Tag Archives: God

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Why Healing Is Just Not Enough for Me

Sometimes it takes a thorn to show us how healing is just not enough.

We all have thorns. And I’m not talking about the kind that show up on roses in your garden! I’m talking about the kind of thorns that show up in our lives. Situations that hurt. Circumstances that are hard. Difficult things in our lives that don’t seem to come or go away on our timetables.

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For me, blindness is a never-ending, constantly-challenging, fatigue-inducing thorn. I can’t deny it: It hurts. I’ve often longed—and prayed—for it to go away. It hasn’t yet.

You got thorns. I got thorns. All God’s girls got thorns!

This whole “thorn” concept came from the apostle Paul. Paul asked God to remove what he called his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:8). He evidently struggled with some difficult circumstance that he really wanted changed.

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How I Almost Ruined My Marriage

I knew that would probably get your attention!

It was all about the laundry.

I’ll get right to it. My husband, Phil, has always been a great guy, but there was one big issue with his greatness. He was perfectly capable of dropping his dirty clothes in the hamper, which has always been placed conveniently in our closet. But did he ever do this simple thing that he was perfectly capable of doing? Nope. Most of the time, he dropped his dirty clothes right in front of the clothes hamper. Right in front.

At first, I tried to handle it with humor. I conducted a dirty clothes protocol seminar in our closet.

I invited him into the closet with me, where I used exaggerated gestures while standing varying distances from the hamper, all the while counting out loud how many seconds it took me to toss laundry into the basket rather than in front of it. Of course, I also pointed out that even though I cannot see, I rarely missed.

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Are You the Wrong Kind of Busy?

I had said yes one too many times and my life was too full for me to pull it off. I was forgetting appointments, neglecting my family and feeling like I was so busy that all I had time for was guilt.

Ever felt  like that?

Busy. It’s such a loaded word, isn’t it?

Some people think busy is a bad word! When a woman says she is  “way too busy,” it can be code for “I have no balance in my life and it is totally out of control!” Some women wear busy like a badge, as if her level of exhaustion and the number of things on her to-do list indicate her level of importance and her amount of significance.

Busy is relative. For one woman, busy may be a hair appointment on the same day she has to grocery shop. For another woman who starts her day at 6:00 AM and follows her first cup of coffee with six appointments, four phone calls, her part-time job, car-pooling the kids, and making dinner, the thought of being busy never even enters her mind! She still has time and energy to spare.

There’s not just one way to define busy. The definition of busy is as individual as each woman.

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Just Like Home – FGF Highlights, Abilene, TX

I love those Texas women… they make me want to trade in my tennis shoes for cowboy boots! But, not sure cowboy boots would look so good with my yoga pants! We were with a great big bunch of friends — such love and safety in that place. Just real women being real with each other.

Thank you to Courtney Cochran for the beautiful photos! To see the entire Facebook album, click here. And to those of you who joined the fun, your photo booth photos are here.

Spill the beans was so fun with Lisa and Laura — they are both so funny. The best part had to be when Lisa used Phil as her ventriloquist dummy! But, I think he would do most anything for his favorite Mouseketeer.

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Why You Can Let Go and Trust God: Advice From a Recovering Blind Control Freak

I used to be a total control freak — a blind control freak. Today, though, I  am a recovering blind control freak. It took me years to figure out that blindness demands I release my need for control.

Without being able to see, I have to risk trusting other people. I have to let go of my perfect timetable and my to-do list. It’s not always easy to let go and trust, but if I don’t choose to risk or release, I truly will never receive what I need.

So, for me, being a  blind control freak is completely counterproductive!

And, can I be honest with the sisters?

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When You Feel Out of Your League: Encouragement for the Self-Doubters

“I can’t believe I am 53 years old! I don’t feel qualified to be this age.”

That’s what I told Phil as we drove home from seeing our new grandbaby.

He laughed and reminded me that I say that about most areas of my life. Unfortunately, he is right.

I mean, there have been days I’ve thought, What am I doing writing blogs and books? I am way too under-qualified to write – like I have all this life stuff figured out?!

Or, I will be standing in front of my kitchen sink, self-doubt covering my heart and suds covering my hands, reviewing my latest parenting issue and think, Why can’t I master this mom-job? It feels so much bigger than me.

Or, inevitably before I get on stage to speak, I’ve fought the feeling that I am too immature or too inexperienced or too inadequate to open my mouth!

Do you ever feel out of your league when it comes to living your life, or pulling off your purpose, or following your calling?