We must always hold onto hope. And we must never let go of the hope of healing—even healing from our sexual traumas. We can experience freedom from shame’s grip. We can experience freedom from the lies we have lived with for many years.
Category: Soul
Six Things I’ve Learned in Six (Plus) Decades
This is the joy of life, learning from others, finding our way, and helping as many as we can along the way, but always knowing there is water in the well. And it does not belong to us. It is God’s gift.
Serving as a Caregiver
At times, caregiving is tough, but the care you provide others is a gift that eases suffering and provides support. You may find yourself having hard conversations about end-of-life wishes, eternity, and comforting fears about the uncertainties of last days. Listen patiently and answer compassionately.
Acceptance and Changing Seasons
Each season offers beauty, purpose, and challenges. In our minds, and hearts, we must see the beauty and purpose within our place in life. And we need to know God is sovereign—He has a plan in mind. He has a purpose. And He makes beauty out of our ashes.
Love Extravagantly
Ah, the power of a personal mission statement: not cautious but extravagant, not to get, but to give. What changes do you need to make to love your spouse extravagantly? Make it your personal purpose statement: love extravagantly.
When You Experience Grief AND Relief
You never really know how you will react, especially after years and years of trying to prepare yourself. My first reaction privately, Thank you God! Immediately, tears streamed down my face. Then I thought, Wait a minute! My mother was no longer suffering and confined to a bed, needing help for every basic need. I knew she was in heaven, so why the tears?
More than a Number
Remember the feeling of being chosen to a team in PE when you were a child, or being chosen for a dance at your high school dance, or being chosen to be someone’s bride? All those events make you feel special because you have been selected, picked out as the object of choice. You’re not just one of the crowd—a #126. God sits with you and wants to remind you that you are His.
Prayer and Quiet Reflection
It is wise for us to retreat into our own wilderness—whether it be on a mountaintop, the desert, or a park a couple of miles away from home. This has been most profitable for me. I have found that it allows clarity of thinking and the ability to focus better on the more important matters in life.
The Truth about Forgiveness Lies
The time for forgiveness is always right now. Delayed forgiveness compresses anger, and anger breeds bitterness, which changes the way a person thinks, talks, and acts. Unforgiveness negatively transforms and causes separation. To maintain healthy relationships, and avoid the fallout from holding on to hurt, forgiveness is necessary.
Power of Permission
Why is it that sometimes as women, we need permission to do what we want or need to do for ourselves? Somewhere down the line we’ve picked up the notion that if we do so, we are being selfish! It is not selfish to put yourself up at the top of your priority list.