Tag Archives: Encouragement

When the Thought Counts

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Think of the sounds that may emerge from an accordion when a non-musically-inclined beginner is working at it. Now, listen to it wail out the song “Count Your Blessings”—gasping in an off tempo that is struggling to keep in sync with people singing along.

You have just listened to my one-evening debut with the accordion. I’d like to be able to say that you just heard me practicing. But no, that awful rendition of “Count Your Blessings” was in public.

When I was a teenager, my family went every Tuesday evening to a local nursing home to hold a service as a ministry of our church. I loved the nursing home, and the residents loved our family. That hour was a highlight of the week for all of us.

Usually, my sister, Michele, played piano for the singing during the service. But when she was out of town one week, I had the idea that I could play her accordion. I could read notes, and I knew something of chord theory. This should be a cinch, right? Continue reading →

Real Reasons to Rejoice

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You can’t get much plainer than Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”

But do we?

Do we just punctuate our conversations with “praise the Lord”? Or do we really praise Him?

In Christ, we find unlimited reasons to rejoice. Should we look to find joy in our circumstances, we sometimes could…and sometimes couldn’t. But should we choose to find our joy in the Lord, we will always have reason to rejoice. To rejoice is a choice, and to rejoice in the Lord should be one of the most spontaneous habits for the child of God!

But yesterday, I woke up knowing that I was going to need to make special effort to rejoice, so I set a challenge for myself. Since I knew that there are an infinite number of reasons to rejoice in the Lord (because His attributes and blessings are infinite), I determined to specifically name just one hundred. I wanted a measurable way to choose to rejoice, and I wanted a definite challenge to keep at it all day long. Continue reading →

A Pesky Question that Works

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“So, how will you use that today?” That’s it—the pesky question. And a dear, godly lady asked it to me twice this week.

All I was doing was telling her about some advice I had been given and something I was learning. It was sort of a big, vague, wonderful, and sure-to-be-helpful-in-the-future truth.

And then she asked, “So, how will you use that today?”

And I squirmed.

I hadn’t really thought that far. Actually, I was planning to use it in the future—hadn’t thought so much about today. It seemed like the sort of truth that would more clearly define itself along the way. Continue reading →

Book Review: The Promise

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What would change in your life if you really believed Romans 8:28?

A friend recently gave me The Promise: God Works All Things Together for Your Good by Robert J. Morgan. I was surprised that someone could write a full-length book (210 pages) about one verse of Scripture, and I expected that it might be tedious reading. Based on my friend’s recommendation, however, I began, and immediately, I was thankful I did. In fact, I began underlining even before the table of contents!

This book is encouraging because it focuses attention on God’s infinite love for us and His sovereign power engaged on our behalf. It is also challenging because it reminds us that such love calls for a response of trust and reciprocated love.

The Promise is divided into two parts. The first covers each phrase in Romans 8:28, exploring in depth the richness of this promise. The second part briefly covers six other places in Scripture that echo the promise of Romans 8:28—either in living testimony or in a verse. These chapters are especially encouraging as they reveal just how God makes things work together for good and just what kinds of good He has in mind. Continue reading →

A Miracle Cure for a Tired Mind

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…is sometimes, believe it or not, rest.

Yes, it’s that simple. Rest works wonders.

It rejuvenates.

It renews.

It refreshes.

It reenergizes.

Sometimes when we are edgy and depleted, when we feel that we have no more to give, all we need is rest. Perhaps we need the rest of sleep. Perhaps we need the rest of a mental diversion.

I’m beginning to see that to not rest is a form of pride. Fatigue—mental or physical—makes us edgy and overwhelmed. It reveals a mindset that thinks the world depends on us, that if we step out of the current, everything will stop.

Proper rest, however, is a form of humility. It is a way of acknowledging our finite limits and our need of God’s cycles of renewal.

How do I know? Let’s just say I recently took a day of needed rest. And it proved both points!

Why I Doubled My File Space

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Tonight I tackled the project I’ve been putting off for weeks: “file all papers in box.”

It’s not that I don’t know how to file. I’ve known how to do it since my mother taught me  alphabetical sorting when I was six.

It’s not that I haven’t had time to file. I’ve made time for other things.

It’s just that my file box was already full, and I knew I had to sort through it and toss papers. I didn’t want to make that many decisions, so I put it off.

But tonight, with a determined mind and focused purpose, I pulled out my file box and set the tottering “to file” pile next to it. Be ruthless, I told myself. There’s no use keeping junk. Continue reading →

No Moving in Heaven

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I’m too young to fully appreciate the fact that we’ll never grow old in Heaven, but high on my list of “will never do in Heaven” is moving! And high on my list of dislikes is packing and unpacking.

Since the time I was two, our family has moved exactly two and a half times. (We lived in a temporary place for several weeks during one of the moves.)

But in the past three years, I have moved twice that many times—not even counting changing dorm rooms in college. And tonight, I just took the last of my boxes out to the dumpster from the most recent of these moves.

I knew in advance that each of the last four moves were temporary. Some were for a year, some were for a summer. So I was really looking forward to the “final” move of this week, because I thought of it as more long term. Continue reading →

Short Nights=Bad Mornings

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I write this post after two virtually sleepless nights—both directly or indirectly related to a bad rash of poison ivy. (Ugh!) While concentrating on not scratching last night, I remembered a verse about long, painful nights that had been a help to me during my college days.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b).

I remember one morning in particular reading this verse after an especially short night of sleep.

Of course, none of us like to experience the “night of weeping” referred to in this verse—a season of heartache or pain. These night seasons always feel too long.

But as I read the verse that morning through droopy, bloodshot eyes, I realized that the alternative isn’t any better. Short nights don’t make for happy mornings! Continue reading →

In the Words of Tech Support

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I’ve never enjoyed calling tech support—especially when it is outsourced to non-English speakers.  It seems to me that the problem is often as simple as replacing a part, yet they insist on walking me through the regulation diagnostic steps before confirming what I already knew and agreeing to send the part.

Yet, I’ll never forget the phrase one technician repeated during such a call. As soon as I realized that my call was being transferred across the ocean, I pulled some reading material nearby and and settled in for a long conversation with frequent holds.

The pleasant technician on the other end of the line began the session by asking me to describe my problem. I explained that my CD drive wasn’t working properly. Immediately, he responded, “Not to worry; I will surely help you.” I smiled at his arrangement of words, but I was thankful for his confidence. Continue reading →