When my Selah Book Awards arrived with the mail last week, all I could do was shout, “Hallelujah, Lord, thank You for Your grace!” And then, as I held them in my hands, I remembered just a few short years ago when I thought my author days were over. In fact, I was sure of ...
Secret Things
What do you do when God’s answer is no? When the thing you’ve been earnestly praying about for two long years finally comes to a close and the final outcome feels devastating? How do you continue trusting in Almighty God through bitter disappointment? Tough questions, aren’t they? But they’re questions we all face sooner or later ...
When Your Heart is Exploding
Whoa. It was Friday at 5 o’clock in the morning. The sun wasn’t even blinking her droopy eyes yet. I had spent another long night rotating like a weenie on a spit in my tousled bed (this is not a new thing) and doing what I often do in the sleepless hours of darkness before ...
Look What’s New!
I’m excited to introduce the second Box of Blessings my publisher has just released as a literary companion to Bless Your Heart: Daily Devotions to Warm Your Heart & Feed Your Soul. As you may recall, the first Box of Blessings, released about six months ago, was called “Bless Your Heart: 52 Ways to Bless ...
When Your Sacrifice Crawls Off the Altar
In my daily Bible reading, I recently came across a passage that flashed off the page at me. Don’t you just ADORE IT when they do that? Because it usually means by the clever strobe effect that the Almighty is trying to tell you something, and who wouldn’t want to have a personal conversation with ...
What’s Your Agog?
Well, to answer this mysterious question, we must first know what an Agog is. (No, it has nothing to do with a festive yuletide drink.) Okay, if you’ve followed my blog for a while, you already know that I enjoy nothing better than a good ‘ole dive into an obscure Bible story I thought I ...
Offbeat Blessings
In honor of my newest devo, Bless Your Heart, I’ve been trying to become more aware of offbeat blessings … things we don’t ordinarily think of when asked about our favorite blessings, yet we’ve come to totally depend upon. Unheralded everyday blessings. You know, little things we’re sincerely thankful for but don’t necessarily dwell on … like ...
Unfailing Love
“May your unfailing love rest upon us, Lord, even as we put our trust in you” ~Psalm 33:22 NIV This short but powerful scripture-prayer is my sustenance these days, every time I think of my friend Darlene. And I think of her often. Because Darlene is teetering on the threshold to eternity, a place we ...
Bless Her Heart
Don’t ya love it how Papa God yanks something He’s trying to teach you right out of the background and drags it to the front and center repeatedly until He nails down that very lesson in your sluggish brain? Ever since my new devo, Bless Your Heart, came out last fall, I’ve been focused on how many ...
Valleys
Having just returned from exploring the lovely Smoky Mountains, I already miss traipsing through birdsong rich forests at high elevations and hiking invigorating mountain trails with Laz the Resurrection Dog. But I’ve recently learned there’s an even better place to spend time than the mountaintop … the Valley of Blessing. Yep, it’s a real place. ...