Tag Archives: grace

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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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Stop Starting New Habits This Year

I heard recently, “Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.” Uh, that’s me — guilty! When the calendar turned from 2016 to 2017, many of us — me included— turned our focus to what we want to “start” doing or what new habits we want to “begin.”

I made a list of resolutions. I narrowed it down to the doable. I chose the one biggie and I tried really hard and… well… my old habits have tagged along into this new year, uninvited, unwelcome, but here they are!  I think that is because most of the time, we need to let go of old habits  so the new habits can have a place to grow.

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How to Respond to the Grown-Up Mean Girl

Mean girls grow up. It sure would be nice if all those years of living would make a mean girl a gentler woman, but sometimes, the mean girl just grows into a mean woman. I know this because I got an email from one of them. I never met her and she doesn’t know me, but after she read my bio from my website, she felt the need to give me the what for!

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And, can I be honest? I felt the same need. Let me give you an excerpt of her note to me and then, I’ll give you my response. My response may help you the next time you deal with a mean girl who grew up without maturing.

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How to Know If You’re Being Judgmental or Showing Good Judgment

“She shouldn’t have done that.” “How could she think that?” “I can’t believe she actually went there!” “I would never do that…”

Sound familiar? Anyone ever whispered phrases like that in your ear? Or, have you ever muttered them under your breath?

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I’ve heard that kind of stuff and said that junk and thought it too! When it comes to being judgmental, I admit, I have blown it!

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Shame Off You

Our body language tells our secrets even when we think we’ve got them all under wraps! For example, body language experts say that when women feel shame, they may become small in posture by slouching or turning away. They may avert their eyes, kind of like a baby covering her own eyes and imagining she’s hiding. The experts describe the body language of shame as an attempt to be invisible or an effort to hide.

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Wishing she was invisible?  Longing to hide? That has to be exactly how the woman who had been caught in adultery felt when she stood before Jesus.