“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced…” (1 Chron 16:11-12)
As the year draws to a close, I’m reminded that this is a good opportunity to reflect back over the year. In honor of that, I’ve selected my top ten blog posts from this year. These are the posts that resonated with my readers the most. I’ll be back soon with new content for the new year! Continue reading “Top 10 Blog Posts of 2018”
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Is 9:6)
Peace is elusive. With the invention of the smartphone, we are constantly connected and bombarded by dings, rings, and chimes. Instead of finding activities to engage our minds, we pull out our phones when we’re bored and pass the time on mindless games or scrolling through social media. We have email on our phones, so even when we’re away from the office, we’re still available and always on call. “Downtime” isn’t a word that’s even in our vocabulary anymore. Continue reading “Longing for Peace”
“…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Neh 8:10)
In my first blog post this month, I discussed hope. Like hope, joy can also be difficult to find during the Christmas season. Perhaps our lives haven’t turned out the way we thought they would. Maybe we’ve lost someone close to us or been rejected by someone. In Western culture, we equate joy with happiness, but these are two different things. Both are emotions, but happiness is determined by our circumstances. Joy goes much deeper and is one of the fruits of the spirit (Gal 5:22). The Greek word for joy is chara and is closely related to charis, or grace. Joy is the natural response to the work of God in our lives. Continue reading “Joy for the Season”
“Do everything in love.” (1 Cor 16:14)
The term “love” gets thrown around a lot in today’s culture. We hear the word so much that it’s lost its meaning. Recently, one of my friends recently explained the reason for this: we have only one word in the English language to express the deep, abiding feeling that love brings. We use the word “love” to describe how we feel about cheeseburgers, our families, and our hobbies, among other things. Continue reading “Sharing the Love of Christ”
Congratulations to Laura Jacobson from Minnesota, the winner of the $15 Amazon gift card in the Winter Is Coming blog hop!
Christmas is my favorite holiday by far. Like many of you, I have cherished memories of family gatherings. I’ve spent many hours throughout the years cross stitching gifts for others and baking sweet treats with my mom. As adults, we can feel overwhelmed and stressed by the season for many reasons: financial difficulties, too many activities, family members who don’t get along…the list goes on and on. Joy seems elusive, but we can experience the joy of the season when we remember why we celebrate this season: Jesus.
This Christmas season, I’m joining The Kids Did It blog and The Mommy Island blog to participate in the Third Annual Winter Is Coming Giveaway Event, which runs from December 4, 2018, to December 21, 2018. The winner will receive a $15 Amazon gift card. Continue reading “Winter Is Coming Giveaway Blog Hop”