“‘And now, here's what I'm going to do:   I'm going to start all over again. I'm taking her back out into the wilderness 
      where we had our first date, and I'll court her. I'll give her bouquets of roses. 
      I'll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope ...’” Hosea 2:14-16a(MSG)   I woke up from a deep sleep when I heard a gentle, tender Voice calling me. “Come away with Me.” I looked outside my window and noticed a thick cloud of morning fog covering the ground. “I’m ready for you.” With great anticipation, I nervously got my things ready to spend an entire day out with my King. It’s the same feeling I get when my ...

Once every couple of years, my family and I would take a long road trip to the countryside of Tennessee. It was always one of those trips where, as a kid, and even as an adult, you thought you might never get there. I can still hear the sounds of the locusts chirping in the trees and the way the wildflowers scented the air as we drove up the long dirt road leading to my grandma’s cabin. This cabin I went to as a little girl, tucked away deep in the woods of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, was my “Hideaway.” The country girl inside of me starts to come out when the fond memories of those summer visits to this cabin consume my thoughts. It had a musky smell and was always in need of a ...

I love to laugh! I especially love to see others laugh. When I was growing up, I used to go to great lengths to make my family laugh. I remember gathering an audience (usually consisting of my li’l sis), getting dressed up, grabbing some shopping bags, and putting on my dad’s biggest, thickest white tube socks. Running as fast as I could across our slick wood floor, in my best “role-playing” voice I would yell out, “Wait up, guys!” I would then gracefully slide into an award-winning face plant. Hey, I was a dedicated actress and my audience loved me! She would roar with laughter, even after 100 times of me slamming myself, almost beyond recovery. (Okay, maybe that’s a ...

Thoughts of this article came while relaxing on the beautiful white sand beaches of South Beach, Miami, over looking the aqua blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. I laid there listening to the water crash against the shore while seagulls made their sounds flying overhead. It amazes me that even in the midst of a very challenging road the Lord gave me three wonderfully relaxing days. Selah … “Tie your shoes on tight, because the road’s about to get bumpy.” A friend spoke this to my husband and me one night at church. It wasn’t just any night; it was a night of prophetic words. In 1 Corinthians 14:3, Paul talks about speaking prophetically to one another in order to strengthen, ...

“Give me liberty or give me death.” Patrick Henry “We the People of these United States of America…” US Constitution “God shed His grace on thee…” Katharine Bates “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.” Martin Luther King Jr. “Let Us make man in Our image.” God “Follow Me.” Jesus Since the beginning of time men and women have made a huge impact on this world by the power of their speeches, songs, and quotes. The power of these spoken words literally changed the course of history. Wars were started, people were set free, and lives were forever changed because of a passion, a vision, or a dream that was placed in ...

Finally, I get to wear the dress that took months of window-shopping to find, along with the perfect complimenting shoes and, of course, sparkling accessories to match. With my hair and make-up all dolled up just the way I envisioned, I was ready for my close-up. The day had arrived. Walking graciously into the elegant ballroom, I found my beautifully arranged table covered with a fine white linen tablecloth and set with the most delicate china, crystal glass and sterling silverware. This room was fit for a princess. Sitting there in awe of my surroundings, I watched as, one-by-one, my peers were seated at their designated tables. We were here to receive an award for accomplishing ...

“Kindred Spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” ~Anne Shirley “Girls, they wanna have fu-un!” Most of us have heard Cindy Lauper’s hit about girls just wanting to have fun, but as we all know there have been times when not everybody is having fun. I can remember going to a party thrown just for me, and still feeling very lonely and empty inside; a feeling nobody should ever have to feel. My social abilities all started when I was young. My mom would tell you it was soon after I learned how to speak. In elementary school, I would get report cards back from my teachers and in the comment section they ...

There we were, celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary in the beautiful ancient city built on several islands of a lagoon, linked together by bridges. The city of romance, Venice, Italy. On the sixth day of our ten-day dream vacation my spontaneous husband decided to treat us to a romantic evening concert. The string ensemble, called “Interpreti Venzian”, played Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” at an historic eleventh century cathedral. Red carpets were laid out as we walked in and since there was no assigned seating we just sat where we pleased. Of course we chose the closest seats we could possibly get. While waiting for the symphony to begin, I admired the beautiful ...

You’ve heard the saying, “You have to make a mess to clean a mess.” In part 1 we cleaned out our closet and started going through the “stuff,” where we talked out the issues and sorted through the muck that was in our hearts. We were now putting back together all of the unorganized pieces that had been broken from the mess by walking out the hurts and frustrations in part 2, allowing the Lord to begin healing our marriage. This was painful at first, like rubbing alcohol to clean an open wound, but it was cleaning us out and doing its job, ultimately healing and soothing our hearts. Yet the wounds were still very tender, and our emotions vulnerable during this recovery. God’s ...

With any wound or pain you have in your body, there is going to be some kind of remedy you must go through in order to get rid of it. In the first article of this 3 part series we talked about “the itch,” the part where you have to really bite down and face the pain. This second part is about the cure, walking out the pain, through the pain, and even though it hurt, sometimes more than we thought we could bear, we knew it needed to happen. Here we go, the rubber was meeting the road, our laces were tied, and we were ready to walk it out, weren’t we? For the next year (yes that would be 12 whole months or shall we say 365 of the longest days of our lives) we stayed up late into ...