Cat eyeglasses, long brown braids, and full lips were not in style when I was in grade school. I was teased and degraded for looking different than most of my class and being the new girl. Being unique brought many challenges, frustrations, and disappointments. However, I didn’t get sucked into the girl’s competition during my high school years because I…
My mom grew up on a reservation enduring many hardships, including confinement, withholding food and healthcare, degrading and ridicule, and being told she was less than human from outsiders. However, my mom also shared stories of how women gathered together to plant, help one another, harvest, and celebrate. She talked about their wisdom and their voice to help lead the…
I spent thirty-five years looking for a man who would truly love me. I was relentlessly driven by my need to stop the pain of feeling love-starved that I focused on doing everything I could for him so that he would love me. In my love-starved mindset, I didn’t understand that my definition of love was unhealthy and toxic, and…
History is filled with many people who have made sacrifices to help or save others. Rosa Parks played a crucial role in civil rights like Martin Luther King, Jr. Mother Teresa shows pure love to the less fortunate, especially children. Military men have given their lives to save their brothers in arms and the innocent. The Bible is also filled…
To feel loved is one of a person’s greatest desires and core needs. For centuries people have tried to find true and perfect love or a soulmate. However, because people are all imperfect, except for Jesus, how can we genuinely find and share perfect love? Do you know your definition and understanding of love and how it looks next to…
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:8-9, NIV) Mary, an ordinary young girl who became the mother of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Moses, an Israelite who murdered…
I can’t tell you the number of resolutions I’ve made and broken throughout the years. I start with good intentions for self-improvement, but they get sidetracked from life’s realities. Did my resolutions fail because I didn’t have a solid plan? Did they fail because I didn’t believe in them or wasn’t fully committed? Although some of these factors may have…
I loved Disney shows that had a fairy godmother with a magic wand as a little girl. The fairy godmother would touch the person with her wand and grant them whatever they asked her for. How handy or scary would that be in our human condition? As an adult, I know a fairy godmother is a fantasy. However, I have…
The world looks at surrender as defeat and the last resort. God shows us that our surrender to him has a different Holy meaning and reality on earth and into eternity. When believers try and understand the blessings of surrendering to God from their experiences with imperfect people and the world’s influences, it’s easy to get confused. We are taught…