• Devotionals - Titus2 - Womanhood

    the power of communication

    Regardless the circumstance, the importance and power of good communication cannot be understated.  The impact of either good or bad, clear or muddled, distinct or vague communication is powerful.  Think of a time recently when something you said or did was misunderstood by another person; or consider the last time you misunderstood what was communicated to you.  How’d that go for you?  What were the consequences? I’m sharing with you part of a talk I gave last night at our monthly TitusTwo meeting.  As I go along through the years, I’m so grateful for these opportunities to share (and learn!!!)…

  • Aging - Motherhood - mothering from the sidelines - my story - Womanhood

    Keeping Up

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately… you know, keeping up.  Not the Keeping up with the Joneses sort of keeping up, but the staying strong and keeping up with the times sort of keeping up.  It’s been going on for awhile, but I hadn’t noticed it so much in the last few years as much as I have recently. On a recent trip down to SeaTac airport, there was some questioning who’d drive and who’d stay home.  I volunteered to drive and as I was driving and the miles were passing… maybe it was mile-marker 14 or so,…

  • Family - marriage

    memories…

    A few months ago, our son married his sweetheart and it seemed that those days brought about as many tears as they did smiles as we remembered — over and over again — days gone by.  I’ve been thinking about that recently as I’ve been daily thinking of things for which to be thankful over the last thirty-five years.  I’ve been overwhelmed with thankfulness to the Lord for my husband and for the blessings — the heaps of blessings thirty-five years have brought us.  It’s amazing how many memories have come to mind — and possibly more amazing is that…

  • Devotionals - Essays - Faith - Womanhood

    Things aren’t as ___ .

    Hey… how’s your day going?  Anybody ask you that yet today?  What’s going on in the theater of your mind today?  I hope you’ll be encouraged on many levels today. I can’t pinpoint the thing that drew me to remembering this today — to humming this song (The “Sunscreen” song… a piece attributed to Baz Luhrman that he used by permission, originally written by Mary Schmich). If it’s too loud, turn down your speakers… the intent here is not to blare some rappy tune but I hope a few of these life-experience tidbits of advice might be of some encouragement…

  • Devotionals - Faith - Family

    Lies Women Believe

    I’ve been working through a workbook to a book I read a number of years ago — Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s Lies Women Believe and now, the corresponding workbook.  I’ll be writing more on this.  So, I’ve been rereading some things I read years ago and marveled that I’m still dealing with several of the same struggles. Interestingly, it’s part of what’s gotten me to work on habits, thought patterns and more.  I’d been wanting to work through/eliminate the struggles, but it’s always too daunting to revisit painful areas of life or, realizing how little progress I’ve made and the why’s…

  • Devotionals - Family - Womanhood

    Opportunities Come and Go

    I mull over this phrase from time to time as I consider the many opportunities I’ve had, the many opportunities I’ve botched and the many opportunities I’ve either missed or passed up through the years.  The missed and passed up opportunities have probably hounded me as much or more than the opportunities I’ve botched.  Usually, but not always, I’ve had or take a second opportunity to repair or at least attempt to make up for that botched opportunity and usually (but not always) things have turned out okay.  But still, it’s those occasions I missed or passed up — those…

  • Devotionals - Family - Womanhood

    Facing and ‘fessing

    I’ve been thinking of you and am praying that God is blessing you in your home today.   I’m sure I’m not alone in the busyness of life or that there’s been more day than the day can hold sometimes.  So I’m [still!]  wondering how to do more in less time or how to make sure that each day I do what counts the most.  And, I’ve had to face up and fess up to the fact that some days it’s not so much that there’s so much to do but that I’ve been focusing on the wrong things — allowing…

  • Devotionals

    Moonless Trust

    There are times when nothing soothes or encourages me quite like the writings of women who’ve journeyed with the Lord a long while and have traveled paths paved by those who’ve forsaken all and have followed Christ to “the ends of the earth” literally or when they’ve come to the end of themselves and pressed on in faith. This devotional was a great blessing to me as I consider the living sacrifice or both women’s lives — Elisabeth Elliot’s and Amy Carmichael’s.  So, it is with great respect and gratitude to the Lord that I share this piece with you.…

  • Family - Homemaking - Motherhood - Potpourri - Titus2 - Womanhood

    What’s a mother to do?

    Dear Sister, First, I want to thank you for writing — for it is in acknowledging our condition and in seeing our need that we can best affirm and apply, by the grace of God, the help or teaching we receive. Second, though this may not be helpful, you’re not alone and your situation or your  “dilemma”  is not unusual.   The devil may attempt to tell you otherwise, but what you’ve written is common to women who both come home from the “work-force” *and* who’ve been trained otherwise.  The “trained otherwise” is the main problem — not the new daily…