Encouraging.com

Grace

The older I get, I focus more on my family’s lives and less on my own. Opting for life-giving choices benefits me as well as others. I am motivated to eat healthier so I will be around for my children and, hopefully one day, for any grandchildren that may come along. I haven’t adopted a challenging exercise regime although I still retain that hope!

Sep 12

Sep 12 Dig Deep

Challenge

Oh, the importance of a good foundation! Numerous foundation cases were filed in Corpus Christi because of the shifting sand and soil of that area. As an attorney in Corpus, my husband heard some interesting facts in these cases.

Sep 11

Sep 11 Believing is Seeing

Hope

Thunder shook the air as lightning lit the sky. The windshield wipers feverishly cleared the window but only for a second. Pounding rain obstructed my view. The lane lines were no longer visible so I followed the taillights of the preceding car.

Sep 10

Sep 10 Illuminate Me

Challenge

My mother complained for a couple of days of eye pain. I looked at her eye but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Because my mother has macular degeneration, I didn’t want to take her eye pain lightly. If her retina was bleeding, urgent action was necessary.

Sep 9

Sep 9 Blessed Interruptions

Obedience

A deadline was quickly approaching, so I set aside today to complete the task. A couple of more pressing circumstances intervened taking center stage. My muscles tightened and my countenance fell as my stress level rose. How am I going to finish now? I wondered.

Sep 6

Sep 6 Pruning for Purity

Spiritual Growth

All summer long, my backyard rose bush produces hundreds of pink roses. I notice that it blooms and then most of the roses die about the same time. With my garden shears, I cut away the spent blooms. I imagine it sighing and saying, Thank you. Now I have room to grow and bloom all over again.

Sep 5

Sep 5 Painful Plowing

Trials are hard. They’re messy. They’re down right painful. Do you feel blessed when you experience them?

Sep 4

Sep 4 Refined as Gold

Do you know how precious metals are refined? Smelting is the process in which gold is separated from ore and other metals. The ore is first pulverized with extreme pressure to create tiny particles, which are then melted at almost 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. As the gold becomes molten, most of the impurities are burned up.

Sep 3

Sep 3 Trials Like Fire

No matter how you slice it, life is full of challenges. Each hardship represents some sort of loss; loss of a person, home, safety, stability, or purpose. This is why these experiences can be so painful.

Sep 2

Sep 2 Rescuer of Pit Dwellers

encouraging.com

Praise the Lord! He rescues us from the pit! I don’t know about you, but I have been in the pit many times throughout my life. Sometimes it’s sin that throws us into the pit, however, sometimes it is circumstances out of our control that throw us head-long into it. spit

Aug 30

Aug 30 Meaningful Work

Contrary to what some might think: work is not a curse.

Aug 29

Aug 29 When A Baby Tooth Hangs On

My teenaged son lost his last baby tooth today — about two years past the typical time kids do.

Aug 28

Aug 28 Tapestry of Friends

I got an unexpected email this weekend from the first babysitter who ever kept my boys.

Aug 27

Aug 27 What I Learned from Dry Eyes

Encouragement, Spiritual Growth

For the past two fall seasons, I’ve experienced severely dry eyes. Raw, irritated and red. Most of the time I just want to close them.

Aug 26

Aug 26 What Do I See?

Encouragement, Challenge

As I sat in Sunday School, I heard my husband read this scripture. The words jumped out. I was guilty even as he spoke the words. And I’m one of the teachers.

Aug 23

Aug 23 Just Do It

Obedience

“Just Do It” is a phrase Nike coined in 1988. It’s a slogan to inspire athletes to out run, out train, and out move. The apostle James used similar words to inspire Christians hundreds of years earlier.

Aug 22

Aug 22 The Bear That Came to Town

Temptation

Last fall my husband and I spent a week in Avon, Colorado. One day while we were in a restaurant, we saw a crowd gathering outside around a crabapple tree. They were pointing toward the top of the tree and snapping pictures.

Aug 21

Aug 21 Leap of Faith

Anxiety

I grew up in Miami, Florida in the 1950s and have some great memories of that time. Life was simple, safe, and carefree. I moved away from my hometown after college, but one of my friends stayed on and became a federal judge there.

Aug 20

Aug 20 Sandcastles