Love and encouragement from an imperfect mom and her fun teen daughters. We welcome you to live life with us.
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I want to expand on Dr. (Pastor) Vernon McGee’s explanation of the shield of faith. The Holy Spirit showed him how to use it to overcome severe doubts, the kind that plague all of us at times. When he was young, Vernon McGee had a philosophy professor who asked many difficult questions McGee could not … Read more Doubts Deactivated by the Shield of Faith
Our identity in Christ includes many aspects of our life, including our role as women warriors in spiritual warfare. Be sure to check out last week’s post, “Warriors in Genesis’ Eden,” because I discussed our identity as spiritual warriors in that post. But I want to discuss several other aspects of our identity in Christ … Read more Misplacing Our Identity in Christ
(when they won’t repent) I was dismayed when a radio pastor said that although our world wants to shield the victims, they still have an obligation to forgive their attacker (abuser, oppressor, etc.) The pastor referred to unrepentant attackers. I was concerned about the pastor’s tone of voice and the use of the word “obligation,” … Read more Forgive and Let God Punish Them
Some people use religious phrases and pretend to follow God, when they do not. Wolves in sheep’s clothing have existed since ancient times and Scripture shows this. As such, we need to be aware of the frauds and also warn our friends. Pharaoh accused Moses and the Israelites “May the Lord be with you if … Read more Fake Faith and Pious Platitudes
(or your friend lacked one) God designed humans to have a safe, loving relationship with an earthly father (and mother, but today’s post is about dads.) What if you lacked this loving relationship in your childhood? While God has promised to be a father to the fatherless (Psalm68:5,) how can a gal (or guy) appropriate … Read more When you Didn’t have a Loving Earthly Father
Unhealthy neediness is ungodly and causes people to do foolish things, cling to people, make unfair demands and operate out of fear. In contrast, people can have healthy needs, such as babies, frail elderly people, and very close friends and spouses who let themselves express vulnerable needs to enable the relationship to grow. Neediness becomes … Read more Dealing with Needy Children, Friends and our Needy Selves
To idealize another person, even God, is to actually hate the real person, while making unreasonable demands and never accepting the person or forgiving him or her. People idealize a person or God by believing the “idealized person” (or God) owes them and thus the idealizers create an image of a person (or God) who … Read more Idealizing not Loving People: from “loving” to hating a person—even God
Bringing the Lord into our fears There are two ways of dealing with future problems that can harm us. First, some people fear possible future problems and speak “What if,” such as “What if I fail?” The second set of people say we should never think about the future and possible problems, because we have … Read more Fearing Future Problems
People may complain life seems like an endless battle, yet this is not a complaint but the truth. Naïve people may also believe they don’t need to fight in this life. They will suffer for this false belief. We have a real enemy, the devil who hates us. If we pretend the battle does not … Read more Yes, You Can Win the Spiritual Battle if You Admit it is Real!
Many people struggle to have patience, a wonderful fruit of the spirit (Gals. 5:22-23). So why is patience such a hard virtue to master? I mentioned patience and its connection in my last post “The Sneaky Pride of Flesh.” I used to think I had become a very patient person until my daughters got a … Read more Patience for others and ourselves