When I was 8 I hated my red hair. I didn’t want red hair. I wanted blonde hair, like Cinderella or Aurora. Their gorgeous hair looked so perfect, and I had mega hair envy. When I became a teen, I started memorizing verses about self-image and eventually realized God thought my red hair was beautiful and He made it that way on purpose. Eventually, I came to like it. Occasionally, people (be they friends or random hair stylists) have told… Read more »
Prefer to watch videos instead of reading? View the video version of this post on YouTube: Heart pounding, I was anything but fearless. Taking a deep breath, I stepped off of the white bus with five fellow students. I glanced up at the tall tree with the orange flowers; it looked so different at night. Peering down the street, I took a deep breath. The house I was staying at during my time studying in Costa Rica was only a… Read more »
Do you want to be bold for Jesus? I mean audaciously bold for Him- where you have no fear of telling others about Him or even just bringing Him up in a conversation. Yeah, me too. :) Ever since my mission trip to England, I’ve been reading through the book of Acts. One of my favorite stories in Acts is when Peter and John healed the lame beggar (Acts 3). The beggar had been sitting by the temple gate and… Read more »
I recently took a mission trip to northern England. During the training and all through out the trip there was an emphasis placed on the fact that as Christians our lives are a mission trip. Our leaders wanted us to know that when we got back to the States, our trip wasn’t over. We still are tasked to tell others about Jesus, even in our hometown. As Christians, we are called to live missionally. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in… Read more »
It was the first Sunday of my mission trip to England. My team and I gathered in the home of our British leader, James, for a time of fellowship and to cook him a traditional American breakfast for dinner- pancakes and bacon. After we ate, James suggested we pair off and pray for each other as we begin our week of work in the school and church, as well as praying for any spiritual gifts we wanted to receive. Abigail… Read more »
Forgive and comfort. Quite honestly, I don’t like those two words next to each other. Not at all. In fact, if it were up to me, those words would be as far away from each other as they could possibly get. “Forgive and then ignore,” I like. “Comfort those who are always kind to you,” I like. “Forgive and comfort,” I don’t like. However, we are called to Forgive and comfort those who have hurt us. It’s in the Bible. Say what??… Read more »
Discontentment is an easy trap to fall into. We see someone who has something we don’t have, and we think that thing is pretty cool. We begin to admire that thing. Wonder what it would be like if we had it. We wonder why we don’t have it. Wonder how we could get it. BOOM. We’ve fallen into discontentment. It can happen with anything. When we’re little, it happens with our friends’ toys. Maybe they had a trampoline, or a… Read more »
The disciples chatted as they returned from their journey to buy food from the Samarian city. They reached the outskirts of the city where they had left Jesus. He had been sitting along when they departed, but as they approached they saw he was sitting with a woman. A woman. A Samaritan woman. They stared in wonder. Most of them didn’t like having to deal with the Samaritans as they were buying food. They never would have sought out a… Read more »
Valentines Day was a few weeks ago {in case you missed it ;) }, and it’s a holiday where we focus on the people we love. Fantastic! Hopefully you were able to tell the people you love that you love them and why you love them. May I ask you a related question? Why do you love Jesus? What about Him captured your heart? Have you told Him why you love Him? Today I’m exploring these questions over at Tarina’s… Read more »
Ashamed. She felt ashamed when she ventured to the well in the midday heat. She felt so incredibly ashamed she refused to draw water in the morning or the evening when the weather was cool, because that’s when the other women gathered. She didn’t want to face them. Or anyone, really. She walked down the dusty path, like she did a thousand times. To her surprise, she saw a Jewish man sitting at the well. Jews didn’t normally venture into Samaria…. Read more »
