Category Archives: flourishing tree

A second look at worries on the road

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Last week, I wrote about worrying – and why it’s not only needless but also shows a lack of faith. I also offered you a challenge to begin keeping a list of things you’re grateful for. Little did I know that I would need the message I had shared with you last week to be firmly in my mind and heart by the end of the week.

Someone very dear to me took an ambulance ride to the hospital on Friday morning, not for health problems that had plagued her much of the summer, but for something new, something scarier, something life-threatening. But she was in good hands, in God’s hands. And she got to the hospital in time.

As I walked to and from her room each day, the blur of activity in the hallways dizzied me. But the experience filled me with items for my gratitude list. I hope you don’t mind me sharing some of them with you.  Continue reading →

Worries on the road less traveled

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Do you worry a lot? I do. I know, I know – God tells us over and over again in the Bible not to worry, but I think I was born worried, so worried, in fact, that I came out six weeks early to fit in more worrying.

This past weekend, I had a lot of worries to face on what should have been a blissful outing. My husband, dog and I went for a hike to measure a trail for my husband’s web site. My husband has a passion for running and numbers and helping others and sharing his story of faith, and he has combined all of that into a great site with maps and accurate wheel measurements of runnable trails in the northwestern North Carolina mountains.

I’ve taken wheel in hand to measure a couple of trails for him. And I’ve accompanied him on other trails as he did the measuring. Until this weekend, the trails were easy ones. Wide, well-maintained, steep at times, but still easy to walk.  Continue reading →

Adopted into a great family tree

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My parents celebrate their 50th anniversary later this week, but we celebrated the golden event with a party for extended family this past weekend. We had fun, and most of us ate too much barbecue and banana pudding.

Despite my parents’ request for “no gifts,” we all chipped in for one very special art piece to give them – a family tree with paper leaves signed by as many family members as we could track down:

The anniversary celebration – and the family tree gift – reminded me how blessed I am. You see, I’m adopted. So my family tree could have looked completely different.  Continue reading →

Can I tell you about my BFF?

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Last week, I wrote to you about the unmistakeable sign God sent me at a writers’ conference I attended the weekend before. He was telling me to “Forgive,” by placing that word in hard, cold metal form on a table with my name pointing to it. If you haven’t had a chance to read the post, you may want to check it out before reading on.

This week, I’d like to tell you about a second sign: the name of God on the paper where conference organizers had taped my name. As I mentioned last week, a prayer room was lined with tables where we could find our names attached to a sheet of paper with one of the names of God, such as Adonai, El-Shaddai, Elohim, and Yahweh. Here’s what I saw:

My name taped to the top of this page;
Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord my companion

Continue reading →

The unmistakeable sign

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I couldn’t ignore it even if I had wanted to. The sign was so obviously for me. I knew my name would be there.

Have you ever asked God to send you a sign? And followed up with, “And please, God, make it an unmistakeable one?” The movie “Bruce Almighty” has a scene that speaks to any of us who have ever asked God for a clear signal of what we should do. I can relate to Bruce begging for a sign from God and then ignoring the very clear signs He sends. Here’s a clip, just in case you haven’t seen the movie.

I attended She Speaks this past weekend, a fantastic conference for Christian women who want to write or speak or develop a women’s ministry to share God’s messages of love, hope and healing to the world.

I had prayed and prayed and prayed some more, and my friends and family had surrounded me in prayer leading up to the conference, too. I hadn’t especially prayed for any signs, though. But God still smacked me upside the head with one anyway. Unlike Bruce Almighty, I didn’t miss it. I couldn’t.  Continue reading →