Good morning... In one week this fall, I learned the root meaning of two key words. One Thursday morning, I learned: "anxiety" means "to choke." I get that. When I get anxious, I tighten up. I spiral down inwardly, constricting myself. I cut off my own air supply with obsessively anxious thoughts. The next Tuesday afternoon, I learned: "conspire" means [...]
Good morning... "I remember feeling pregnant with twins," she wrote me after yesterday's post, I Feel Pregnant With Quadruplets. "My husband would ask how I felt each day and my answer was always, "Heavy, I feel heavy." Not "I feel fat," but "I feel heavy." Heavy from the physical load on my body and heavy from the emotional load [...]
Good morning... Last week, I held my head like a 9-month-pregnant belly. My spiritual director said, "I have never seen you do that before, holding you head with both hands like you are trying to keep it from exploding." It's true. I felt like my brain could burst at any time with all the doubling daily details. This spring, [...]
Good morning... Yesterday's post, Living A Secret, ended with an empowering statement: I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace (Philippians 4:13, AMP). Infuse. I do not meet that word very often, yet just now I open my book to read today's Bible study homework and here are the paragraphs [...]
Good morning... Scary feelings. Scattered thoughts. Struggles strangle. We are overwhelmed. Too many needs. Too many options. Too many expectations. We are overwhelmed. Difficult decisions. Demanding deadlines. Depression descends. We are overwhelmed. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7, NIV). But God is invisible and God does not talk like us and God [...]
Good morning... As long as we are breathing, challenges arise. We hope for easy, smooth, uncomplicated. We get delays, mishaps, technical difficulties. We expect happy, simple, dreams in full bloom. We experience snags, disappointments, lost luggage moments. We pray for peace, healing, God's palpable presence. We feel loss, pain, "Where are You, God, now?" When life's unwanted happenings happen [...]
Good morning... Traveling into a hard day, a hard decision, a hard dialogue? Open or closed? The choice is ours. "As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village," says the Bible in Luke 10:38-42 (MSG). A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before [...]
Good morning... A "breath prayer" can be lifted any time, any where, alone aloud or silently in a crowd. Usually nine syllables or less, breath prayers can calm our anxious thoughts. Richard Foster, Christian author and theologian in the Quaker tradition, writes: “Commenting on breath prayers, Theophane the Recluse notes, ‘Thoughts continue to jostle in your head like mosquitos. To [...]
Good morning... I touched "Read more" to experience the first blog posted on my brand new site. It took me straight to a blank page bearing these words: "Oops, This Page Could Not Be Found." My soul smiled and shook her head, "Nothing new is easy." “Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will [...]
Good morning... Did I tell you that in January God brought a dog walker-whisperer into our Tuesday afternoon Bible study? Let me paint you the picture. We got our 8-week old puppy last June from Adopt-a-Golden Rescue and, when I began hosting daily classes in my home in September, Tate's puppy-ness was full-blown. She was an all-out-crazy bundle of [...]
