A dear, sweet friend of mine called the other day. She needed some encouragement because she and her husband had finally decided to work on their marriage and “deal with” their issues. (Isn’t “deal with” just the funniest phrase? It sounds so final. Like after this, the work will be all done. Right…)
When I was a new believer in Christ, one of the first (and MAJOR) things I needed to deal with was unforgiveness. I had it in spades. My spiritual mama taught me that there are 5 steps to forgiveness and they were so helpful in moving my heart in the right direction.
Looks can be deceiving and it’s important to me that my role models are individuals who have a heart after God and place an emphasis on what matters most. I think they should be women that I’d be excited for my daughters to look up to. I’m so tickled to introduce you to the five absolutely world-changing, incredible women who influence the heck out of me.
A few weeks ago- out of nowhere- I started having mini panic attacks. I’ve never had a problem with them before and I never knew how hard they were to contend with. On a tiny level today— I want to say that I understand what you’re going through. They are ROUGH. It was a battle to shut them down.
I recently experienced the rod of correction from the Lord, but it felt more like a bear hug. It was my first day home after another 5 day stint in the ICU. It had been one of the hardest weeks of my life and tested my moral fiber and spiritual maturity to the very edge.
Sometimes in the heat of the battle, it’s hard to remember that God has a plan for good. When our circumstances hurt (especially when they hurt for YEARS)— we can find ourselves asking, “Where is God in all of this??”