You think you know someone, then you learn the back story…

Do you ever meet someone, get to know them a bit, and form ideas in your mind about them? “He’s weird.” “Why on earth would she do that??” “What is this dude’s deal?” I’m not proud to admit it, but I’ll be honest, I have. I like to think that I still treat people well, despite pigeonholing them – hopefully you do, too – however it’s a sobering moment when I recognise that I’ve done this, when I realise that I jumped to conclusions; I didn’t know the whole story – and I shouldn’t have needed to, in the first place, but it seems to help.
Continue reading PeRspEctiVe →

“Lord, I believe: help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24

Can faith really heal? Can wholly trusting the Lord, having absolute faith that He will heal, or produce a miracle, really yield that positive result?

My minister husband and I were just discussing this, and by the end of the conversation, it sure did seem like 100% faith is the source of miracles.

We all have issues – some are major, some minor, but we’ve all got ’em – and, being religious folk (by definition, since we’re reading this blog), we probably all pray about them at some time or other. If our prayers don’t yield the result we want, is it because we didn’t pray hard enough? Is it because not enough people prayed for this particular cause? Is it a critical mass thing, where if you have 9 people praying for you, ah, shucks, sorry, no luck, but if you’ve got that 10th, well, there you go, that’s your ticket! I highly doubt it; I can’t believe that could possibly be so,… but I am pausing to wonder. Maybe I’m wrong? (No, surely not! The Lord is more merciful than that! ….Right??) Continue reading Faith Healing →

I had a dream, the other night – a very real dream! I awoke with these images floating through my head, and, after pondering them a moment, hurriedly thanked the Lord for guiding me and protecting me against such scenarios. I worked throughout the day to flush my brain of those recurring images – those hells liked to keep reminding me, dragging me down, I could tell! However, it was neat to be able to stand back and envision the evil spirits, doing just that; bringing those images back into my consciousness, rejoicing over the emotions they would evoke in me. It was helpful to be able to remove myself from the situation and see it from what may have been the Lord’s perspective. So, again and repeatedly I bid those spirits adieu and thanked the Lord for supporting me through the process.
Continue reading He’s Got Our Backs →

It would seem that valuing money is pretty straight-forward, right? I mean, a dollar’s worth a dollar, 50¢ worth 50¢, and so forth. That seems pretty obvious at first blush [and I won’t go into comparing currency values!], but then I think about all the amazing finds I’ve gotten from thrift shops – just because I paid ⅛ of the retail price doesn’t make it any less valuable to me! On the flip side, if I paid twice as much as I should have,… well, yeah, I might be a little more protective of it.

My husband made a great point, the other day: he said he wanted to get on our nine-year-old son’s case about ALL the stuff in his room, the need to appreciate it and and take care of it, etc, but then it occurred to him, ‘Wait a minute, is that really what we want to be teaching our son, that material possessions are so important?’ I must say, I think he’s onto something. The Lord tells us time and again that we shouldn’t rest our affections on THINGS! Continue reading The Value of Money →