Choose Peace Over Worry

by Mary Southerland | | 7 comments

Friend to Friend

My husband often says there are two kinds of people in the world. Some people have ulcers, and some people give them. Can you relate? I certainly can.

Sandpaper people are definitely ulcer giving people unless we learn to choose peace over worry when dealing with them. Getting along with people who rub you the wrong way is difficult at best and can sometimes make peace seem impossible to find. That is only true if peace is dependent on outer circumstances.

It isn’t.

Peace is an inside job and comes only from God. Nothing can take the place of peace, and it is impossible to counterfeit.

Sandpaper people are not peaceful people. One of the very reasons they are rough around the

Fruitful Desert

by Friday Friend | | 2 comments

We hope you are enjoying the Girlfriends in God daily devotions. We (Mary, Sharon, and Gwen) would like to introduce you to some of our special friends. From time-to-time, the Friday devotions will be written by one of our friends in ministry. We call them our Friday Friends. So grab your Bible and a fresh cup of coffee and drink in the words from our Friday Friend,

Jennifer Kennedy Dean.

Friend to Friend

Desert times are fruitful times. Though they seem barren, lush fruit is being produced in our lives when we walk through the desert.

“The LORD your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the LORD your God has

Believing God in the Hard Times

by Mary Southerland | | 20 comments

Friend to Friend

A mess is the perfect setting for a miracle. Our helplessness can be our most powerful offering – if we are willing to be honest and transparent. Sometimes it is a lot easier to just stay in the darkness than it is to struggle toward the light.

Not everyone really wants to be healed or rescued. Why?

Because their infirmity has become their identity or because their crisis now defines who they are and forms the familiar parameters of their life. Some people use their weaknesses to get the attention they crave or to keep from assuming any responsibility in their own lives.

Take the man at the pool of Bethesda for example.

The pool of Bethesda was the gathering place for

Whose Voice Will You Listen To Today?

by Sharon Jaynes | | 3 comments

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My son played on his high school’s basketball team. At one of the games, I noticed a man on the home side of the court video recording of the game. I also noticed a man on the opposing side doing the same.

“Steve, who are those men with the video cameras and why are they recording the game?” I asked my husband.

“The guy in the opposing stand is from the team that we’ll be playing next week,” he explained. “He is recording the game to study our weaknesses, so our opponents will know where to attack and defeat us. The man on our side is recording the game also looking for weakness, but for a different reason. He will

Practice Makes Progress

by Gwen Smith | | 3 comments

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I’ve always been an athlete. As an adult, I enjoy power walking and keeping fit. Growing up, I played on different sports teams all year round, but volleyball has always been my jam.

I played volleyball in college and now I help coach my daughter’s high school team. I’ve been around this game for more than thirty years and I’ve spent more time on the court, on the sand, and on the grass playing and practicing than most people ever will.

You’d think that after all the hours invested I’d have the game perfected by now, right?

Not hardly.
There are still times when I shank a pass and have spike attempts that send the ball into the net instead of over

Jump Into Abba’s Arms

by Sharon Jaynes | | 11 comments

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One night a family was startled from sleep by the piercing blare of their smoke detector. The house was on fire and smoke swirled up the wooden staircase. The father bolted from his bed and ran to his children’s room. He grabbed his eighteen-month-old baby out of his crib, and dragged his four-year-old son by the hand. They were half-way down the stairs when the little boy remembered his favorite teddy bear in his room and broke away to go back and get it. In the mayhem and confusion, the father didn’t realize his son wasn’t with him until he reached the front yard.

By the time the little boy found his teddy bear, the flames had filled his

Princess Problems

by Gwen Smith | | 5 comments

Friend to Friend

My friend Ellen is a preschool teacher who regularly contends with entitled toddlers and privileged preschoolers who know how to major on some minors and throw down some serious tantrums.

I want the red crayon, but Tommy has it!

I’m not eating this because it has white cheese. I only like yellow cheese.

I want to go first!

I’m allowed. You’re not my boss.

Miss Ellen calls these little escapades “princess problems,” and she does her best to lovingly redirect the heart of each young complainer toward the reality of his or her blessings and toward the virtue of patience, selflessness, kindness, sharing, etc..

Hardly a day goes by that the kingdom of her kiddie classroom isn’t inundated with princess problems. The outbursts are

Speak Life

by Mary Southerland | | 3 comments

Friend to Friend

I recently received an email from a friend who told me the story of a private school in Washington that faced an unusual problem. Some of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would gather around the mirrors in the bathroom to compare shades and apply their lipstick.

The girls thought it was cute to then press their lips to the bathroom mirrors, leaving dozens of lip prints. The maintenance man did not think it was cute because he had to clean the mirrors – and you know how icky lipstick on a mirror can be.

Every night the maintenance man would remove the lipstick prints only to find that the girls put them back the next day.

The principal

When You Want a Daddy Who Loves You

by Sharon Jaynes | | 5 comments

Friend to Friend

When I was a little girl, my father spent most of his waking hours working at his building supply company, observing construction sites, and socializing with his colleagues and associates. Even though his place of business was only a few blocks from our home, his heart was miles away in a place I could not find.

My father didn’t drink alcohol every day, but when he did, it consumed him. Dad was filled with a rage that always seemed to be hiding just beneath the surface of his tough skin. And when he drank, that rage spewed out like hot lava onto those around him. Unfortunately, my mother was the most common target. As a child, many nights I

Celebrate Good Times, Come on!

by Gwen Smith | | no comments

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You would think she had just won the lottery the way she was screaming and jumping up in down. In fact, to her she practically had! She’d found her lovey and wanted everyone within hearing distance to celebrate with her.

Gabriella had lost her lovey a few weeks prior. This was a very big deal to a four-and-a-half-year old, especially since she’d had the little white and tan bear blanket from the time she was four months old. Lovey comforted her when she was sad or hurting, rode with her in car trips, slept with her during nap and nighttime, and was her most treasured possession.

When her comfy blanket friend went missing, Gabriella was understandably upset. She mentioned it