When I Boldly Walked Back to God

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If you’ve turned away from God, do you know he loves you unconditionally? Kayla Nelson shares her #BeBoldGirl story with us this week. Let her words encourage you to boldly walk back to him. Welcome, Kayla. God doesn’t really love you. I told myself. He doesn’t hear you, He doesn’t see you, He doesn’t care about you. I was baptized as an infant. My earliest memories involve the church. I memorized bible verses, led bible studies, volunteered in ministries, and went on missions trips. I walked by works and drowned inside my own head, believing that I would never be enough. So I walked away. Away fromRead More →

Why We Must Learn To Forgive Others

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How often do we give others the chance to make a new beginning? Some time ago, my husband had to go on a business trip. He left one evening to fly overnight from Boston to Edinburgh. I woke early the next day expecting to see a text or email from him when his flight landed. Nothing! In the flurry of morning activities, I had little time to be worried. They kept worst-case scenarios at bay, for a while at least. I scrambled eggs on the stove for my twin boys. Urged their sleepy bodies to leave the comfort of warm beds and get ready forRead More →

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When we’ve been hurt by another person and it’s not fixed, what do we do? When they neither seem to notice what they have done wrong, nor care about the misery they have inflicted, let alone say they’re sorry, how do we deal with it? Often our reaction to pain is anger and we want to hurt back. The thought of forgiving our adversary seems impossible to do. But, more than that, harboring bitterness and resentment make our lives miserable. We don’t want to be bound by the chains of discord; we want to be free to be peacemakers. Where do we find the strengthRead More →

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How far is the east from the west? In my experience, twenty-four hours of travel to be exact. Or is it? I recently traveled east to Singapore. An island known to westerners as being in the east. Yet to some, I also live in the east—that is on the eastern seaboard of the United States. My husband and I accompanied our twin boys taking part in the World Finals of a competition called F1 in Schools. If you’d like to share in our excitement,  their team claimed the title of World Champions. This mamma bear is so proud.   Singapore is a long way east of Massachusetts inRead More →

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“I forgive her,” we say, “but to be friends again? No way.” Reconciliation, the restoration of friendly relations, is often a long and painful process, especially for those who are victims. Recently, the Prime Minister of Japan and President Obama stood side by side at Pearl Harbor. They mentioned reconciliation between the two countries. This is seventy-five years after the horrific events that transpired there. Coming together is one of the themes of my New Year prayers. And, it has been echoed this week. Martin Luther King Day is just behind us. This is the annual week of international prayer for Christian Unity. The theme;Read More →

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Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 There are two locations in Jerusalem where it is thought Jesus spoke these words. The first site is within the large and ornate Church of the Holy Sepulchre. At the top of steep stone steps is the Altar of Calvary. Here pilgrims line up to kneel and touch the rock believed to be where the cross of Jesus stood. The second setting is near the Garden Tomb. From one corner of the Garden you can see a craggy rock face. In it are hollows resembling the eyes and nose sockets of a skull, althoughRead More →

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When we’ve been hurt by another person and it’s not fixed, what do we do? When they neither seem to notice what they have done wrong, nor care about the pain they have inflicted, let alone say they’re sorry, how do we live? Eva Mozes Kor along with her twin sister, Miriam, were taken to Auschwitz at age ten where Dr. Josef Mengele used them for medical experiments. Although Eva and Miriam were liberated from Auschwitz at the end of the war, Miriam died in 1993 from cancer attributed to the ordeals she had undergone. No one else in their family survived the war. Eva livesRead More →

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Note:  This is the first post during my trip to the Holy Land with Lysa TerKeurst and Proverbs 31 Ministries.  I pray you are blessed by following along with me as I walk where Jesus walked. The slabs of limestone still make a distinct path down the hill where the soldiers dragged a bound Jesus. I stood in my Nikes on the rocks—stones on which Jesus stood on that fateful evening. On the left, white rectangular boulders made in a distinctive outline of a building marking the site of Annas’ House. This is where the soldiers took Jesus first after they had seized him inRead More →

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Death defeated. Sins forgiven. New life. This is the message bursting forth from Easter. Forgiveness is freely given to us—but we forgive unwillingly. Wrongdoing may be forgotten, but we continue to bear grudges. “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west,” says Psalm 103:12 (NLT). Or “as far as sunrise is from sunset,” says The Message translation. Can we ever reach the west? (Forget for a moment the labels we put on continents.) Can we ever get to the sunset? Still we remember—our own wrongdoing, and the sins of others. It’s only natural. We blame ourselves. We condemnRead More →