Summertime at our house means lots of packing and unpacking of suitcases. We love to travel. Weekend getaways. Cross-country adventures. Even the occasional journey to another country. And all of our traveling means we’ve become pretty good at figuring out what to bring. We use checklists. We plan our activities and carefully consider what clothing…
byJody Lee Cates
Marriage
Where we focus first in our relationships is inevitably what grows. If you’re focused on things that are going wrong, things that aren’t meeting your needs or expectations, you might find yourself more frequently sharing words of disappointment or criticism. Maybe the person you’re having trouble with seems to ask more regularly, “Why are you…
The gift of forgiveness doesn’t have to wait for any special occasion. But with the holidays fast approaching, you might find it’s a gift you’ll want to unwrap early – just in case you find yourself in the middle of some not so merry moments this holiday season. We all have them. Wounds that seem…
The voice of shame is a harsh taskmaster. For some, it whispers, for others, it shouts. It knows exactly what to say and how to say it to make the biggest dent in our hearts. And no matter how it speaks to you and me, the message is always the same: You are a failure,…
Sometimes life hurts. And because we’re human, we want the pain to stop. So we bring our request to God, hoping He will rescue us. Repair the damaged relationship. Heal the sickness. Restore our health or financial security. And sometimes, He does. We feel blessed and give Him thanks. We often even remember to give…
All of us have moments in our lives we would like to go back and fix. Words we wish we had or hadn’t spoken. Actions we wish we had or hadn’t taken. If we only knew back then what we know now, how different things might have turned out. Of course, that’s not how life…