I woke up this morning, almost startled out of sleep at 4 am, when my mind drifted from a lazy dream wandering around my consciousness, to a bright white title page with bold print declaring a chapter heading: "Ax Men". I didn’t get to see any text with it as I suddenly bolted awake, but I knew what it meant as my eyes opened in the darkness of my room. Ax Men are those men in our lives that are very precious gifts in our lives. They are the dragon slayers. They are the men w

The other day, I finally put to “blog paper” the realization that we need to “strengthen our feeble knees” and ski, despite the ruts of our emotional, traumatic, damaged past and I shared the story of my first experience with skiing and being towed up the hill holding for dear life onto a tow rope…skis crossing and getting tangled in the ruts formed by so many people’s previous trips up that particular area on the slope and how so many of us kept falling – and getting frustra

This morning I woke up a couple times, drifting back to sleep and then becoming aware of a song… and in the almost fully awake, the song changed... and I smiled. The tempo was a big shift, and then I started focusing on the words and let out a contented sigh, relaxing into the rest and peace that can seem so elusive during the busyness of the daytime. The first song was drumming and marching through my head, not unpleasantly, just a more active beat: “But I would walk five h

The past few days have been a fountain of opportunities for me to recall and recount situations in my life that have taught (and re-taught) me important lessons that, if I keep focused on the Teacher ☺, I will have a better time navigating the tough spots. Yesterday included one of those situations that would have gone smoother had I kept this in mind! Thankfully, because I had just shared this childhood experience earlier in the day, am in the middle of reading a book on con

This morning, waking up with recent conversations running through my head, I am reminded that who you listen to matters. Who are you listening to? To which voices are you giving space in your head? I was reflecting on my growing up years, looking at who I gave credence and attention to – and what the results were at different times in my life. More often than not, when I listened to people my own age at the time, my outcomes were not as beneficial as when I listened to more “

The words drift through on the lilt of the melody… “And the people sing, Holy! To the King of kings, Holy! You are lifted high, Holy! Holy Forever!” As I drift from asleep to awake, verses flow from two different books, “Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; Do you not perceive it? …” (Isa. 43:19) and “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will no

I’m CONVINCED my refrigerator is hiding things from me! Seriously! Have you ever gone in to get something you’re pretty sure you had in there, and while you’re looking, found a fuzzy, blue green lump that you have NO IDEA what it used to be? Maybe by the shape you can kind of guess, but you’re not really sure. The WORST is finding a partially filled milk jug, and as you lift it up, you can tell even though it’s still white, it’s no longer a liquid. UGH! You bring it over to t

Going to bed last night (at 10:30) and waking up this morning, the thoughts in my head are of repeated failure and repentance – again. Getting back from multiple errands yesterday, while listening to some great teaching on how to walk in obedience and defeat sin by walking in the love of God, I made dinner, watched a TV program with my husband and … spent 4 hours scrolling again. The information I promised to send to a friend earlier in the day is still unsent. The exercise I

Distractions. One of the least intrusive sounding words… It’s not harmful, it’s just a distraction. It’s not a thief of your precious time and attention, it’s just a distraction. It’s passive, unobtrusive, … could even be seen as a break from the hamster wheel we can’t seem to get off of sometimes. It’s not a big deal, it’s just scrolling on social media for a little while to get my second wind… then I’ll get back to it. Admitting it might be a problem, telling myself I would

I woke up, the second time this morning, with a very different song in my heart, drawing me out of my sleep to worship, to thank God for the day and get ready for my morning prayer time with my friends. It is no secret by now that I usually wake up to a song, and it usually is a worship song or a hymn. This one wasn’t – at least it wasn’t meant to be originally. It is also no secret that some secular songs we’ve heard for years can just as easily – and sometimes more appropri