If you ever need someone to methodically murder your flowering tropical plants, call me. I’m very good at it. Almost a 100% kill rate. Now, this doesn’t apply to green tropicals. Palm of all sorts can survive for years in my care, but the really pretty flowering ones? Calla lilies, orchids, Hawaiian pink quills. They’re…
Category: Finding Encouragement
What if it’s not about Peter’s failure? (Or ours?)
What if the story of Peter’s denials isn’t about his failures? What if there’s something bigger and better there that should capture our attention? And what might that mean for all of us today?
How do we find purpose in our regrets?
Regrets have hijacked my thoughts and stolen my sleep. As I lie awake craving more grace, I wonder: Is it possible to make regrets fruitful? What can I learn from these spirals of negative thoughts and anxiety? And how can I overcome them?
What if I’ve messed up EVERYTHING?
I’ve not been sleeping. For maybe weeks. Months? I don’t even know. What I do know is that I wake up between 1 and 3am just about every morning and lie awake pondering all the mistakes — or possible mistakes — I’ve made with my life. And how those mistakes…
Who remembers your name?
The Bible doesn’t highlight many women, much less name them. When it does, we should take note. First Samuel starts with the story of Hannah, her infertility, her pain, her struggle to have a child and prove her worth to a world that didn’t value women, especially barren women. In chapter one we see her…
A Prayer for those Treading Water
Do you have a regular prayer that you repeat over and over? Margaret Feinberg shared in her book Wonderstruck about a time she become so weary in spirit that all she could pray was: God is good.God is on the throne.Breathe in.Breathe out. These were the words she whispered while making snow angels in the…
Are you free? Are you living like it?
Sometimes what we know in our heads doesn’t reach our hearts or our feet. How can we take steps toward truly walking in the freedom Christ came to give us?
Is this ADD or Spiritual attack?
I have ADD. When people hear reference to ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), they think of the dogs in the Pixar movie UP! or maybe Dory from Pixar’s Finding Nemo. (I promise not to mention Disney movies in every sentence.) Being easily distracted and forgetful may be part of it, but there’s a lot more to it than most people…
Could there be a silver lining here?
When our son was five years old, he fell and shattered his femur into three pieces. ‘Shattered’ may sound a little dramatic, but when you watch your little guy suffer, when every nurse or doctor interrogates you over what happened, when someone in the ER finally confesses that typically injuries like this are caused by…
You still get to choose.
No matter what this year throws at us, we still get to choose the path we take. What will you do in this time? Who will you be today?
We are together, but not alone.
These are crazy times. Heavy times. It feels like every night we go to bed praying and every morning we wake worrying and wondering. What will we do? When will this end? How will our kids go to school? Will they be safe? Are we making the right choices? What about our jobs? What about…
Chasing Peace (and skipping the affirmation)
The fear of inadequacy has chased me my entire life. You can blame any number of things from my past or present, but let’s not. Rather, let’s talk about the struggle this presents in the dailies. Of all the theological concepts in Scripture, grace has always troubled me most. I love the idea of it…
Tanya Dennis Books 