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Are You Ready to Embrace Your Next Yes with God?
I’m excited to share that, after a very long, humbling, and intimidating process, my book, “The Next Yes: Saying Yes to God and Finding Life in Unexpected Places,” will be released on November 19, 2024.
If you struggle to balance the demands of your responsibilities with a desire to be used by God to make a meaningful impact on the people you love, then this book is for you!
How Can We Find Hope When Things Look Hopeless?
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? I happily see life through a hopeful lens. My glass is almost always half full, and I even tend to see the bright side in many undesirable situations. But facing the soon-to-be empty nest challenged my bright side philosophy and threatened to override its influence.
The empty nest represents one of many life transitions. You may be looking forward to the empty nest, or it might be so far removed from your life that you can’t imagine its impact. You may be facing a different life transition that is hard such as an unexpected health diagnosis, a surprise financial crisis, the loss of a dear friend, or an undesired divorce. These are all changes from one stage of life to another. One day we wake up to our normal life and then overnight the pages of life turn and with them comes a new chapter. In the new chapter, we find ourselves struggling to believe that our future will be as bright as our past.
How can we as Christians find hope when what we see in front of us looks hopeless?
How Do We Steward Well?
Tuesday started like I expected: an abbreviated quiet time, the kids off to school, and me out the door to my uncle's house. Because they moved him up, I hoped to run a few Christmas errands after his four-hour infusion appointment. But life took a hard right turn. Instead of shopping, wrapping, and cooking, I sat bewildered by his side for days, waiting. But also utterly aware of the sacred opportunity God entrusted to those he loved.
More than ever, God teaches how to love Him with open hands. Open to what He gives without clinging to what we want. Learning to let go of expectations and plans and trust where He leads.
How Can You Tell the Story of His Grace?
I love people with stories. I enjoy hearing the journey of how a person gets from point A to point B. I love overcomers and underdogs, and I'm a perpetual sucker for stories that start in the valley and end on a mountaintop.
Why Does Surrender Feel So Scary?
It was 4 am as I stood trembling in front of the bathroom mirror and whispered “my life is not going to be the same!”. I had just taken a pregnancy test and to my dismay it was showing positive. A flood of worries came crashing into my head as I felt an overwhelm of emotions. How will this affect each of us in the family? Is my body ready for this journey? How will my teenage sons react to the news? How did this even happen?! I spent the next three hours with a million thoughts a minute racing through my mind.
What do you do when situations you thought were very much under your control and caution get overridden?
Do You Ever Feel Stuck?
Recently, I found myself in a completely incomprehensible situation. It was so beyond anything I could imagine that my natural tendency to “rise to the occasion” just shut down. I felt shell-shocked, and I had no idea what to do.
Two of my longest and closest friends were experiencing life-altering events within days of each other. One friend’s daughter was getting married. The other friend’s son had just died unexpectedly on a normal day in a tragic car accident. The funeral for my friend’s son fell on the same day as the wedding for my other friend’s daughter.
How Can I Forgive Someone Who isn’t Sorry?
A couple of years ago, I received a request to participate in a redemption story for a young woman. She had been caught in the boys’ bathroom at her high school performing a sexual act. It got recorded and another student posted it on social media where it spread very quickly. One of my friends reached out to a few of us with an opportunity to speak truth and life into this young woman. She had obviously messed up, but having her mistake preserved and shared with hundreds of her peers would profoundly impact her life for years to come. This was an opportunity for us to put our faith into action and speak love into her life.
I was all in. What a lovely suggestion! The only problem was, I had no idea what to say.
Is God Calling You to Sit or Serve?
Many years ago, when my children were very small, our family hosted Thanksgiving dinner. I spent weeks preparing, crafting the menu, shopping for needs, cleaning our home, and setting the China. The morning of Thanksgiving, we carefully balanced entertaining our children with keeping our house clean and perfectly timing the turkey for our guests. We graciously hosted an elderly couple far from family or friends who would have otherwise spent Thanksgiving alone. As I served the gentleman a generous slice of apple pie with ice cream, he turned and asked. “Is this homemade?”
Just like the Thanksgiving turkey is stuffed with dressing, the holidays are filled with expectations.
An empty heart that turns toward God will know what it means to be filled
It's that time of year when comfort food becomes, well, comforting. I live in Illinois, where the temperatures can change at the drop of a hat this time of year. We might need a sweater and jacket in the morning,
Discovering God by Lisa Mauldin
As a mom, I am quickly approaching the empty nest stage. I have 4 incredible children whom I was given the blessing of watching grow from helpless little ones into the grown, thriving young men and women that they are today. My heart treasures the moments when we can all be together, but the times when I get to have one-on-one time with them is something I try to store up in my heart as much as I possibly can. You see, the one-on-one moments with my children are when life can be shared, conversations can be had, worries and dreams can be talked about, and, at times, prayers can be spoken. Lately, as I think back on some of these moments, I begin to understand a little deeper the love that God has for me.
What Does God Ask of Us?
Do you ever wonder if God finds you useful in His kingdom? I’ll be honest, I haven’t thought much about being useful to God, because there are so many other things to think about. Does my behavior please Him? How can I be more holy? Am I following his word? And the tried and true, “What would Jesus do?”
Asking if I’m useful in His kingdom feels like something to consider after I address the other concerns.
Why does this even matter? Well, recently, my husband and I had back-to-back arguments.
A Psalm for the Barbie in all of us
Today's world says women must be successful, get noticed, be thin, be charming, stand out, and be beautiful. We must be intelligent, talented, sexy, yet classy, bold, witty, organized, healthy, creative, punctual, and take perfect care of everyone around us. The list of roles we attempt to fill flawlessly is never-ending. Do I sound like the Barbie movie yet?
What Is Immeasurably More?
The safari was everything we hoped for, offering a brief respite for our Western sensibilities from the disease and desperate need we saw on most of our trip. Yet we quickly learned that well-dressed Ugandans think differently than the average American. “What are you looking for?” I asked our Uganda guide as he escorted us down the path towards our villa after dinner. “Hippos,” as if that was a perfectly normal answer.
“What are you going to do if you see one?” “I’ll bang two rocks together in my hands to scare the hippo.” Two rocks to scare the hippos, I thought in disbelief. “If that doesn’t work?” “Just don’t run in a straight line. Hippos can only run in a straight line.”
Obeying God feels like God wants something from me. In the case of the hippos, maybe God wanted a little more faith. Other times, He’s asking for my time, money, energy, or pride, but always faith. A water well. Obedience requires me to think more of Him and less of me. But obedience mostly feels like less of me. Like I’m giving up something for God. And this may be true in the short term. But obeying God really means more of Him.
When your Oreos are double stuffed with forgiveness
Forgiveness: Everyone wants it, yet we all struggle to give it.
I'll admit, in the past few years, this subject has taken me on a rollercoaster ride. As a Christian, I desire intimacy with God. So, I want to be obedient and forgive those who hurt me. But in all my humanness, this can be easy to forget.
Who Needs to Hear Your Story of God’s Redemption? By Jodi Rosser
I am still in awe about how God used my story.
Across the globe in Rwanda, Africa, our Saddleback Church Kids Small Group (KSG) team gathered for our final morning meeting.
Just eleven days earlier, my youngest son graduated from elementary school and together, we boarded a plane with seven sixth grade child-and-parent duos. People that had started as mere acquaintances had since become lifelong friends after two long ten-hour plane rides and a full week of ministry.
Serving others in need in the country of Rwanda, previously known for its genocide but now recognized for its reconciliation and forgiveness, had undeniably bonded and changed us for the better.
Are You Resigned to God’s Will When You Pray?
Recently, I spent the day helping a young friend whom I mentor re-decorate a room in her house. One of the last tasks we had for the day was to hang something on the wall. She brought out a picture she had painted herself. It was perfect for the spot, but it had a minor imperfection that would almost certainly go unnoticed by anyone else. She balked at using it because she said she spends a lot of time in that room and the imperfect picture would bother her every time she was in the room.
After hanging it as a placeholder, she firmly declared that she would replace it later.
How do you react to continual annoyances? You may not be hanging barely flawed pictures on a wall, but you are probably familiar with minor imperfections in an otherwise satisfactory experience or environment.
When Will This Be Over?
We have officially moved to Florida. A long chapter has finally closed and the season is now changing.
This closing chapter could indeed be titled “From Temptation to Redemption.” God’s work is miraculous.
What’s Your Impossible Prayer?
Lesson #17 on a Journey to a Water Well
Friday, June 17, 2016
Thirty to forty Ugandan construction workers gathered around the water well surrounded by a handful of spiritual giants. It was a motley crew of Ugandan men clad with grey denim-like work suits and bright yellow, orange, or white plastic construction hats interspersed between a few oddly placed mzungus (white people). The kids busied themselves with new young friends, sticks, red dirt, or anything else they could find to occupy their minds or bodies.
One at a time, the spiritual giants stepped to the podium to speak of the water that wells up to eternal life. First, the country director spoke, then Katie. But the transformation of the quiet-spoken, unassuming American engineer into a passionate orator for Christ as the Living Water captivated my soul. It was so unexpected. Too much so.His passion slowly dissipated as he lowered his head and concluded his message, making me the final presenter.
“The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27).
Trusting the Gardener
This past spring, we did a lot of work in our backyard. One of my favorite additions was the many container plants with gorgeous blooming flowers that now dot our entire landscape. Always a summer go-to flower are my sun-loving petunias. They are easy to care for and one of the most vibrant summer flowers I've found. I often grab them in pinks, purples, yellows, and corals. In the early part of the season, I feed them a little Miracle Grow, and these fun little beauties thrive! I mean billowing and cascading over the sides and bursting with lush colors. It's hard not to be filled with the sweetness of summer while gazing at them, and this year they overflowed.
Seeking After Treasure
I can’t believe I fell for it! I’m just like Eve! I think it all started innocently.