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Appearances and Hearts

We are quick to judge people. We're fast to look at someone who's overweight and think they're a glutton, without considering that while they could overeat, it could also be they suffer from a medical condition that makes their body gain weight easily. We look at someone who is sickly, and think they're living an unhealthy lifestyle filled with junk food and devoid of exercise. And while that could be true, we rarely acknowledge that they could also be suffering from food intolerences yet undiscovered, that they could be trying their best to take care of their bodies to little or no effect on their condition. And I'm sure all of us girls have had that friendship with a girl who looked pretty and maybe was even popular, who seemed kind and likable, the perfect friend. But we soon found out that, while she might be a good friend for someone, it wasn't a good friendship for us, either because she was a horrible person or we had nothing in common. Some of u...

Can We Have Perfect Peace in an Imperfect World?

"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...

3 Dangers of Comparison's False Comfort

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. ...

3 Little Lies: About You

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...

3 Little Lies: About Sin

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...

3 Little Lies: About Pain

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...

3 Little Lies: About Satan

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...