What Girls Get Wrong

Things always happen at the “worst” possible time. Ten days before Christmas, I got sick with the worst cold I’ve had in years (I’m just a few days over the aftermath). Seven days before Christmas, a new cat happened to pop into my life. A very young, very ravenous, very energetic, very curious, very messy male cat. I still had shopping to do, deadlines to meet, and projects to finish. One night, exhausted, having spent the day scrambling to get what I could done with my limited energy and time, the cat made a new mess for me to clean up, despite my best efforts to minimize the amount of messes he could make. I almost had a meltdown. I was so tired, so done, and struggling with the loss I’d sustained near Christmas years earlier. All I could ask was why was all of this happening all at once? At the worst possible time? The story of Joseph and Mary looks like a case of bad timing one right after another. Mary gets pregnant right before getting marri...

I never knew her name.   I didn’t even realize she was in my class until we stood outside the classroom doors, waiting to enter for our final exam.   I don’t even remember now what she looks like, although I want to say she had her dark hair pulled up in a bun and wore glasses. All I remember was that she gave me a mechanical pencil. It was the end of the fall semester of my senior year.   I was in a lot of pain from Lyme Disease that day.   I’d just come from an internship meeting which had soured before it began.   I was doing all I could to keep it together. I’d been so focused on the meeting before that I’d forgotten to bring any pencils with me.   And when I saw the few girls studying outside the classroom doors, I realized my mistake.   But it was too late to go back and get a pencil.   So I asked if I could borrow one. The girls looked at each other, and one of them finally checked the lead in her mechanical pencils, a...

I've been thinking again about how much God loves us. His love is so strong, so pure, He's willing to watch us suffer. Let me explain what I mean. When things happen to us which are painful, we tend to beg and pray that God will resolve the problem quickly, or make it go away. The situation will be really difficult.  Someone we love will be dying.  We'll be down to our last ten dollars, our last rent money.  We'll be struggling with a health issue. We'll be in agony over it, and we let our human perspective blind us. We begin to doubt God, that He is good, that He cares about us or our situation. But the amazing thing, if we take the time to consider, is that God never stopped loving us, or caring about what we're going through.  The Bible is full of verses declaring His love for us. God loved us so much: 1. He sent Jesus to die for us ( John 3:16 ; 1 John 3:16 ).* 2. He calls us who have accepted Christ's sacrifice and Lordship His child...

Some time ago, I wrote a post about how dangerous it is to compare ourselves to others .  Whether your comparisons make you feel bad about yourself, or whether they cause you to feel superior to someone else, the comparing game causes pain. At least, when we're framing it in a me versus you format. Why did God include so many stories of people in the Bible?  If we shouldn't compare, why did He write of Esther and her courage, of Ruth and her diligence, of Tamar and her seduction, of Mary and her obedience, of Naomi and her bitterness? The Bible is ultimately the story of God, His creation, the first man and woman's betrayal, His undying love and sacrifice, and His rescue of mankind from their sin and complete victory over evil.  But along the way, we read of many people, both good and bad, both repentant and in denial. What was the reason for all of these stories?  Was it just to make the Bible longer?  Did God have a word count He wanted to hit, and so ...

"You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You." ~ Isaiah 26:3, NKJV This verse has been running through my head a lot the past couple of weeks. When my heart has been anything but peaceful as I watch the health of two of my three cats slowly fail. Letting go of them, who I love so much, have had for so long, it hurts. And besides that, there have been other things going on in my life which tear at my heart and fill my mind with doubt and fear. Chances are, fear and doubt are plaguing you too. Maybe you're watching a parent or a grandparent's health fail. Maybe your parents are going through a divorce. Maybe you're going through a divorce. Maybe you're struggling with school or work or illness. Maybe what's bothering you is something else. I think about when Isaiah penned this verse, under the inspiration of God. He started his ministry in the same year King Uzziah died (Isaiah 6:1). He lived throug...

We all know what a trap comparison is, we've heard enough about how we shouldn't compare our lives, looks, etc to other girls, that Facebook inflates what our lives look like. But I haven't heard nearly as much about comparing our faults to those of others. That is a trap I've recently discovered in my life. I've always had an issue with comparison, if I'm honest. I think most of us do. We live in a sinful world, and from babyhood we're taught to look/act/be a certain way. We're indoctrinated with comparing ourselves every time we turn on the T.V. pretty much. We've used comparison lots to tell ourselves where we lack. We also use it a lot to pat ourselves on the back, to convince ourselves we're doing okay. But whereas we know by now how dangerous it is to compare ourselves to others as a standard of what we lack, the dangers of comparing our faults and mistakes to those of others to make ourselves feel better is much more slippery. ...

There's a lot of lies that Satan wants you to believe. In this series, we've looked at lies about God , Satan , Pain , and  Sin . There's many more we didn't look at, both in the topics listed, and in others. Today, to end this series for now, I want to focus on three lies Satan desperately wants us to believe about ourselves. 1. My worth is based on what I can do, have, who I'm with, etc. "He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" ~ 2 Timothy 1:9, NIV I'm a very driven person. But I struggle with chronic pain and fatigue. I have goals, dreams, plans, that I want to accomplish. I write novels, and have plans for how fast I will put them up on Kindle. And when I don't reach my idea of how much I should get done in a day, I often beat myself up. Because I too often forget that, whi...

It's been a while since I last posted. Between the holidays and other family craziness, my life's been a little swamped. But now it's time to get back in and try to finish this series. So as we all know by now, Satan excels at lying. He tells us lies about lots of different things and people, including God and himself. Last time I posted, it was about the lies he tells us when we're dealing with pain . Another area he like to tell a lot of lies about is sin (yes, we're finally going to look at this area. No more delays). If I'm honest with you, I struggled not only writing this post, but also in deciding whether I should still post it after so long. Should I continue this series? Should I move on? Am I being one of those people pointing to dust specks when I'm carrying around a 2x4 in my spiritual eye ( Matthew 7:1-6 )? But after praying, I decided this was important to talk about, that even though this post will be riddled with errors (because I'm...

Last week, when I mentioned three lies Satan tells us about himself , I said we would talk about three lies about sin this week. But I’m going to save that for next week because I feel I should talk to you about something else instead. You see, yesterday I had to put my cat Smokey to sleep. And I prayed that God would give me strength because my heart was breaking. I mentioned in a previous post about my cat MeMe , who was not doing well. By God’s grace, her health is much better, and I thank you all for praying for her and me. Smokey was her brother, a sweet little boy who I called “the cat of instant purr.” You practically just had to look at this cat and he would purr. Even in his last minutes, when my dad held him before the vet gave him the final shot, my beautiful little buddy was purring. I thank God that by His abundant mercy Smokey didn’t suffer long. It was really only the last three or four days of his life that he seemed like he was suffering at all. But ev...

Satan has a repertoire of "gifts," including inciting rebellion and convincing Christians and the unsaved alike that they should care about themselves more than they should care about others. One of his greatest skills is lying. Last week's post was about some lies he tells us   about God . But it doesn't stop there. Satan tells us multiple lies about himself. 1. He's as powerful as God. "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." ~ 1 John 4:4, NKJV Don't get me wrong. The devil has great power. But it's nothing compared to God's. Remember the story of Job? Satan wanted to crush him, to hurt him so badly that Job would take it out on God and say all kinds of rotten things against Him. But Satan couldn't lay a finger on him unless   God gave the green light . Job lived thousands of years ago, but that truth remains unchang...

We all know Satan is a liar. Jesus Himself tells us Satan invented lying . But why do we still get caught up in his lies? I think our main problem is we don't know how to spot them, or that they're so small, phrased just right, that we began not to notice they are contrary to what the Bible tells us (one of the reasons it is VITAL to have a daily time in the Word!). And they tend to play on our emotions. Satan knows he can get to us easier through our feelings than our brains. So for the next few weeks, let's take a look at some of the different lies we're told, and what the truth really is. This week, let's take a look and see what three lies Satan wants us to believe about God. 1. If I mess up, God's done with me/I have to earn His approval. "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is ...

This coming election is a mess. That's no secret. I've yet to find anyone who is strongly for Trump or Clinton who isn't delusional. I mean, we're talking about the presidency of the U.S.A., a position which used to be reserved for the most qualified, most able candidate. Here in 2016, we have two candidates who are neither qualified or able, who have committed deeds and made statements that past generations wouldn't have allowed of town mayors, let alone the president of the United States. The only chance we have of having a decent president may be if a write-in or third party candidate gets elected, and even then it's probably a long-shot. It doesn't end there. Just looking at the direction this country has been heading is kind of scary. We started out as a country where most of the founding fathers at least acknowledged God's existence and power. How did we end up as one where for a Christian to express his or her beliefs is now labeled "intole...

She was just supposed to go in for a checkup and blood draw before she got a dental done. No big deal, routine for a 14-year-old cat (that's an old fogie cat FYI). She was little, but she is a runt, she's always been little. Only when she was rather fat was she more than 8 pounds. 6-7 was a good weight for her. My little babe I sat in the waiting room, my fur baby in her carrier beside me, giving me her signature stink eye glare. She'd ignore me the rest of the day when we got home, but I was just over the flu, and gave more thought to how much longer we'd be waiting than what mood my cat would be in when we got back home. When we were called back and the tech weighed her, she was a little light. Closer to 5 pounds than 6. But she was old, and cats tend to lean out when they get old. The vet was a little concerned, but thought it might be a thyroid issue. They drew blood, and sent me on my way after scheduling MeMe's dental. The blood work showed high ...

I glanced at the clock. Not even 12:30, and already I wished the school day was over. I knew how the kids felt. They must be impatient for Spring Break to begin as well. Their behavior certainly said so. It was nearing the end, though. After being pulled to cover for meetings where there were no substitute teachers, only study halls remained before the students would be herded into the auditorium to watch a documentary for the rest of the afternoon. Two study halls had been canceled, and I had just gotten through one. That left only one more before the movie. How bad could it be? The kids traipsed in, and took their seats at the computers as I gave out the instructions. Those who had forgotten their login info were doomed to reading. Most of the students, though, found talking about spring break plans with their peers more compelling than following directions. As I tried to still the room back into a studious quiet, someone decided to make sound effects. As soon as I called Kevin...