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You Have A Plan, but God Has A Better One!
Proverbs 16:9(NLT) “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” When I was a little girl, my favorite place was my closet. I didn’t purposely choose it but happened upon the discovery when playing with my sister. She and I would play the game hide-and-go-seek, and one day I quickly ran and…
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A New Level of Relationship
One of the most well-known Mosaic Laws in The Ten Commandments is Exodus 20:3(NKJV), “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Those of us who were students in Sunday School learned that Heavenly Father is a jealous God, and for most of us, this sufficed as the answer to why we shouldn’t engage idolatry…
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God’s Plan for Your Life Works
I watched an interview last week of a woman that described her disappointment in getting back into the dating scene. She’s 35 years-old and is really having a challenging time. She wonders if she’ll ever find love again. Her divorce was very painful, and now that she has to raise two young girls, she wants…
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Breaking Generational Curses
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for teaching us how to handle our enemies in Your Word. In John 16:33(NIV), Your Son, Jesus Christ said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” There is…
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A Youthful Spirit and Mature Spirituality
Wonderful sisters in Christ of a certain age need to be confident in the goodness, power, and faithfulness of our God. More and more, it seems we’re allowing this confidence to slip further away from our grasp. Oh, we hide it well. Most of us are used to hearing and saying, “God is good all…
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We Need Them and They Need Us
1Peter 4:11(NLT) 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power…
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Don’t Touch!
Dear Heavenly Father, You tell us in 2Corinthians 5:20(NLT), “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” Heavenly Father, You’ve given us the distinct honor and privilege to remind people who they are and who they belong to. As ambassadors,…
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I Wasn’t Expecting It!
I’ve heard many lasting love stories from people that say they weren’t expecting to fall in love. Many would confirm that the reason their love is so special is because they met at a time when neither or at least one of them weren’t looking for love; it just happened. Some would argue that it…
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Looking for Treasures Where There Are None
When a man decides to go down on one knee and ask a woman to be his wife, it means she’s presented to him something that makes him decide to deny the pursuit of any other woman. He chooses as his wife the woman that satisfies something within him. This choice signals the world of…
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Our Great Big Wonderful God!
First you had trouble sleeping, waking up all hours of the night. Then came the backaches and headaches. The week after that, your chest felt like an elephant was sitting on top of it. Then came the sneezing and coughing, the sore throat, and the fever that wouldn’t go away even with medicine. You can’t…
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3 Questions You Must Answer
If the person you’re dating isn’t ready for a marital commitment and you are, what are you expecting to happen? Do you expect that he will change his mind? Are you assuming he’ll grow more in love with you or are you willing to simply continue with things as they are? It’s important to ask…
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Unload the Extra Weight
James 1:19-24(NLT) “19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has…
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Speak Life!
“I don’t ever want to be married again!” Someone said this to me, and I was stunned at her proclamation. She’s a woman of a certain age, but in my mind, she’s still too young to feel this way. Her husband died a few years ago, and with two married adult children that have children…
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Show Me How to Love
As human beings, we crave love, and whether we’re willing to admit it or not, most would do almost anything to have it. Many people today are still searching for that special someone, and they hope this person will shower them with the love they’ve always wanted. It’s no secret that there are disproportionately more…
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What’s on Your Mind?
Philippians 4:8 (NLT) “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” This verse in Philippians 4:8 promotes God’s standard for how we are to steward our hearts…
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I Thought I Heard from God
Genesis 1:27-28(MSG) tells us, “God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!” God is our Creator, and He has made us in His image. 1John 4:8 affirms that love is not just what God does, LOVE is…
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The Many Faces of Temptation
James 1:13-14(NLT) “13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.” There is one thing Christians must always remember, and it is…
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Get Out of Your Own Way
One of the young women that I counsel has finished college and is ready to get married. She’s bright, intelligent, attractive and loves the Lord. But often she feels like she’s not doing enough with her life to please God. She says this because of her unfulfilled desire to meet the Godly man that will…
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A Marriage Ultimatum without A Foundation
There are very few more important treasures in life than wisdom and spiritual maturity. Margarite found this out the hard way. I had known her for almost ten years before she married her long-time love at 58 years old. She had gotten serious about her walk in the Lord and gave her boyfriend an ultimatum,…
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You Have to Take What You Can Get—NOT SO!
There are two things that can happen when you grow up around strong women that have survived tremendous struggle and heartache. The first is that their tenacity and grit becomes a witness of courage and faith. The second is that you become intimately acquainted with the severity of how abandonment and infidelity can impact a…
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Are You Ready for Restoration?
In the Old Testament, Isaiah 43 looks forward to the release of God’s people from their captivity, but it goes beyond their current situation of bondage in Babylon and looks even to our redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father gives them a great encouragement in Isaiah 43:19(NLT). He said, “For I am about…
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First One to the Finish Line!
Every New Year’s Day, Sandra and her family would go to the beach early in the morning. It had been their tradition for the last twelve years. Everyone would be loaded down with beach chairs, books, and blankets; but Sandra was always the first one out of the car. She would rush to the beach…
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Schedule Your Review with God
I received an invitation from my financial institution this week to come in for a review. They advised that now would be a good time to sit down and discuss my needs and new opportunities. I thought, “hmmm…what if I received a message like that from God, what would my response be?” In truth, God…
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One Touch from God
One of my most fond memories from childhood is that of my big sister singing me to sleep. I would ask her to sing to me almost every night. Seven years my senior, I’m sure she had other things she’d rather be doing than singing the same song over and over until I fell asleep,…
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Is It Wise to Marry Young?
Recently a young Christian woman asked me if I thought getting married at a young age was a wise move. This was a question that was very familiar to my life’s experience. I was reared in a family of very strong women, and they had seen their fair share of ups and downs in relationships.…
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Long Overdue!
Lamentations 3:22-23(ESV) tells us, “22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Within this passage is a theme worthy of our aspirations for not only the beginning of a new day, but most assuredly as well, the…
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Let God Help You
During the last couple of weeks, my daughter’s school has dedicated a lot of focus on writing skills. She’s been sent home with writing packets every day. Included is a little sticky note from the teachers, urging parents to help the child if they have difficulty by making the writing assignments fun. I kept a…
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Marriage or Living Together?
I was having a conversation with a woman in the store the other day and we both agreed that this year seems to have flown by. She was skimming through the magazines as we both waited in line to pay for our groceries. She giggled and said, “These young folks these days aren’t like us…
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Let Him Teach You!
From years of endeavoring to encourage many sisters in the Lord to continue in faith regarding their desire to marry, I have learned a few things. One of them is that we don’t let go of our burdens as easily as we should, especially when it comes to relationships of the past and those we…
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Change Your Perception and Your Reality Will Follow
Fourteen years ago, Sylvia’s husband died suddenly from a heart attack. He was 42 years old. She was left to raise a young teenage boy. She was heartbroken to the core to find herself alone and a single parent. Moving from Europe to the United States, she and her young son lived with her sister…