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Does God Really Know Best?
Many times, my prayers feel a lot more like pleas. They aren’t faith-filled requests respectfully submitted to God whom I trust. They were desperate desires that I begged all-powerful God to provide. Do you know what I mean? Whether it is a prayer for healing in my friend’s marriage, a job for one of my children, or faith for me to trust God in the love life of another child, I find myself behaving like a frustrated child, begging God to wield His power to my will instead of asking Him to provide and trusting Him to act wisely.
Deep down, I wasn’t trusting in God’s character to do what’s best. I wanted God to fix things. Do you feel the same way?
Is God Big Enough To Deal With This?
I remember as a little girl, one particular day, we had ventured to the beach. I was sitting at the water’s edge with my cousins when a fierce wave came crashing in and began to pull me towards deep water. As the force of this wave began to pull me out and just as I was beginning to panic, I felt my Mom’s arms swoop around me drawing me to safety. To this very day, almost 40 years later, I can still remember the moment of pure peace and comfort in my Mother’s arms just moments after sheer panic.
Why Do I Always Feel Passed Over?
When you think of the phrase “pass over,” it may bring some negative feelings to your mind and heart. Maybe it is just a memory of when you were a child and passed over on the playground, the last pick for the kickball team. Or, maybe you have recently been passed over for a promotion at your job or you might just feel like you have been passed over your entire life from rejection after rejection. I know at times in my life, I have simply sat feeling unseen and unloved. I was reading in Exodus the other day when this contrast struck me. What, in our day mostly bares a negative sentiment, holds a beautiful story in the pages of scripture.
Why Keep Going?
Is life painful right now? Are you struggling through hard things? Maybe it is hard by your own doing, maybe not, no matter what, hold fast dear friend.
The healing and renewing of my heart, soul, and mind was the most challenging thing I have ever endured. Thoughts like, I can’t do this, this is too much, I just want to move on churned through my mind constantly. I was broken, and the healing and restoration process was exhausting and incredibly painful. I don’t know about you but when I am exhausted, deeply hurting, or uncomfortable, I want to flee the situation as quickly as possible and move on.
Will She Ever Talk To Me Again?
I was standing in the same place that I do every Sunday morning at church as I welcome people, answer questions, and help wherever necessary. I glanced over my shoulder and there she was; an old friend that I had not spoken to in over eight years. As I watched her get closer and closer, everything about our last interaction came rushing back to my mind. This was someone who had been struck by the shrapnel of my reckless words, and bad decisions. All those years ago, hateful talk had been exchanged and promises were declared that we would never speak again.
How Does Grace Work?
Just after my world fell apart, after my bad choices were exposed, I couldn’t escape it anywhere. I was walking through the grocery store one day and encountered a woman from my church on the same aisle. Before everything was exposed and I became a spectacle in the eyes of many, this woman would have said hello and chatted for a few minutes. This day was different; she saw me and immediately turned around and went to another aisle without even a smile or hello. I was shattered. I was convinced I would be treated this way forever and that my life was over.
How Can I Find a Blessing in My Pain?
Are you going through something right now that feels hard and painful? Whether it’s a divorce, the rebellion of a child, an injustice that threatens your future, or a different stressful situation, life isn’t short of difficulties that disrupt our peace and threaten our contentment. On top of the ups and downs in each of our lives, society has dealt with a pandemic, supply shortages, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. It’s not surprising that many people say their mental health is challenged. Combining a personal hardship with our societal challenges is enough to steal our hope and rob us of any remaining optimism for the future. When our lives are interrupted by unpleasant circumstances, we just want it all to stop and life to return to “normal”. My normal was disrupted the other day
How Do I Get Out Of This Pit of Despair, When It Is All My Fault?
As I found myself in one of the hardest moments of my life, I sat at my kitchen table day in and day out just crying. I had turned away from the Lord turned toward ugly temptations and landed in despair. I would get my boys off to school, my husband off to work and I would go sit, reading scripture, journaling my heart’s cries, and just weep. Gazing out our big kitchen window from time to time all I could muster up the strength to say was “Oh Jesus.” That’s it. That’s all. I didn’t have any other words. Yet, I can tell you this: In those moments of reading scripture for hours and journaling and just crying out to Him; He brought me peace. At times I would hear a still small voice saying “I love you my child.” “You will get through this my child.” “Rest in me my child.” Every day, every-single-day, I took a step towards healing. I took a step towards hope. I surrendered my heart, my everything to the Lord. So first, can I tell you that no matter what it is that has broken you whether it be a bad decision you made, a loss of someone close to you or whatever, let Christ be your rescuer. I had hit rock bottom. The bottom of all bottoms. I fell on my face and asked the only One who could get me out to rescue me. He has.
Can I Find Purpose Through My Pain?
From the time I was a young girl, I was a hopeless romantic. I could spin it to you by saying I was just plain boy-crazy, or by telling you that I possibly watched one too many Disney fairy tales along the way - but the truth of the matter is that I desperately wanted to be loved. As human beings, but women especially, we are designed to want to give and receive unconditional love. We want to be known intimately by someone who will cherish and value us for our wonderful qualities, and someone who will continue loving us right through our bad ones. As I got older, this aching desire I had to feel loved ended up making of fool of me more times than I care to recall. I made some incredibly unfortunate decisions that I'm not proud of today in an attempt to feel love. After a while, I found those attempts at "love" to be incredibly fleeting and in the long-run I was left feeling quite the opposite of what I had hoped for.
Then I had kids . . .