search. If you’re not on Pinterest, you’re missing some great things shared there. Some of these make great science projects. I won’t jabber on so I can leave space for all the links and suggestions. So, here we go: * Instructions for things to make 1) Make your own lava lamps. …
A Mother’s Heart…Morning Mercies
“Be ready in the morning to…present yourself to Me.”(Ex. 34:2 TLB) The first shards of dawn’s light fell abruptly through the slits of the bedroom blinds and rudely awakened me. Before I was ready. But I got up…quietly. And dressed. Walking outside into the cool, dawn air, wrapping my fuzzy, blue blankey around me, I watched God make a morning. As the horizon released the sun, soft wisps of yellow, amber, rose, coral, and tangerine mingled with the delicate blue sky, delighting my eyes. A gentle brush of wind caressed my cheeks. The fragrance of a multitude of blossoms gratified …