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Tag: hope

Am I Holding Out Words of Hope and Life?

April 26, 2022
| 8 Comments
| Categories: Coaching Your Friends, Coaching Your Kids, Coaching Your Spouse, Coaching Yourself, Encouragement, Grace, Hope, Ministry and Serving, Uncategorized

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
    and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

proverbs 18:21

I remember one of the most hopeless seasons in my life. I felt despair at the thought of living through another day of uncertainty and sadness. I couldn’t imagine trying to put on a happy face free from mascara stains in order to homeschool my kids.

I’m so thankful for the people who took my hand and sat with me in my hopeless feelings, listened to my frustration and prayed…

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Only His Wounds Can Heal

April 16, 2022
| 18 Comments
| Categories: Coaching Yourself, Jesus, Savior, Uncategorized

It’s Silent Saturday. The day before we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.

I’m not asking a question as I normally do in this post, but I’m also not being silent today.

I sit down at my desk to write and the legs of a chair that’s been headed for the junk pile for months now kick out in front of me. I gather it up and calmly set it by the door. By the time I get back to my seat, I’ve had time to ruminate on the other things that have…

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Am I Hoping for Rest More than Hoping in the God of Rest?

February 19, 2021
| 6 Comments
| Categories: Coaching Yourself, Uncategorized

Am I hoping for rest more than hoping in the God of rest?

Am I hoping that the rest I long for is my goodness instead of GOD BEING MY GOODNESS. How do I really and practically grasp that God is my rest, portion, and peace?

The SOURCE of blessing and rest should be my desire more than the blessing of rest. I don’t grasp this well or completely, but that it’s something I’m learning to grasp over a lifetime. Striving to just faintly trace this truth with my stretched…

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Am I Occupying Myself Too Much With Things Too Great?

September 25, 2020
| 8 Comments
| Categories: Coaching Yourself, Questions, Spiritual Growth, Uncategorized

One can’t miss the intricate handiwork of spiders, especially in the fall. I recently found myself mesmerized by them on my morning walk. I looked up high in the changing trees and tried to follow the lines and curves. I couldn’t imagine how such a small creature could pull off such a great task. The picture at the top of this post shows one that must have been at least one and a half feet in diameter. The spider’s work is beyond me!

Growing In Faith Through Hope and Celebration

August 27, 2019
| 8 Comments
| Categories: Coaching Yourself

To say I’m overwhelmed this week might be an understatement.

You might be thinking, “Didn’t you create a course on overcoming overwhelm?”

If you are, you’re right. I did! What you might not know is that I state in the course that overwhelming life situations will always come. We can’t obliterate ovewhelm once and for all. We must face each overwhelming life situation as it happens and face each one well.

So, that’s my goal this week!

As I prepare to leave on a trip for two weeks, I face some challenges. Our air…

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If You Feel Like You’re Free Falling

July 23, 2019
| 8 Comments
| Categories: Fear, Stress, Uncategorized, Worry

Do you ever feel like you’re free falling?

If you’re a thrill seeker, maybe that doesn’t sound so bad. For me, the feeling doesn’t make me excited or happy. The feeling makes me want to run away, hide, or quit.

If you are contemplating quitting, hiding, or running away, I want to enourage you today!

I felt like I was free falling right through 2018 and into 2019 like a helpless eaglet slipping out of her nest. I knew that I had to trust that the Lord’s everlasting arms were underneath me instead…

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When Longing For More Is Good

January 21, 2017
| 12 Comments
| Categories: Encouragement, Fear, Hope, Joy

DSCN0482

With the recent ice storm in the midwest, I was reminded of these amazing images I was able to capture a couple of years ago and the thoughts that they triggered.  Join me this week on a post from my past?

“Those ice cakes may have traveled all the way from South Dakota,”  my dad said as he clicked away on his camera.

The Missouri River runs through my town carrying ice cakes with it toward the gulf.  My dad, the kids and I explored it.  We watched the cakes quickly race…

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But I Will Hope

April 27, 2015
| 33 Comments
| Categories: Encouragement

ruthie egg

Her eyes delighted in the blue egg and her little hands cupped it gingerly.  I told her we should leave it where it was and she reluctantly complied.  For two weeks she wondered why the mommy didn’t come after it and how it fell out of its nest.  Every day she ran around to the side of the house to check on its status.

I tried to warn her of the realities of what happens when an egg doesn’t have a mama to care for it.  I told her it…

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When Longing for More is Good

January 19, 2015
| 29 Comments
| Categories: Encouragement, Fear

DSCN0482

“Those ice cakes may have traveled all the way from South Dakota,”  my dad said as he clicked away on his camera.

The Missouri River runs through my town carrying ice cakes with it toward the gulf.  My dad, the kids and I explored it.  We watched the cakes quickly race by while the stagnant water in small inlets remained frozen, cracked and unmoved.

I wondered what the ice cakes have seen.  How long they’ll stay solid and where the last frozen chunk will melt.  As a child I always wanted to…

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Moving From “Yeah, But…” to “But Now”

August 30, 2014
| 11 Comments
| Categories: Encouragement, Renewing the Mind

DSCN1087

I love this picture.  The dying stalks lifting up frail heads to seemingly worship.  The sun casting its transforming rays through and beautifying them.

Without the sun and with a different perspective, this picture would have turned out so much different.  It was actually taken at a cemetery.  The nearby tombstones were not caught but the light filtering through seeds was.  A reminder to me of hope beyond death and of perspective.

What a difference perspective makes.

What an impact our words have on our perspective.

“Yeah, but…”

These are words that are moving toward extinction…

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