Friend to Friend

My mom wore a two-carat diamond necklace that hung from a gold chain around her neck. My dad had given it to her for an anniversary. Before you say, “Good for her,” keep reading.

One day, when she was shopping in my little hometown, she walked through an alley separating two buildings. This spunky seventy-something-year-old held several packages and her purse looped over her wrist.

About midway through the alley, three teenage boys on bicycles circled her like buzzards over roadkill. One hopped off his bike and grabbed at her necklace. The others continued circling and keeping watch.

But rather than give the would-be-robber what he wanted, Mom dropped her packages and began hitting the boy over the head with her

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Friend to Friend

I was 16 years old and about 100 pounds soaking wet.

My friend’s dad, Mr. Evans, gathered up a few of us teenagers and drove us to a church just outside my hometown. We were going to give our testimonies at a Saturday night gathering of strangers. I’d never stood behind a podium, spoken into a mic, or stared at a sea of faces thinking I had something to say. 

When my name was called, I walked up the stage steps, took a deep breath, and told all those staring eyes about how Jesus plucked me out of a home filled with alcohol abuse and violence, and about parents who fought all the time, and about hiding in the closet.

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Friend to Friend

I walked to the mailbox and then to the recycler. Don’t need this one, or this one, or this one I whispered as I dropped the shiny flyers in the red box.

I don’t know about you, but I get tired of slick ads for things I don’t need and junk mail from services I don’t want. I especially dislike the credit card applications that say I’ve been “pre-approved” for a line of credit. 

But here’s something I’ll never get tired of doing: going to the Word of God and reading His love letter to me. I’ll never stop being amazed that I’ve been pre-approved to be His child. I wonder if that’s how Jesus felt, too.

Just before He began His earthly

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Friend to Friend

Can I make a confession? Sometimes I quit too soon. I’ve quit when what I really needed to do was press on and press through. Sometimes I’ve gotten tired of trying. Sometimes I’ve gotten tired of the struggle. And you know what? I’ve missed many blessings because I got tired of the battle. I don’t want to do that any longer. I’m taking my cues from Joshua.

The battle plan to take the Promised Land was as simple as it was strange. March around the city of Jericho with all the armed men. Do this in silence, once a day for six days. Then on the seventh day, walk around seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets. Have

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Friend to Friend

As I sat on my screened-in porch early one morning, I was taken aback by the beauty surrounding me. I held a steamy cup of coffee in my hand and placed my open, well-worn Bible in my lap. As if on cue, as had been our routine for the past several weeks, a visitor hopped from the shrubbery and onto the night-cooled patio. “Good morning, Peter,” I cooed to the little brown bunny. “How are you today?” I just love bunnies, I mused.

Just as I was enjoying watching my furry friend, he hopped over to a flowerpot, stood up on his hind legs, and yanked a rather large stem from a plant.

“Good grief,” I moaned. “Stop that!” Bounding down the

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Friend to Friend

I am so glad that God gave us girlfriends who will struggle with us in prayer. Paul wasn’t a girlfriend in God, but he certainly understood struggling together in prayer.

He wrote: “Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me” (Romans 15:30 NLT).

The New Testament was originally written in Greek and sometimes looking at the original definitions of the words can give us great insight. The Greek word Paul uses for struggle in Romans 15:30 is sunagonizomai, which means “to struggle in company of, i.e., to be a partner (assistant), strive together with.” The root word means “to endeavor to accomplish something: fight, labor fervently,

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Friend to Friend

Harper and I were having a visit on Facetime. This five-year-old bundle of love, my niece’s daughter, was telling me all about her Guinea pig, Skitters. Skitters was her new best friend. He went down the sliding board with her, nibbled on baby carrots at tea parties across from her, and nestled in the mini stroller in front of her during walks. Oh, how she loved Skitters.

“I had a Guinea pig when I was a little girl, too!” I shared. “His name was Oscar!”

“You did? What happened to Oscar?” she asked. “Did you give him away or did he die? Do Guinea pigs go to heaven?”

I was not expecting those questions and wished I had kept my Guinea

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Friend to Friend:

Have you ever gone through a situation and wondered, Jesus where are You? If You had been here, this wouldn’t have happened. The loss of a loved one? The crash of a car? The devastation of property? Did you know that two women in the Bible felt the same way…and actually told Jesus just how they felt about it!

Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. He often stopped by their home for a hot meal during His travels. I’d dare say they were some of His closest friends. And yet, when the girls sent someone to tell Jesus that Lazarus was sick, He didn’t go…at least not right away.

The Bible tells us, “So, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he

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Friend to Friend

I had braces on my upper teeth three times. Count them. One. Two. Three.

As the orthodontist explained, “Teeth have a memory. They always want to go back to the way they were.”

As soon as he said those words, I felt convicted. I tend to go back to the way I was.

We all do.

Karen (not her real name) admitted to single-handedly destroying her marriage with passive-aggressive coldness, destructive words, and disrespect of the worst kind. After her husband walked away from the marriage, she had a Holy Spirit moment and realized what she had done. Karen’s heart softened and she vowed never to be that woman again. 

She immersed herself in Bible study and began to pray for her ex-husband

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Friend to Friend

When my brother was a teenager, my mother used to threaten him when he hunched over at the dinner table. “If you don’t sit up,” she would say, “I’m going to buy you a back brace from Sears.” I don’t even know if Sears made back braces then, but it sounded like a pretty good threat to me.

Then I had a son who seemingly grew to six feet overnight. He didn’t know what to do with all that height, so he slumped. I tried my best not to say, “If you don’t sit up, I’m going to buy you a back brace from Sears.”

Then one night my father-in-law took care of it for me. We were measuring and

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Friend to Friend

I can do it. No, I can’t. Yes, I can. No, I can’t.

Have you ever had that conversation with yourself? You feel like God is calling you to reach out to someone, start a new venture, teach a Bible study, write a book, or share a story about your past that you’ve never shared before. But then your fear shouts at your faith to keep quiet. 

One day Jesus told a parable to a group of listeners. We’ve come to know it as the Parable of the Talents, but it is really more the Parable of the Three Choices. Jesus was explaining what the kingdom of heaven would be like in common terms.

For it is just like a man

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Friend to Friend

I was in college when I met my husband at a Bible study. He was sitting on the floor dressed in scruffy jeans, a red flannel shirt, and a strong face that needed a shave. The moment I saw him, I was smitten. But I didn’t want him to know that.

Steve finally asked me out on a date, and several more followed. One night, Steve said, “Will you go with me to all the rest of the football games for the rest of the year?”

“I’m not going to answer that question,” I cavalierly responded. “You’ll have to ask me each week.”

What I was saying was that I wanted to be pursued. None of this blanket-invitation-for-the-entire-fall business. I wanted

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Friend to Friend

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a little boy so excited! Steven was seven years old, and we were headed to Disney World! It was his first time on an airplane, his first time sleeping in a hotel, and his first time seeing Mickey Mouse in person. My video camera was fully charged and poised to capture those precious memories.

But when we go back and watch the old video, it doesn’t start out as I had planned. We’re in some type of welcoming center where children are running around climbing on various objects, crawling through tunnels, and swinging from monkey bars. As the “movie” comes into view, the first thing I see is my husband, Steve, running

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Friend to Friend

It was an unusual phone call from my son, Steven. He was in the second week of his second semester, his third year in college.

“Hey mom, this is Steven. I just wanted to call and say ‘hello.’ I haven’t talked to you in a while and wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Hey bud,” I replied. “How are you? How are your classes? Do you like your professors?” 

We volleyed questions and answers back and forth. It was a nice intro, and I kept waiting for the request such as, “could you put an extra $50 in my account for another Philosophy book I had to buy,” or “does my car insurance go up if I get a parking

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Friend to Friend

For almost forty years, Margaret lived with word-inflicted wounds that nearly destroyed her life. From the first day she attended her one room schoolhouse, she and her teacher, Ms. Garner, didn’t get along. Ms. Garner was harsh, bitter, and cruel, and could not tolerate Margaret’s childish idiosyncrasies.

Margaret was nine years old when she frantically raced into class, late again. As she burst through the doors, she faced her peers jeering at her maliciously.

“Margaret!” Ms. Garner shouted. “We have been waiting for you! Get up here to the front of the class, right now!”

Ms. Garner ranted, “Boys and girls, Margaret has been a bad girl. I have tried to help her be responsible. But apparently, she doesn’t want to

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Friend to Friend

I believe one of the greatest inventions of the twentieth century was the Post-It Note. First, there was yellow. Then came fuchsia, turquoise, buttercup, and magenta. From full-page mega notes to tiny little strips, sticky notes have saved me from embarrassment, kept me organized, and helped me memorize. Mostly, they have served as visual reminders of information, events, and appointments not to forget.

But visual reminders of things not to forget didn’t begin with Post-It Notes. They began with God, Himself. All through life God places Post-It Notes on our days to remind us of Him. Just today, I jotted down a few Post-It Notes God placed throughout my day.

The sunrise with swirls of mist rising from the Read More

 

 

Friend to Friend

It was the incompetent and the inexperienced being led by the inept, the day our Sunday School Class worked on the habitat for humanity house for an unsuspecting, extremely grateful family. Among the crew were two dentists, an investment banker, a lawyer, an engineer, two pastors, a receptionist, several homemakers, and a marriage counselor. It’s always good to have a marriage counselor on hand when a home improvement project is taking place.

The one-thousand-square feet, vinyl-siding house had already been framed by a team the week before. Today was sheetrock or drywall day. The site supervisor’s name was T.A. 

T.A. was a country carpenter who had hammered more nails for Jesus than Noah and his sons combined, and he got

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Friend to Friend

Jennifer stood in front of the mirror staring at the overweight woman looking back at her. Just two years ago she’d lost 120 pounds, and now 80 of them were back. I can’t keep this weight off, she thought. I know what I’m supposed to do, but I just can’t do it. I’m always going to be fat. I’m just going to accept it and quit trying. What’s so bad about being fat anyway? I just can’t help myself.

Rachel loved Travis; she did. Though they were both Christians, they found themselves staring at the ceiling in her bedroom after a night of passion that led to a morning of regret. We’ve tried to remain pure, she mused, but we love each other

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Friend to Friend

When I was eight years old, my prized possession was a collie dog named, what else, Lassie. Lassie was my shadow. She ran alongside me as I pedaled around the neighborhood on my pink-glittered banana bike. She slept outside the door of my one-room playhouse when my best friend, Wanda, and I “camped out.” She protected me from dangerous strangers, such as the paperboy, the mailman, and the trash collector.

When the veterinarian told us that Lassie had an incurable skin disease and needed to be put to sleep, I was devastated. And even though she was my dog, my dad was almost as heartbroken as I was. He could not bring himself to purposely end Lassie’s life, so

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Friend to Friend

Allan was a tough man. Raised by a single mom with five siblings, he learned how to scrape his way through life and climb to the top of humanity’s heap through sheer determination and grit. He married at nineteen, had his first son at twenty, then a baby girl at twenty-five. Over the next two decades, he advanced from driving a delivery truck at a lumber yard to becoming part owner of a building supply company.

Allan drank heavily, fought with his wife verbally and physically, and terrorized his children emotionally. He gambled, dabbled in pornography, and had questionable relationships laced with a host of unsavory vices. 

But when his teenage daughter gave her life to Jesus and began praying

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Friend to Friend

If there’s one thing I know it’s this: The measuring stick will get you stuck! Comparison is the devil’s tool that has stopped many of us gals from stepping into our God-given destinies…and it’s time to stop!

I camped out with Moses by the burning bush for more than a year when I was writing the book, Take Hold of the Faith You Long For. When I met him in Exodus chapter 3, he was an insecure, stuttering recluse. He argued with God and told him He had the wrong man for the job. He stuttered, sputtered, and had difficulty speaking. I knew exactly how he felt…I had been just like him.

But, Moses hadn’t always been so insecure. He hadn’t always

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Friend to Friend

Have you ever felt like someone just knocked you over with words…not caring how it made you feel? I know I have. One day my Golden Retriever showed me just how it’s done.

Shortly after we had planted a maple tree in our backyard, we went on vacation. It was the first time we had left Ginger, our Golden Retriever, home alone. A neighbor fed and watched out for her while we were away. On the second day of our trip, I called Cathy to see how Ginger was doing.

“Well, Ginger’s fine,” Cathy reported. “But you know that tree you planted last week? She dug it up!”

“She did what!” I exclaimed.

“She dug it up. The tree’s lying in the

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Friend to Friend

One day I was driving home from the beach in July Fourth holiday traffic. It was Southern muggy hot, and cars were a throng of metal on wheels. Everyone was going faster than the posted speed limit and I was trying to keep up. I was also young and distracted. Ok, here’s the truth: I had just broken up with my boyfriend and was crying my eyes out.

At one point, I felt my front right tire slip off the asphalt and onto the gravel shoulder of the road. In a flood of panic, I heard the voice of my driver’s ed teacher from four years earlier, “If you run off the road, do not, and I repeat, do

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Friend to Friend

Carley and Dan are a couple who have gone the extra mile…not to go the extra mile. They constantly keep score as to who put a new bar of soap in the shower last or who replaced the toilet paper roll last or who opened a new tube of toothpaste last.

“It’s sort of a contest to see who can use the smallest sliver of soap or use the last drop of toothpaste,” Carley boasted. The contest, as silly as it may seem, boils down to who is going to serve the other. Imagine how adored Dan would feel if Carley began to get out a new bar of soap before the sliver war began or replenished the toilet

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Note from Sharon: I know that devotions on marriage are difficult for many who are not married and perhaps would like to be. That’s why we usually keep the marriage devotions that minister to thousands of women in the month of February. Whether you are married or single, please join us at GiG in praying for marriages all around the world.

 

Friend to Friend

I can still remember being sequestered in the “Bride’s Room” of our church just moments before the organist began to play for the early arrivals. As I sat in front of an oversized gilded mirror trying not to wrinkle my dress, I daydreamed about the man who would become my husband in just a few moments. He

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Friend to Friend

Have you ever been so discouraged that you just wanted to stay in bed and pull the covers up over your head? Maybe that’s where you are right now.

I’ve hidden under the covers a time or two myself. OK, well maybe more than two.

There’s a story in the Bible that helps me when I feel mopey.

A few years after the Israelites made it to the Promised Land, they grew tired of being ruled by God through the prophets. They wanted to have a king like all the other nations.

Samuel was the ruling prophet at the time, and he told the people all the reasons having a king was a bad idea. They persisted in their demands, and eventually

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Friend to Friend

Some people just seem happy and positive all the time. They appear to never worry and fret. These people act like they eat rainbows for breakfast and ride a unicorn to work. But life isn’t all lucky charms. Sometimes it is just plain hard.

We should anticipate trials. Jesus promised trouble. “In this world you will have trouble,” He warned (John 16:33).

So what if the worst thing you can imagine does happen? What then?

What if my child gets sick?

What if my husband does leave?

What if I lose my job?

What if I get on a plane and it crashes?

I decided a long time ago, when I get on a plane, I’m either going to get where I’m headed, or

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Friend to Friend

Do you remember the first Rocky movie? (I just looked it up and there have been eight.) In the very first film about the Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa falls madly in love with the very demure Adrian who works at a Tropical Fish pet store. Adrian is very intelligent, shy, and cautious. Rocky is, well, none of those things. In one scene, Adrian’s brother, Paulie, asked Rocky what he sees in his sister. Rocky answers, “She’s got gaps, I got gaps. Together we fill gaps.”

But Rocky got it all wrong. Adrian’s got gaps. He’s got gaps. And no person is going to fill those gaps.

Let me put it this way. I’ve got gaps. You’ve got gaps. And no

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Friend to Friend

I set out to tackle a task I had put off for many years. I didn’t really want to do it at all. It was the job of cleaning out my ministry storage closet. A closet filled with boxes of memories collected over twenty years.

Old magazines with articles I had written dating back to 1996.
Thirty-six-inch vinyl posters of book covers beginning in 1999.
A 3-foot lighthouse used in a teaching on motherhood.
A treasure box of oyster shells mixed with a strand of pearls used in another teaching on what can happen with irritations that get under our skin.
Videos of past interviews from television programs that probably don’t even exist any longer.
A box of CDs from ten years of recording Read More

 

Friend to Friend

Steve and I were headed to the coast and stopped for our usual lunch break—Chick-fil-A—Just twenty minutes from our destination, it was one last time to fill up on sweet tea. While Steve purchased our nuggets, I took our Bernedoodle, Molly, for a walk in the grassy area between Chick-fil-A and Dunkin’.

Molly sniffed, stretched, and well, you know. On our second turn around the quarter-acre plot of green, I noticed something shiny poking through the weeds. When I bent down to pick it up, my heart skipped a beat. It was a silver cuff bracelet that read, “This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior, all the day long.”  What left me slack-jawed wasn’t just

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Friend to Friend

Who in the world would wait until Christmas Eve to do their Christmas shopping? I find it hard to believe the statistics that show December 24th is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, so one season I decided to venture out to the stores and see for myself. I usually have my Christmas list complete by Thanksgiving to avoid the crowds, so even though I was elbow to elbow with anxious shoppers, I didn’t feel the same angst that seemed etched on their faces.

I traveled to my favorite department stores and picked through a few stocking stuffers. Low and behold, I saw three of my in-laws scrambling for gifts. I picked up a few items

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