I fall more and more in love with God every time I learn about another one of His amazing attributes. Each attributes reveals His mighty love for his creation, so vast, wide, and bigger than I can comprehend. Yet, He meets us in such specific and personal ways as he reveals this enormous love.

I've dreaded this post. In fact, I have said many times I was not going to write it.  Writing has been so therapeutic to me during the last three years as our family has transitioned to living out radical faith through foster care and ministry, but this past week as I stood crying in our bedroom I told my husband I didn't want to write about this. 

I had never thought of the Lord as my Defender. I grew up hearing that He was the Defender of the weak…but always thought of widows and orphans. I didn’t think I needed a Defender.

Almost a year ago, I found myself overwhelmed by stress and business and exhaustion. I knew I was several steps away from burnout and I knew that my mental health was suffering. I had dug myself into a workaholic ditch- finding my worth and value from my job.

 “Nobody likes me”, she said. She has uttered those words several times a day – almost every day as long as I’ve known her. It often seems as if she will never be filled up with encouragement, care, or the friendship of her peers or teachers. I’ve watched students befriend her, congratulate her on awards won, celebrate with her in sports, and no matter how much they demonstrate that they like her, she still will say those words. Many times, I’ve watched her laugh and be silly and play around with her classmates and when I do, I have hope that maybe now she will finally begin to absorb their friendship

I was able to go to Arizona with my husband over the weekend and had an awesome reminder of just how uniquely God shows His love to us. I've made this drive to Phoenix only three times in my life - once a few months ago when I brought the Refuge for Women ladies down to the Joyce Meyer conference, once about 20 years ago when my family was camping up in Flagstaff and I wanted to see just how hot Phoenix really was so we drove down for the day, and once when I drove a group of college students from Michigan to Mexico on a missions trip.

It’s good to have a working definition of agape’ love. I often tell my students that their duty—well beyond academic excellence—is to cultivate their capacity to love sacrificially, to deepen their agape love for everything that needs love. I encourage them to wake up every morning and re-state their day’s ultimate objective. Agape love is our ultimate marching order.

Contemplating God’s love welcomes my heart home to a peaceful place of clarity, certainty, assurance and feeling connected. Practicing this contemplation every morning is what I need to stay level minded. William Barry, author of A Friendship Like No Other, writes about wonderful thoughts to meditate on. In one of his exercises about becoming a friend to God, he suggests that we think about the things that bring loving memories to the surface of our mind. This gives us a glimpse into God’s heart

Several decades ago, the Christian counselor/master trainer, Jay Adams, published his seminal work, The Christian Counselor’s Manuel. One of the many conceptual gems from his book was his model of how and why forgiveness is necessary and its relationship to trust, “The Forgiveness-Forgetfulness Spiral.”

Trying to keep eye contact with my hubby after I confessed something I had done was almost impossible. My eyes were low when I spoke the truth. To look at him was too difficult. I was ashamed and I sat across from him embarrassed, guilty, and feeling all alone. In the early morning as we sat there, I said I was afraid to tell him and I’m so sorry. I could then only sit and wait for his response.

Forgiving someone has huge health benefits according to the Mayo clinic; it decreases anxiety, lowers blood pressure, creates a stronger immune system, and promotes heart health. Other mental health experts say that when victims can forgive; it plays a role in releasing anger, anxiety and depression. The spiritual benefits of forgiveness; reconnect us with people, increase our ability to love and restores us to God.

Forgiveness.  It’s a characteristic of God that I am so thankful for. My life depends on it. Yet, it’s a characteristic of God that is often so hard to put on. The other day my husband was doing me a favor and decided to do our laundry. I heard the buzzer of the dryer go off, so I went to the laundry room to get the clothes out. Life was great. My husband was sweet. Until.

One of the things that seems to be a part of my routine each night, is that I wake up, usually between 1 and 2AM, staring at those red digital numbers on my night stand, with a mind racing with thoughts and little desire to sleep.  Sometimes, I am fortunate enough to be able to change positions and fall back asleep fairly quickly.  But, most nights, I lay awake,

I was into year three of motherhood. I was 38 and my precious third child was just born, making us a family of five in three short years. I came from a large family and always saw myself with a houseful of children. However, my family started much later in life than many. Matt and I married just short of my 34th birthday. It was the first marriage for the both of us. Many times in my twenties I didn’t know if I’d ever marry,…

A few days ago I had a dear friend explain to me the difference between “pruning” & “crushing”… & the difference is important to understand.

What she said was such a timely word.

Pruning (with the Lord) is more of a partnership. Saying, “yes Lord, I see what you want to cut out, trim up, and I want to do that too.” I like to think of pruning as a practical thing, something that could be done every day & your heart is still left intact.

Crushing is much more invasive.

During their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas came across a crippled man in Lystra (Acts 14: 8-18). In brief conversation the servants of God observed that the paralytic had the faith to be healed. Paul looked at him directly and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” The man immediately jumped up and began to walk.

The spoken words, “you have cancer” caused me to shake and tremble with fear. It turns out kindness was the antidote that brought me back to a calm sense of love and stable mind.  A single moment of kindness changed the trajectory of my life. The power of kindness made me feel whole, complete, accepted and pierced my fearful heart. I cried out to God

Sometimes, life is nuts. Full blown nuts. Let me rephrase that, sometimes I’m full blown nuts. I swear a cray cray person crept into my house and made their home inside my head this week. I was edgy, irritable, and completely over the top crazy toward my husband. You know the kind of day…the kind of day where your husband just wants to do a really nice thing for you so he does the laundry while you are at work. You come home, drop on the couch exhausted and he says, “honey, this will make you feel better. I did all the laundry.” And then you notice the basketful of clothes and you hold up your brand-new romper that used to fit you perfectly and now is a size 0. Seriously, when was I ever a size zero???

Have you ever noticed that it is impossible to keep your mind on one single thought consistently? Pick something to think about and see how long you can keep that thought at the fore front of your mind. Go ahead, I’ll wait... How long were you able to do it? Now, think about all the different things you do in one day’s time. From the time you get up to the time you go to bed, it is said that you will make about 35,000 decisions.

The call of the psalmist to “praise the Lord” is a call to praise God in all things: in victories and defeats, simplicities and complexities, in joy and sorrow. And not necessarily for all things, but in all things.

Early on in one of David’s songs (Psalm 103), the prolific hymnist sings in the strongest assertive lyric that the participants in his song—those that listen and, better yet, those who sing along—should be in the mental and emotional habit of “praising the Lord.”

Inside a cramped cinder block room, with a dirty table and uncomfortable chairs, a lady sat across from me. She wore an unflattering neon orange jumpsuit, chains wrapped around her waist, ankles, and hand cuffs on her wrist.  She had tears filling up her eyes and she couldn’t wipe them away, so she finally just let them fall.