What Girls Get Wrong

Growing up, I always wanted to go trick-or-treating (hey, free candy’s hard to pass up). But my parents, being the God-fearing, God-serving people they are, never took us.  Finally, though, after much asking, one year they did let us go…to our own house. Seriously. My brother, sister, and I went out our back door, and walked around to the front to ring the door bell and get candy thrown into pillowcases by our own parents. Yeah. One of those childhood cringe moments. Made even more cringe-worthy by my “awesome” ghost costume of a pink blanket thrown over my head while I wore a nightgown. One of many for me, but that’s another story. And although it stunk then, not being able to go and do something which seemed so fun… I’m really grateful they didn’t let us. Because then I started thinking. Halloween’s origins are disputed. Some say it started out as a Roman Catholic holiday. Others say it’s leftover from the old Celtic holiday of Sanhaim. But despite the origi

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,   and he will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV There’s a whole lot of things I don’t get. Like math. I’m pretty good at it, but when it comes to stuff like sine, cosine, and tangent, my mind just shuts down like a stubborn child (for some reason, even the creepy little rhyme “Oscar had a hold on Arthur” or whatever it was didn’t exactly make it any easier). I also don’t get why my grandmother died of colon cancer when I was thirteen. Or why some of my friends suffer with health issues when they try so desperately to eat right and take care of themselves. Or why I couldn’t have some of the opportunities I so desperately wanted. Or why… Or why… The good thing is, we don’t need to. God’s plans are so much better than our own. And even though He closes one door that we wanted to run through, He always opens another that

“Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” ~ Acts 17:10-11 NKJV Any of you who know me personally probably think I’m a person who can be trusted, who knows what she’s talking about. But I’ll warn you right now, don’t believe a word I say. Without checking it against what God says first, of course. I think we can learn a thing or two from those people in Berea. They listened eagerly to Paul and Silas, but instead of letting it go in one ear and out the other, they actually took the time and went back to the Scriptures to make sure those guys were getting it right. Because, let’s face it, we’re all human. We all make mistakes. It’s too easy to just let pastors and teachers and other peo

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The L ord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” ~ Hebrews 13:5-6 It's pretty easy to feel alone. I'm not even going to say how easy it is to feel forsaken, forgotten, left out. I think you have a pretty good idea already. And when you feel alone, it's easy to start doubting God's goodness, to start wanting the blessings He's given someone else. To start wanting the life, the mission He's given someone else. It's the old "The grass is greener..." phenomena. We don't like our classes, so we start envying our friends who are already graduated and working. We don't like our jobs, so we envy those "kids" who are still living it up in high school and college. Or we start wondering why we didn't get