You never know when God is going to point something biblical out to you. For me, it recently happened at a strategic communications conference I went to for work. There was a Q&A session where an author was explaining the importance of including the human element in innovation, specifically three characteristics that make the difference: Strategic kindness Optimism Curiosity These three points immediately made me think of three biblical themes God repeated throughout the Bible: Kindness Hope Listening Strategic kindness I’m not sure how “strategic kindness” is different than just plain ordinary kindness. But here’s what we’re told, biblically: Ephesians
Category: Bible
These posts are related to things I’m learning from the Bible. This includes verses that resonate with me, studies I’m going through, takeaways from sermons, and more.
Sometimes I really don’t like my limitations. I want to do everything I want to do, and I don’t want limitations like the number of hours in the day getting in my way. It’s like I think that if I want something enough, it won’t take any time at all. I’ve been thinking about this lately while ruminating on what Duffy Robbins said this year at Mount Hermon : Discipleship is a magnificent ‘yes’ wrapped up in significant ‘no’s. Defining discipleship Discipleship comes back to your relationship with Jesus. Who do you say he is? Duffy read Luke 9:18-26 ,
Have you ever felt like a change was coming, but you don’t know what or when? Like you’re just waiting for the next step? Our Family’s Recent Change Almost a month ago, our family moved an hour north to live in the community where my husband became a pastor back in March. This was an answer to many prayers and a long period of trusting that God was directing us somewhere, and waiting for His timing. Looking back, we started feeling a change was coming more than 5 years ago. As time went on, we felt less and less settled
As you go about your day, how often do you stop and really focus on the person in front of you? This is an area I’ve been trying to improve at work, turning away from my email inbox and giving whoever I’m talking to my whole attention–it’s easy to let yourself get distracted when you’re in virtual meetings! However, virtual meetings aren’t the only place I get distracted. It’s so easy for me to be focused on the to-do list in my head that I don’t stop and really listen to what my kids are trying to communicate. And being
I’ve been working on praying. I’ve always felt comfortable going to God with requests, but as I shared in a previous post, lately I’ve been trying to be more consistent and deliberate as I pray . Lately I’ve been trying to view them as daily one-on-ones rather than reactions to whatever circumstances I find myself in. This was a topic we covered Ephesians 3:14-21 at church on May 15 . In this sermon, Pastor Matt suggested hiding from those you live with to hang out with God and pray (watch at 32:29–34:58 ). Some of you might be thinking, I
Have you ever felt like you’re in a season of waiting? Like you were in a holding pattern before a big change? That was me last fall, when I started doing Priscilla Shirer’s Elijah study with some women at my church. I felt like God was preparing our family for something , like a big change was just around the corner. Like he was preparing us to leave this church family we’d been part of for more than 10 years. Then, during week two, we started studying examples of God’s preparation during separation, and I felt like it was exactly
Sometimes I don’t feel qualified . The voice in my head says: You don’t have enough experience with kids to be a good mom. You don’t have the skills to be a supervisor at work. You’re not holy enough to be a pastor’s wife. You don’t belong. You’re weak. You’ll never measure up. But here’s the thing: God put me in the situations I’m in. I may not always have the qualifications on paper, but He’s going to give me what I need when we get there. This is something we see in Acts. Our Assignment as Witnesses In the
If you met someone new, how would you describe yourself? I might say I’m a mother of three, a working mom, a pastor’s wife, a blogger. Those are titles that describe my different roles and responsibilities, but do they really describe who I am? If I tried to describe my personality, I might say I’m a silly optimist who loves color-coded spreadsheets and likes to relax by escaping into the lives of my fictional friends on Netflix, Prime, and Disney Plus. Or if I pulled my past in, I might say I’m a California transplant living in the Pacific Northwest,
I love Christmas. When it gets to be about that time of year, I’m quick to switch the family over to my carefully-curated playlist that features all of my favorites. I love the memories, the time with family, the movies, all of it. But as much as I love Christmas, I’ve come to realize that Easter is more important. Although we needed Christmas to happen to get to Easter 33 years later, without Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, His birth doesn’t mean as much. Making Easter a bigger deal Last year my husband and I decided we wanted to make Easter
We’ve all lived in those seasons when life is difficult. We call them “survival mode” at my house–we’re just doing what we need to do to survive, putting one foot in front of the other. They may look different for each of us, with different circumstances and time periods, but there’s one thing they all have in common: they’re hard. How should we respond during those times? How do we keep from giving in to discouragement and giving up? I happened to come across biblical insight on this from two different places at the same time–just another example of God