Good morning... Many of you have written to ask how my Sunday school class on prayer turned out, when I had to teach on a confusing passage of scripture (see my post from 1.18.16, "Teaching a verse I do not understand.") I was assigned to teach on Mark 11:24 (NIV), and I had no idea what to do with this biblical promise: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that [...]

Good morning... When I juggle too many balls at once, just before a deadline strikes midnight, the eleventh hour is usually very spiritually productive. Unfortunately, I am overwhelmed by the eleventh hour striking me right now. Because God often wakes me in the middle of the night to teach me something fresh and new, I thought the "fresh and new" for this eleventh hour would be the lesson I need to teach at 10:00 [...]

Good morning... Yesterday's post "Self doubt erodes us," stepped on a sensitive, common nerve. After receiving a plethora of responses, I sat back amazed at the wisdom flooding my email. I am grateful to each one of you who took precious time out of your busy day to share personal thoughts with me. Because your email outpouring was so huge, I realize we need to learn collectively a bit more about self doubt. 1) [...]

Good morning... Self doubt erodes us. With the opportunity to see who subscribes and who unsubscribes from my "sue2you" blog each day, I expected to return home to "unsubscribe", "unsubscribe", "unsubscribe." All the way back from Jacksonville, Florida, I unconsciously kept my car on the road as my mind was flooded with growing self doubt. Last Saturday morning, I wish God had woken me before my 3:00 am alarm, reasoning to my tired self, [...]

Good morning… Last week I enjoyed a special experience. I co-taught my first Christian Active Parenting (CAP) class. For the past several years, my close friend Melody and I have collaboratively worked on adding scriptural underpinnings beneath the lifetime work of her husband, psychologist Dr. Michael Popkin. Over thirty years ago, Michael created his first Active Parenting program, a video-based program created to empower parents to raise thriving children who will positively impact our [...]

Good morning… One of my unraveling seasons happened in my mid-twenties. To give voice to my emerging self, I worked on a poem, month after month, a poem that described my inner wrestling match. In 2004, in the midst of another unraveling season following a life-altering move, I resurrected my authentic poem and self-published my first book, Scribbling a Masterpiece: Doddle to your Destiny. The following words scribbled into my unique, tiny book describe [...]

Good morning… I googled the question popping into my mind: "What does the Cat in the Hat try to balance?" These familiar Dr. Suess words, captured in the children's book The Cat in the Hat, both tickle me and challenge me at the very same time. They are absurdly ridiculous and, sometime, so am I. "'Now! now! have no fear. have no fear!' said the cat. 'my tricks are not bad,' said the cat [...]

Good morning... When the pressures of life begin to poke holes in our wall of togetherness, from outside in and from inside out, we become like that hard working little dutch boy trying to stick our fingers and our toes in the crumbling dike to hold back the powerful waters seeking to sweep us into authenticity. Eventually, we can no longer fight the force pushing us to live our imperfect self with truth and [...]

Good morning... At my recent talk at a local church, I talked about prayer being a form of rumination. Rumination is what cows do. They chew on food, burp it back up, then chew on it more to extract maximum nutritional benefit. When we pray, we chew on feelings and thoughts, burp them back up, then chew on them some more to extract maximum nutritional benefit. I love collaborative learning, so after my talk, [...]

Good morning... Today I will have lunch with someone I have loved for nearly ten years, a someone I have never laid my own eyes upon. I have admired this person from afar for her courage, for her dedication to God, for her commitment to holistic health and genuine authenticity. I have chewed on her words, and the words written about her, year after year, class after class, with seeking woman after seeking woman. [...]