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Seasons of Life
I sit here watching the gate, waiting for one of my family members to bring cow calf pairs to take to pasture. I am reminded about the different seasons of my life. Right now, I am in one of my busier seasons (planting is done, hauling cows and calves to pasture, haying to start and kids on summer break). My season is extremely busy right now with my husband, kids and I outside most of the day which means the household stuff may not get done regularly (dishes get done every other day and laundry is washing what is needed for the next day’s work…the rest will get washed when…
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Completing a Self-help Book Purge
letting go of finding the answers that don’t always exist in the way we think. I recently created a list of projects that I wanted to complete in the short summer months that we have. I always have the usual items like painting projects, cleaning out something and building a project or two. One project was to clean out and organize my books. I love to read and have a book in my hands. I am not an online reader or tablet reader when it comes to books. I started with one of the easier projects of cleaning out my books and I came to a realization that I didn’t…
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Easter Blessings Are Here — “He Is Risen”
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 What significance this verse has on Easter. God loved us so much that he gave up his son’s life so that we could have eternal life with him (that is for whoever believes in him). On this very important Christian holiday, we celebrate Jesus’s resurrection and being raised from the dead. How wonderful it is to know that he paid the price our sins. That should in itself be enough to never want to sin again, yet we fall short. O but my dear…
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Magical Thinking: Does God have a magic wand?
So far, we have reviewed the sin, truth, and experiential models of human growth. Finally, the supernatural model, while it has lots of variations, focuses on a type of magical healing and deliverance—the Holy Spirit will make things change if you just believe. I like to refer to this model as the magical thinking “poofing” model! It wasn’t until recently, and a bit before we started the How People Grow (Cloud & Townsend, 2001) Bible study, that I recognized how much magical or fairy tale thinking I have relied on during my life. I loved to read as a kid, anything and everything. Most of the books in my house…
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January Devotional from Psalm 3:5
Scripture: “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” Psalm 3:5 Thought: This verse is part of a psalm of David where he cries out to God for safety as he flees from his son Absalom. Imagine the state David might have been in, overwhelmed by his enemies, including his own flesh and blood. Whom could he trust? Where could he turn? How could he find rest for his spirit and body? Verse five of this psalm says that he lay down and slept. Imagine the trust David had to lay down and rest despite the danger around him. Action: In what area of life…