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
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
We live in a culture that tells us to “cancel” those we disagree with and hold angry grudges against those who wrong us. But holding grudges is bad for our health. As Rene Schlaepfer pointed out in Chasing David : A 2019 report in the Journal of Psychology and Aging found that holding grudges is dangerous to your health. Remaining in the state of anger is associated with chronic inflammation and other illnesses. The effects intensifies with age; in other words, the longer you hold a grudge, the sicker you get (page 113). What Jesus Said About Forgiveness Jesus talked
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,
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
When things work out just perfectly, how do you view the circumstance? Is it coincidence? Fate? Destiny? I see it as evidence of God weaving everything together in His master plan. That’s what he did for David. Here was a guy coming up in the world. He’d defeated Goliath. He had a place in the king’s court, fortune, a wife, a trusted friend. He was respected. But then King Saul got worried about him. He decided David was a threat, and in an instant David lost it all: his position, prosperity, partner, peer, pride, and more. He ran for the
I originally posted this on Emily Blogs the Bible , back on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. While I didn’t successfully memorize the verse as I had hoped, I do believe I internalized it in a way that God has used. Revisiting it now is a good reminder to continue to focus on Jesus as the source of wisdom! We’ve been reading through Proverbs with our life group and are working on memorizing a verse of our choosing from the book. I’m not very good at memorization, but I agree it’s good to do! I’ve chosen Proverbs 4:13. I picked this