My Word for This Year: SIMPLICITY in Christ

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My Word for This Year: SIMPLICITY in Christ

Friends, I’m feeling a need to return to the Simplicity that is in Christ … Join me?

Drum Roll please … simplicity is the word the Lord has given me for this year. And actually, it came to me during my devotions about a month ago.

I had been feeling like we Christians can make everything about knowing God and living the Christian life so complicated and sometimes, so intense. It was then that the Holy Spirit brought me again to a cherished, heart-warming, favorite verse of mine BUT in a different translation:

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Cor 11:3 NKJV

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Unfolding Fullness

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Unfolding Fullness

I referred to this “word of the year” from 2016 in my last post WHAT IF our Plan B is really God’s Plan A. And “unfolding fullness” still remains my favorite. I often pray in the morning,

O Lord, unfold Your fullness in my life today.

So I decided to share this post from back when these words were fresh in my mind and heart. Maybe you would like to adopt them too.

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WHAT IF our Plan B is Really God's Plan A?

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WHAT IF our Plan B is Really God's Plan A?

Or stated in another way:

What if God’s Plan A is really our plan B?

Makes me think of the verse that was hanging in my children’s “nursery” as babies:

We may make our plans but God has the last word.
Proverbs 16:1

This verse is not just for my babies, but for all of us “big people.” So it is still on display in our guest room, where we can be reminded. And I am reminded as I sit in my “Prayer Chair” in that lovely room in our condo.

LET LIFE UNFOLD … God is in the unfolding.

So since this is still my birthday month, I’d like to share again my thoughts on God’s unfolding of our days via my favorite flower the rose:

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WHAT IF God Was There the Whole Time?

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WHAT IF God Was There the Whole Time?

He was!

Yes, we know that, but when we are hurting or are trying to move on from past rejections and past “abuse,” (no matter big or small, we may feel that we were all alone in that terrible time.

Well recently, I was going through actually feeling the emotional hurt of some of those past things. They had stayed locked up inside, because I learned to stuff emotions (especially what we term “negative emotions”) and stoically move on … oftentimes, thinking that was the spiritual thing to do.

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Mentoring at its Best: Attachment that Detaches

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Mentoring at its Best: Attachment that Detaches

I had an interesting conversation with a friend about mentoring. We marveled at how so many Christians we know, who have matured in the Lord through the help of a mentor, end up being rejected by that same mentor for not agreeing with them on minor points of doctrine or practice, or for moving on in a different direction in ministry, or for some other difference of opinion. How sad. But how common!

Well, there is good news! There is a gem of a spiritual father tucked away in the gospels, one of my heroes of the faith, John the Baptist!  He shows us what a true mentor is like. John is not only a clear example of "letting go," but also a stellar model of attachment to his Lord Jesus Christ.

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Longing for our Father's Blessing

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Longing for our Father's Blessing

… The interesting thing is I had years before read the book The Blessing by Gary Smalley & John Trent. In that wonderful book, the authors explore our human need for approval and validation. They show how this need was met in the Biblical blessings given by fathers to children. But they shared how we could also do this for our children today and for others we care about.

The authors listed 5 elements to the Blessing:


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Your Concept of God Can Look a Lot Like your Dad

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Your Concept of God Can Look a Lot Like your Dad

The parent-child relationship is perhaps the most critical metaphor of our relationship with God. Why? Because it’s in our relationship with our earthly fathers that we begin to form our concept of God our heavenly Father — for good or for ill.

But all is not lost if our concept of God is askew, filled with false beliefs of what God is really like. There is an Abba Father who fathers us with unconditional love and acceptance, tenderness, and the “loving sternness” that comes with parenting in truth.

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Embracing the Life that's Mine, not the One I Wish were Mine

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Embracing the Life that's Mine, not the One I Wish were Mine

I’m feeling the need to revisit the truth of living my “today,” embracing my real life for all that it holds. Though I wrote this almost 7 years ago, the message applies not only for then, but also for now . . and actually every today of my life. It preaches to me (the author) to never lose sight of the present reality of my God in my very real today.

If I just lost you with that last statement, why not keep on reading. This is where I chose to live. How about you?

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Today is Mine ... or is it?

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Today is Mine ... or is it?

Embracing my life today ... my now life ... my today life ... not the one I wish I had, but rather the one I have been given ... I want to do that, don't you? Otherwise, I end up fighting my own reality. 

And if God is I AM, the Eternal Present Tense Person,then the place I will experience Him is in my real, now, today life. So today is mine, but it's above all HIS! Because each day is a gift from God, my I AM.

I don't know about you, but I need to constantly revisit this truth. I'm so prone to project into the future and occasionally into the nostalgic days of the past.

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Respecting the Holy Spirit in Older Believers

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Respecting the Holy Spirit in Older Believers

Recently, I was thinking about my mother and my mother-in-law and other older loved ones in my past…wishing I had been more understanding and sympathetic with their struggle with aging and weakness and decline. Now I find it’s my turn. And now I know what it feels like to age and say “good-bye” to capacities and people and opportunities and youthful strength.

So today I’m revisiting this post…for my own encouragement and for yours too, dear reader. We are all aging. May the Lord meet you in whatever stage of the process you are in.

And let’s support one another.

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The Emptying of Motherhood: Alone?

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The Emptying of Motherhood: Alone?

It has been a lot of years since my nest emptied. But every year I can’t help but think of how it all began — so hard, but so intended. We knew the day would come, but how did it happen so soon? And did it have to hurt so much?

So every year I revisit my thoughts, my experiences, and how the Lord comforts and speaks in the entire process. Why not join me (again?) this year if you dare.

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Living in Union with Christ

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Living in Union with Christ

While all around us leaves us unsettled and empty, let’s reflect on the One who fills us … and has always been the stabilizer of our souls.

Here is a piece I wrote several years ago in answer to a dear friend’s question : How does this whole thing called the Christian life fit together.

I would love to hear your thoughts as you interact with the truths that follow … and may you be encouraged and challenged by what you read!

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Final Thoughts about My Honest Question -- "I Don't Fit Anywhere" ... in CHURCH

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Final Thoughts about My Honest Question -- "I Don't Fit Anywhere" ... in CHURCH

I’ve been thinking about the comments from my Honest Question post a few days ago.

I have one final thought — maybe it’s that some people are really reacting to “the CHURCH” more than “religion/legalism” or “God Himself.” And why might that be? What about the “CHURCH” turns people off?

I get it. We have been in many churches in various traditions. I’d like to share some of my own struggles with church. Maybe you can identify and so maybe we can all understand others’ issues.

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Another answer to my Honest Question: "The Smile that Destroyed my Religion!"

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Another answer to my Honest Question: "The Smile that Destroyed my Religion!"

I’m still pondering my honest question (See my previous post and “Honest Question”).

Maybe many people are living without a “sense of religion / legalism” but they are mistakenly equating that with a “sense of GOD.”

I get that. Religion/legalism can be deadly. BUT relationship is Life-giving.

So I’m remembering and sharing the most pivotal point in my own spiritual journey … The smile that destroyed my religion. Here is my turning point:

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An Answer to my Honest Question?

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An Answer to my Honest Question?

Back in 2012 when I was just beginning to write A Branch in the Vine, I did a series I called “Findings in the Files.” My sister and friend Tresca reminded me of this poem as part of the answer to my “Honest Question” (see my previous blogpost and the comments).

So here is a partial answer along with a beautiful response. May you be blessed as you read.

FINDINGS IN THE FILES, 2012

The following two findings are a true study in contrasts -- Invictus by William Ernest Henley and My Captain by Dorothea Day.

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