10 Verses To Prepare Your Heart For Easter

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10 Verses To Prepare Your Heart For Easter

I love Easter because of all that it means for believers. If Jesus had never risen from the dead, we would have no hope (see 1 Corinthians 15:14). Easter, or rather Resurrection Sunday, holds such promise for those who are trusting in Christ’s finished work on the cross. As with many things in life, though, it’s easy to get caught up in the small things around the Easter season and to feel like we haven’t adequately spent time pondering all that Jesus has done for us.

I discovered that I needed a list of Easter verses to help me keep my heart in the right place as this amazing holiday approaches. As I started researching the best Scriptures for Easter, I realized like never before just how many are applicable to this beautiful season!

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4 Important Truths I Learned In Quarantine

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4 Important Truths I Learned In Quarantine

I really didn’t want to write another post on anything Covid-related. In fact, I’m almost to the point where I feel like plugging my ears whenever I hear anything concerning coronavirus. But recently a friend gently asked me, “what blessings have you experienced during quarantine that you wouldn’t have had otherwise?” And it got me thinking.

I may be frustrated by our shelter-in-place order, but was I missing out on the miracles just because of my frustration?

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How Should Christians Respond To The Coronavirus? My Family's Close Encounter

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How Should Christians Respond To The Coronavirus? My Family's Close Encounter

With all the turmoil that the current coronavirus outbreak is causing, my friend A reached out to me and asked if I would consider sharing my family’s experience with it. While I never would have thought to do so on my own, I felt that her suggestion was excellent. As A pointed out, nearly all of what we’re hearing on the news and in the media is story after story of grave illness and high death tolls, but my family’s situation is an amazing story of God’s healing and provision. My hope in sharing is that it will help to answer the burning question, “How should Christians respond to the coronavirus?”

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Are You Grumbling Through Your Hallway?

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Are You Grumbling Through Your Hallway?

Call me weird, but I love the Old Testament, particularly the “difficult” books like Numbers. Yes, they can be a bit dry reading at times, but I’ve discovered that they also often offer the greatest pearls of truth that jump out at me off the page. I have wonder if that’s because these are the types of books I least expect it from.

This past week, I was reading Numbers chapter 11, when the words seemed to leap off the page at me:

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Lessons From My Pastor's Wife Who Is Now With The Lord

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Lessons From My Pastor's Wife Who Is Now With The Lord

In January of this year, we got one of those calls that nobody ever wants to receive. Our beloved pastor’s wife had just suffered a massive stroke, and the outcome didn’t look good. A few minutes later, another phone call confirmed that she was now face-to-face with the Savior.

We were shocked and devastated. Aside from a semi-recent broken arm, Mrs. S had seemed in perfect health. There was no indication that she didn’t have much time left here on Earth. Her fingerprints were on everything; from teaching Children’s Church to singing with our mini choir to selflessly serving in a dozen capacities, she left behind a huge hole, as most beloved people do.

As I thought about the million and one little ways I would miss her, I began thinking of all the lessons she had effortlessly taught me during our years together.

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3 Of The Best Biblical Antidotes For Anxiety

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3 Of The Best Biblical Antidotes For Anxiety

I’ve had a lot of anxiety this week. While the reasons for it are numerous - stress, the return to our school routine after 2 weeks off, and some big looming life decisions - I knew I needed to do something to get back on top of the nervous, panicky feeling that I dislike so much.

Now, I don’t at all pretend to be an authority in overcoming anxiety. It’s something I’ve struggled with all my life, and it is almost always lurking in the back corner of my mind, ready to overwhelm me if given the opportunity.

But this week, I found 3 of the best Biblical antidotes for anxiety, and they helped me so greatly that I knew I needed to share them with you. These aren’t profound. They aren’t jaw-droppingly new. But they are straight from God’s Word, and sometimes, we just need a gentle reminder to tap into the tools that the Lord has already equipped us with.

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38 Other Things That Make Me Who I Am

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38 Other Things That Make Me Who I Am

Tomorrow is my 38th birthday, and since we have many new readers since I last wrote a “things that make me who I am” post (you can see the other ones here and here), I figured I’d go ahead and share 38 other things about me that I’ve not shared previously. This year’s list looks a bit different from previous versions since I’ve decided to share a few weightier things than I have in my previous posts.

  1. It feels weird and even a little self-serving to share things about myself. But since I love reading the “about” pages of my favorite bloggers, I thought it might be good to step out of my shell a little more than normal.

  2. In 2016, I wrote my first ebook, and in doing so, completed one of my bucket list items.

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A Super-Simple Bible Reading Plan For Advent

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A Super-Simple Bible Reading Plan For Advent

Christmas is here! And with it, all the usual hustle and bustle and busy schedules and craziness has arrived, too. Most Christians I know want to take time to savor the Savior, to sit at the feet of Jesus and soak up His Word. After all, isn’t this what the season’s all about?

But if you’re anything like I am, you’re struggling to find that time to dwell on Jesus’ birth while also fielding parties, family gatherings, and extra holiday traditions. Is there an easy way to study the Bible while still balancing the demands of the season?

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The Upside-Down Gratitude List: What It Is And Why You Should Have One

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The Upside-Down Gratitude List: What It Is And Why You Should Have One

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a rule-follower…mostly.

Honestly, my preference has always been to be a rule-follower with a twist. While I wouldn’t call myself an upstreamer, necessarily, I don’t like jumping whole-hog onto a popular bandwagon, either. Instead, I prefer to think over an activity or opportunity first, and then if I feel that it’s a good fit, I usually do my own version of it.

It was no different with my gratitude list this year. A close friend of mine asked me if I’d like to join her in filling out a 2-week list of things I was thankful for. I loved the idea and was excited to start.

But the day I printed out the fill-in-the-blank sheet to start my gratitude list, Baby D got sick…again.

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How To Trust God’s Goodness When Your Circumstances Aren’t Working Out (Guest Post)

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How To Trust God’s Goodness When Your Circumstances Aren’t Working Out (Guest Post)

It might have been because we had just had our third miscarrage that the post I read on Facebook caused me so much discomfort.

My friend had just had a baby, and it was cause for much celebration on Facebook. I would never begrudge anyone a new baby post, and I too have celebrated my kids births with joyous Facebook posts. But the words my friend wrote were something like this: “Things were a little touch and go after the birth, and the baby struggled a bit, but God was good and he is doing well now!”

You see, my heart was anchored on to the truth that God is in fact good, but we lost our unborn baby.

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How God's Word Sustains Me In Chronic Illness (Guest Post)

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How God's Word Sustains Me In Chronic Illness (Guest Post)

When I say God’s Word is life and breath to me, I mean it. I mean it in a physical sense. Countless times I’ve found myself telling others, “I wouldn’t be here without God’s Word.” I honestly don’t know if I could have survived some of the seasons I’ve endured without it. 

After extensive testing, I was put on bed rest and began a recovery process that took 2 years and led to major life changes. Today, I still struggle with chronic adrenal fatigue and anemia.

To say those 2 years in recovery were difficult would be an understatement. I went through an identity crisis. All the things I’d been doing before were no longer doable for me and I wondered who I was. 

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6 Ways to Pray for Your Prodigal

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6 Ways to Pray for Your Prodigal

Years ago, a close friend of mine abandoned her faith, her family, and her friends…including me. It hurt deeply that she could so easily cast aside all that she once held dear. I missed her terribly - or, at least, I missed the person she once had been. I prayed daily for for a very long time afterward, hoping that the Lord would draw her back to Himself.

But I have to admit that, over time, I got more lax with how frequently I prayed for her. I don’t know if I finally lost all hope or just got busy, but I found myself only praying for her only occasionally instead of multiple times each day.

Last week, however, I ran across online photos of her current life, and all the frustration and anguish came rushing back. I was heartbroken all over again at her lifestyle choices. I had to wonder if she really was as happy as those photos seemed to indicate. Having an online presence myself, I know how incomplete a handful of social media images is when depicting someone’s life.

I sighed and was about to close my computer tab when I felt the Holy Spirit gently whisper to my aching heart.

“Her story isn’t finished yet,” He reminded me.

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4 Ways to Spur On One Another to Love and Good Works

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4 Ways to Spur On One Another to Love and Good Works

“How do I motivate myself to fall in love with God’s Word? And how to I inspire other believers to do the same?”

These are the questions that have been swirling around in my brain lately. Because I’m realizing a few things:

I don’t wake up with a passion for studying Scripture. Sure, I dutifully sit down most mornings for Bible study, and by the time I’m done, I’ve learned so much and am very grateful that I jumped in even though I didn’t wake up hungering for God’s Word. But how do I motivate myself to desire Bible study before I begin? And how do I encourage others to experience the same?

When I was talking with a friend about this very issue, she gently reminded me, “We need to spur on one another to love and good works.” (Don’t you just love how Scripture answers all of our questions like that? I do!)

So, how do we go about spurring on one another to those good works? After studying for a bit, I’ve found at least 4 ways to do just that.

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Is Your Good the Enemy of Your Best?

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Is Your Good the Enemy of Your Best?

As I looked over my to-do list Easter Sunday morning, I was overwhelmed. Between preparing something for our church breakfast, ensuring that the spark plugs had church-appropriate attire on, and practicing for the various special music selections, I was pretty frazzled by the time I sat down to listen to the sermon. And since I still had congregational playing at the end of the service, I still didn’t feel much like relaxing.

(For the record, I pretty much failed at my preparations anyway: my breakfast coffee cake was underbaked; D somehow made it to church in a Star Wars t-shirt instead of his tie; and I completely forgot to get the pianist hymnal out of the pulpit before the start of the service.)

As I sat there half-listening and half thinking through the rest of the song service, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart.

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Why and How to Write Out the Gospel In Your Own Words

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Why and How to Write Out the Gospel In Your Own Words

Have you ever written out the Gospel in your own words?

I have to admit that, until last week, I hadn’t ever done this exercise. While I’ve written out my testimony before, I’d never even considered jotting down the story of the Good News as I would share it with others.

But my Bible study group challenged me to try this exercise, so I completed the assignment. And oh my, was I amazed by the wealth of spiritual truths I learned during the process!

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Why the Gospel Is Vital to Easter

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Why the Gospel Is Vital to Easter

At first, I wasn’t sure what about that statement bothered me, but I knew immediately that something about it was incorrect.

And then it hit me.

Christianity didn’t start with Jesus’ coming to Earth around 4 BC (the date typically assigned to His birth).

No, Christianity is as old as the Earth itself, founded by God from the very beginning.

The Gospel has been woven through the pages of history, etched on mankind’s heart by a loving Heavenly Father (see Revelation 13:8; Ecclesiastes 3:11). And understanding the Gospel is pivotal to understanding the Easter season and everything it celebrates.

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4 Truths You Need to Know When God Breaks Your Heart

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4 Truths You Need to Know When God Breaks Your Heart

It comes out of the blue. We’ll be merrily floating along, school in a good rhythm, excitement on the horizon, and…BAM. Diabetes rears its ugly head. Most days, it’s barely a blip on the radar (a true testament to God’s goodness, because in those early days just after diagnosis, I wasn’t at all sure things would ever feel “normal” again). Most days, diabetes is just a few blood sugar checks, possibly hunting for a misplaced blood sugar meter, and counting carbs for meals.

But then a virus will hit and send my diabetic spark plug into a tailspin, or his insulin pump will stop working, or things will get wildly out of control for no apparent reason.

And in those hard moments, I’m reminded all over again that God has chosen not to heal. That He’s found more glory in leaving Turbo as he is instead of healing him. That living with diabetes instead of being healed from it is what’s currently best for all of us.

At times, it even feels like God is breaking my heart.

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