September 5-7 was a highlight for me and my illustrator friend, Lynne Marie Davis, as we attended our first MomCon event hosted by MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) in Orlando, Florida. While there were many workshops to encourage and teach the moms in attendance there, I, too, learned a few things while watching and listening to the several thousand moms who were there.
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Nothing means more to me than spending time each morning with God, but have you ever felt God stirring the childlike part of you to do something a little silly?
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Last fall I attended a workshop at the Highlights Foundation in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. It took most of the day to fly there, but it was something I had dreamed of doing for fifteen years. As a writer with a soft spot for children’s books and poetry, the Highlights Foundation was at the top of my list of “dream workshops” to attend.
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My heart aches. My stomach churns. My mind twists and turns when I worry about those I love and grow anxious about an uncertain future. I've wasted hours, maybe days, in the past trying to plan every moment and every outcome in an effort to avoid failure, frustration and pain. And what did I get besides incredibly weary?
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"Jesus consistently moves toward the people who know they are not enough."
I read the words again and again after a long dry season of asking God just where He is. My faith reassures me He is with me, but I can't feel Him, and I so need to feel Him when people around me are uber-productive, hyper-busy and seemingly on their way to the top while I'm unfocused and feeling like a failure. Just Who defines the top, and why are so many of us striving to get there? Where exactly is there?
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My aunt took her own life last Sunday while my uncle was at church. She said she didn't feel well, so he left the house believing he would return to her warmth and humor after hearing the Word of God. But his expectation was not realized. Instead, his world was shattered by her lifeless body...strangled in solitary silence.
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So you know how most of us are just trying to do the right thing? Think of others first. Love, live, laugh. Help each other. Hold one another. Hang on one day at a time... Why, then, do some people try to throw a cloak of shame over tender hearts that were so close to being healed? Why would anyone want to hurt another person in the name of "religious truth?"
When you feel criticized and judged, listen to your heart. That's where the Spirit of Jesus Christ resides.
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...my life and the lives of so many people I know imitate the life of that tree.
Read MoreScary Close was recommended to me by a dear friend who said it changed the way she and her husband view their relationship; and I mean changed in a good way. Donald Miller is already one of my favorite nonfiction authors, so no one had to twist my arm.
Read MoreI'm walking away from an extremely unhealthy eighteen year marriage. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The past two days have been particularly difficult as I struggled to find something to be grateful for. Feeling so low on Sunday I simply thanked God for the sunshine. That was the best I could do.
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