OMG (Oh My Goodness)… Find the joy through the tragedy is, I believe, imperative. It’s this one thing that allows us to find the hope in every situation, and some times things look pretty darn stark. In every life, we have our own set of “darkest days” we have to live through. No two people on the face of the planet go through the exact same set of dark days because each and every person on the face of the planet is simply different. Even identical twins, triplets, quads, and so on, have been … [Read more...]
Blessings… Seeing Through Catastrophic Loss #blessing
Catastrophe. That’s quite a word. It’s the epitomy of a word trying to describe the worst of a circumstance and even with this word it’s still not enough to truly explain the loss. Flood, almost 4 feet deep = Catastrophe. The catastrophic nature of what happened back on May 19 doesn’t begin to describe enough the significant loss Keith, Athena, me, and my mom went through. Athena literally no longer has a bedroom. Our house only has 3 bedrooms in it. Two on the main floor - Keith & I … [Read more...]
Happy New Year #2020
Wow! 2020 is here. 2019 seemed to just fly by. I just looked back at the last post I did, and it was clear back on March 21, 2019. My desire to write has been non-existent. While I think about it quite often, I just never do it. I'm not sure why. After Mari died, I wrote all the time. It felt like I constantly had things I needed to jot down and write out to express how I was feeling. Now, Mari's been gone over 11 years. As a matter of fact, she would've turned 20 on December 29, just three … [Read more...]
Out of Control
Have you ever felt like your life is out of control? You have a direction you'd like to go, but your path is anything but straight. If you'd look back, it's as if you're drunk with the way it looks like you've weaved back and forth along the way. For the last few years, that's how my life has been. There are things happening in our home that began in the summer of 2015. While I can't go into details, the seriousness that's evolved as a result has added an enormous strain on our … [Read more...]
Living Hope
A couple of days ago I shared how I've been internally struggling with a lot of self-loathing and simply not feeling good enough. While the struggle is still ongoing, it's my daily quiet time that helps more than anything else, or for that matter, anyone else, to stay as grounded as possible. Some days I fully outright fail. These are days filled with many tears and the inability to see myself in a positive way. Yet, I guess the positive I need to remember to take away is in those moments where … [Read more...]
Sharing My Struggle
I'm sitting here at my keyboard trying to figure out how to start this very post, yet I can't think of a "fancy" way to do it. So here it goes... I've not shared with very many people the struggles I've been going through for several months now. While I won't go into details, there have been a lot emotionally trying things happening in our home to where I've been really down and my self-loathing is in full swing. I can easily get to a place where I'm beating myself up, saying how stupid I am; … [Read more...]
Do You Have Shiny-Object Syndrome?
Awe... The time-elusive Shiny-Object Syndrome (squirrel)... In other words - PROCRASTINATION! How quickly can we become distracted by something "shiny" that diverts our attention from what we either should or need to be doing? For me, it some times feels, it's all the time. There are things I'm supposed to be doing but don't feel like it. Forcing myself can be so difficult at times. But why is that, especially if I know it's something very important? I just shake my head because I can't give … [Read more...]
Does God Have a Plan for Me? #ArmorOfGodStudy #ControlGirl
I haven’t felt compelled to write like this in quite some time. I’ve been having my daily Quiet Time (QT) with God each morning at 4am. Yup, you read that right: 4AM. Let me explain the significance here. I am a die-hard NIGHT OWL (you know - whoot whoot). So me and anything before the sun comes up is so not my thing. However, several months ago I felt God convicting me that in order to start my day off right, a consummate night owl needed to start her day bright and early (well, dark and … [Read more...]
Where to Get the Ultimate Guide Book
(While the following post is much longer than normal at almost 2,000 words, please read the entire thing. I reveal some very person things going on in my life at the time. Thank you.) Today is November 6, 2015 and I am on week 4 day 1 of the study guide. During my quiet time, I talk about some very personal stuff but just how much God has been working in my life. When we think of the Bible, it's like the ultimate guide book. It shows us the kind of person we should strive to be. How to act … [Read more...]
How to Find Sincere Love
Today (week 3 day 3), Jen has us looking at Romans 12:9-21 again. She has us choose from a list of original phrases found in this set of verses and then has a cross-reference for a specific phrase for each one. I chose two of the nine she has listed on page 173. Original Phrase (NIV): Romans 12:9—“[sincere] love” Cross-Reference: 1 Timothy 1:5, which reads: “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart (2 Timothy 2:22) and a good conscience and a sincere … [Read more...]
