bread and water

I had somehow gotten into the mindset that God could do anything if we pray with faith. I had big positive faith and had not experienced a lot of grief. I even thought it was a sign of weakness to pray “the Lord’s will be done”. I wanted to use scripture to bend the will of God and make Him do what I wanted to do. I still wanted to be in control. It sounds horrible to say that but I thought I was spiritual for “believing”. After going through a miscarriage it has changed my mind.   A sweet, spiritual friend came to visit me and shared with me a story that really helped me. She said there was a woman who had an adult son with cancer. This woman had faith that Jesus could heal her son and she believed God would heal him. She had everyone pray for him but he still died. This really shook her up and almost shut her down. But God taught her through it and now she speaks about it. My friend asked me if my husband and I had prayed for the Lord’s will to be done when I was starting to...

Hey y'all!  So, I have been MIA lately on the blog because we have been working on getting our three books published.  Our fourth book is being edited now with my publishing agency and I should get it back soon.  In the meantime I want to tell you about our Making Marriage Last book .  My husband and I wrote it together about twelve years ago to teach to a small group bible study.  The couples were about twenty years older than us and they encouraged us to make it into a book for other people. We ended up using it at a marriage retreat that we spoke at in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Then it sat on my shelf staring at me for years.  It was on my to do list but never got done.  Can you relate?  Sometimes I would put it away in a filing cabinet so I would not feel discouraged that I had not had time to get to it yet.  Then the past few years I felt God leading me to write a book which led to finishing this book with my husband.  One nig...

Hey y'all!   I invited my friend Mackenzie Cook to guest post on the blog today!  I'm excited for her to share what she knows about Bible journaling!  Enjoy!    Bible journaling can seem like a very daunting task especially if you have never done anything like it. I am going to try and help simplify it so you can get started! One of my biggest tips, if you are just getting starting, is having just a simple notebook to create in! To me it is scary to put my art in my Bible because I do not want to mess up and I do not want to cover any of the words in the Bible. That is my personal preference of course but I think it helps because you can constantly experiment and then once you feel comfortable with the technique you used, you can transfer it into your Bible.  A lot of people ask, "Well where should I start?"  I highly recommend James, Ephesians, or Galatians to begin with. These are shorter books in the Bible but are packed full of truths...

I wanted to share something my husband wrote for our church family. I thought it had a great lesson in it you would enjoy reading. Here it is from my hubby: I pray that you and your family are well and daily walking with the Lord.  What an exciting time it is to be a Christian. God has chosen you as a vessel of honor.  He wants to use your life in the dark days of our world. You are essential to the Lord and His Church.  Romans 12:1 reads, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.”   Offer your life here on earth to the Lord.  There is nothing more valuable than serving the Lord.  God isn’t looking for great people or successful people.  God is looking for FAITHFUL people. The Bible reveals much about faithfulness.  We know that God is faithful but we are expected to be faithful. The Bible uses the wo...

Happy Valentine’s Day Lord.  The color red is not for roses, but for your blood you shed.  Your gift to me is life itself for eternity.  I can never repay you, only obey you.  You are the ultimate Valentine, who gave your life for mine. 

Sometimes I look around at others and they appear so successful. They have written books and bible studies, led conferences and traveled the world. Or maybe they are at the top of the corporate ladder making great money.   Sometimes I compare myself to them and sometimes jealousy sneaks in. That is when I must pray and repent! And get off facebook!  This past year and a half was one of the hardest times our family has had and when we shared that with a friend they said, “Well it didn’t look that way on facebook!” For various reasons we would not post about some of the hard things we had to do.   We all see each other’s best side and don’t truly know the struggles that go on.  When I questioned to myself, “Why am I not successful?” The Lord immediately spoke to my heart and said, “You are.” I knew what He meant.  I just listened to a sermon about staying by the stuff and the preacher said God measures success by faithfulness .  ...