Tag Archives: truth

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2 Ways to Renew Your Mind Daily

My dad always told me that confession is good for the soul. Maybe … but it can also be very bad for the reputation. Even so, I’m risking my reputation with you by letting you in on a little secret.

Ready? Here goes.

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I have an obsession … with the burners on my stove. I’m driven to keep them spotless and gleaming.

Now that I own a gas stove, this dysfunctional issue may not require therapy, but it wasn’t always this way. I once hovered over the burners on my electric range—the pans, rims, and surface beneath were all targets of my compulsion.

Now, before you put me on your prayer list, let me explain.

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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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3 Steps to a Happier You

Have you ever noticed the things you say to yourself — and believe?

I could never do that.
They don’t like me.
I am such an idiot!

You wouldn’t talk that way to anyone else, yet phrases like these constantly flow through your mind, leaving you insecure and defeated.

Girl, I have been there too! The things I said to myself shook my confidence and kept me stuck in defeat until I learned how to get rid of those lies and start speaking positive, biblical truth to my soul.

Do you want to get rid of some of your stinking thinking? Do you need to change what you say to yourself? Yep… even if you’ve got a pretty good habit of not beating yourself up with your words, we all need to review what we say when we talk to ourselves, refresh our inner vocabulary and refine what we say so it matches up with God’s Truth.

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How to Detox Your Faith, One Lie at a Time

As a third grader, our class project was to grow grass in milk cartons. I remember starting the project by cutting the tent-like top off the small milk carton so all that remained was a little box shaped planter. Then, I filled it with a bit of dirt, some seeds, some more dirt and a little water. The teacher then let each of us take home our small waxy paper planters and told us to sit them in a sunny place and water them every day so they would grow.

Mature Woman Choosing Plants At Garden Center

We had to write down everything we did to tend to our little sprouts in a journal and at the end of the month; we were all to bring back the grassy evidence of our hard work! I remember placing my little stump of a flower pot in the window sill in my bedroom. Like the budding Type A that I was, I checked it constantly and watered it when it felt the least bit dry. Tiny sprouts appeared and I recorded it in my “Growth Journal.” It was really growing! By the end of the month, I had a luxurious tuft of green that any golf course in America would covet!

After showing my teacher, I was allowed to bring it back home and keep it. I was so proud of my success and determined I would continue to tend to it so back to its window perch it went. I trimmed, watered, tended, watered, missed a few days, forgot, remembered and then ignored it and eventually…I had some dusty hay in a cut off milk carton! So much for my Type A tendencies — they hadn’t matured yet!

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Letting Go of What You Thought for What Is True

In 2006, I was a guest on the Dr. Phil Show. Oh my gosh, girl! It was a fantastic experience full of surprises and expectations. I expected to have a pre-interview with a producer. I expected to have a totally interesting and slightly intimidating experience on set. I expected to have my make-up professionally done there in the studio. I expected cameras, questions and lots of nerves! I didn’t expect to talk to Dr. Phil personally offstage though. And if I did get to meet him, I expected him to be hurried and professional but not as engaging in private as he was on TV.

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Well, most of my expectations were correct. I pre-interviewed with a producer. There were cameras, professional make-up (thank you, Lord), lots of questions and even more nerves! But, what I expected from Dr. Phil personally was not what I got! I expected him to be hurried. And, even though he was in a hurry, he wasn’t rushed. He was warm and casual. I expected him to be more guarded or distant in person than he seems to be on TV. Nope, he was so engaging and genuinely personally interested in me. I was totally thrown off – he was not who I expected him to be.