It’s springtime! The grass is green, and flowers are blooming! It’s the most eagerly anticipated season for those with a green thumb. They’ve waited all winter to plant little seedlings and can now enjoy the glorious rewards of their labor. We all know that a beautiful garden doesn’t happen automatically—it takes time and effort. A…
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The Holy Spirit: Your Source of Comfort!
Saunas, hot tubs, pillows, naps, and mac & cheese—to many, these things elicit feelings of comfort. Our bodies long for comfort, especially after physical labor, such as the time my family and I took an eight-mile hike through the mountainous terrain of a Colorado state park. It was grueling, to say the least. My feet ached, my back was…
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I Want to Be Just Like You!
Dinner time is approaching . . . rolling pin, flour, dough, tomato paste, toppings, kids scrambling to wash their hands . . . It’s pizza-making time! One of the activities my kids thoroughly enjoy is helping me make homemade pizza. There will be two balls of pizza dough: one for me to work on and…
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You ARE a Winner
The gun had fired, and I was running for my life. At least it felt that way. In reality, it was a pop gun, and I was running with about thirty other girls, all jockeying for positions as we settled in for our three-mile race. I fell into my normal place near the back. I…
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How to Call “Good” Good
Did you know that there are people, perhaps many people, who call good evil and evil good (Is. 5:20)? How does that happen? I would venture to say that some folks adopt such thinking purposefully, while others come by it honestly. But whether these people know it or not, they have let the world relegate…
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God’s Love: Unchanging, Unending, Unconditional!
“If you don’t play my game, I won’t be your friend anymore!” With a stormy temper, the seven-year-old next door marched up to my daughter and demanded that they play the game she wanted. My stunned daughter didn’t know what to do. She thought friendship should be more enduring. She soon discovered that friends often…
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Grace + Faith = The Balanced Equation of Life
With safety goggles and long white lab coat on, I began the weekly lab experiment in my high school chemistry class many years ago. I knew that if my measurements were off, I probably wouldn’t cause an explosion, but I would, at the very least, make a mess. I had to be aware of and…
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The Choice to Be Shy
Growing up, I was painfully shy. I could hardly look a person in the eyes, and the thought of getting up and speaking in front of people would bring me to the point of tears. My mom and I joke to this day about how she always had to ask the sales clerk if I…
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Boldness and Confidence—They’re Yours!
The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion. Proverbs 28:1, New King James Version(Emphasis added) From my umbrella-shaded lounge chair, I found myself watching a spirited, curly-haired toddler as she broke away from her father’s attempts to clothe her. She dashed naked through the sand toward the shallow ocean waves,…
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Power of Partnership
You’ve heard it before: there is strength in numbers. But implicit in that statement is that these numbers work together for mutual advantage. At minimum, there has to be agreement among them; otherwise, they cannot walk together (Amos 3:3). Ideally, an amiable relationship would make their strength even greater. The stronger the relationship, the greater the things…
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