You Really Can Do It With God

by Kelly Balarie | | 12 comments

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It looked like an impossible task – a no way, no how kind of thing. I had no time, waning skills and hardly a resource to actually make it happen.

After all, I am not a star candidate. My follow-through record is usually pretty poor, my attitude often defeated and my belief in myself is hardly at mountaintop levels. How could I actually follow through on what I knew God wanted me to do?

Everything in me wanted to tell God to check the earth for another holy roller and remind Him that He had picked the wrong gal.

And, I nearly did.

I would have if it wasn’t for the other “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12) I couldn’t seem

When Life is Blurry

by Gwen Smith | | 6 comments

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Have you ever felt alone, scared, angry, confused, and hurt all at the same time? Ever felt like running away from a difficult situation? I have. There was a time when I wanted to run—hard and fast—from life as I knew it.

I was a young mom with three babies that had been born within three and a half years. (A maternal trifecta!) Then, to everybody’s surprise, my husband got a promotion that moved our seedling family across the country to a place where we didn’t know anybody.

I jokingly refer to that time as the “blurry era.” I had two babies in diapers that carried around their blankies, and one “big boy” who was potty training and struggling to

From a Nobody to a Somebody

by Mary Southerland | | 3 comments

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Have you ever wondered if God even knows your name? Have you doubted His concern about what you are going through? Have you felt totally alone and worthless? I have. I can really relate to the woman described in Luke 13. Oh, our problems may not be exactly the same, but the feelings and emotions are – and so is the answer.

Jesus knew this woman. He knew she had been sick for 18 long years and that she had tried everything to be healed. He knew – but He looked past her pain and saw who she really was. He could have called her by name, but instead He said, “Woman.” Jesus included her whole identity in that

Finding Strength For Your Struggle

by Gwen Smith | | 5 comments

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Moses faced complicated challenges and circumstances. Born in a time when he, as a Hebrew baby, was supposed to have been killed, Moses was saved by God’s sovereign grace when Pharaoh’s daughter pulled him from the Nile and kept him as her own.

A Hebrew among Egyptians, Moses was raised in a land and culture that was far removed from his heritage and from the One true God of Israel. You know this story! We saw it on the flannel graph boards in Sunday school as little girls. We watched Charlton Heston act it out in the movie The Ten Commandments. Moses had it all in the palace, lost it all when he murdered an Egyptian soldier, then eventually,

Going Around the Same Old Mountain

by Mary Southerland | | 3 comments

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There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience – and that is not learning from experience. Life is a journey, not a destination. It is through that journey that we are born, broken, changed and shaped.

Life is God’s chosen classroom in which He teaches His children how to love and live out His truth. One of the first and most vital truths we need to learn in our walk with God is obedience.

Truth does not change. We must change in response to the truth. A learned truth is an applied truth, and when we apply truth, we are practicing obedience. When we don’t learn from our wrong choices, we are doomed to make the same

What’s Holding You Back From Moving Forward?

by Sharon Jaynes | | 2 comments

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When I was six years old, I skipped off to first grade with a fresh box of crayons, a crisp green dress with Swiss polka dots sleeves, and a fresh hope that I would be good enough—that someone would at least like me. But first grade only confirmed my fears. I wasn’t good enough after all.

From the time my teacher held up the first spelling flash card, I knew I was in trouble. Back in the day, kindergarten focused on coloring, playing, and napping. But first grade was a whole new ballgame with letters, numbers, and words. First grade had flash cards.

I remember one exercise that makes my palms clammy even today. We lined our miniature wooden chairs

What To Do When God Says No

by Gwen Smith | | 4 comments

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A few years ago, I was on my way home from running errands. As I approached our neighborhood, my cell phone rang.

“Hi, Mom. It’s Kennedy. Where are you?”

“Hey, baby! I ran some errands and will be home in just a few minutes. What’s up?”

“Well, I wanted to see if you and I could go shopping for a new bathing suit this afternoon, and— don’t say no —I’d like to get a feather in my hair. Can we, Mom?”

Oh. No. She. Didn’t!

Don’t say ‘no’? I thought. Really? C’mon girl. I’m the parent. You’re the child. Get a grip.

What I said to her was, “Honey, we are several weeks away from swim season. I’m not sure that today is a

A Touch of Compassion

by Mary Southerland | | 1 comment

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It was Easter Sunday, and I was sitting in the sanctuary waiting for the worship service to begin. Anticipating a large crowd, I arrived early to drop Jered off in the nursery, one of his favorite places to go since every nursery worker doted on him. As the choir filed in, a friend slipped into the pew beside me and said, “I think you need to go to the nursery. Something is wrong with Jered.” Jumping up, I leapt over legs, toes, and pews as I raced to the church nursery and my son.

When I got to the nursery, I was not prepared for what I saw. In a far corner, lying on his favorite red mat was

Which One Are You?

by Gwen Smith | | 1 comment

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The words of Jesus pack a punch. His is a powerful and vibrant dialog that brings both tradition and the Law into a new and living light.

On a hillside, long ago, Jesus engaged individuals toward choosing God’s best on a heart level, not just a do-this-to-make-God-happy, knowledge and rules level. Recorded in the book of Matthew, Jesus gave the crowd, and us, some incredible insights to the way His followers should live. We call this the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5-7)

Remember that collection of Jesus teachings? Here’s a rapid review:

He taught the “beatitudes” (Matthew 5:2-12), and told His followers to be “salt and light” (Matthew 5:13-16).

He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the

Grace Times Grace

by Friday Friend | | 7 comments

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When my daughter Noelle was in 3rd grade, she had a clever multiplication exercise called “Minuto Loco” which means crazy minute in Spanish.

The kids had to see how many multiplication problems they could solve in one minute. The first “Minuto Loco” exercise was on the twos. Once they mastered the twos, they could move on to threes and so forth.

But my daughter had a problem. She was getting stuck after only a few seconds and her incomplete sheet bore testimony that multiplication was not her favorite subject. Most of her other classmates were at a higher number than she was.

My husband James went into full-on tutor mode. He made flashcards. He printed out multiplication practice sheets. Each