Enchanting

 Many of us, at some time or another, will go through depression. Some paths may be darker, and harder, than others, but in varying levels -it still hurts. This is a message for those who have been there, are still trudging through it, are close to someone who is struggling, or just doesn't understand people who do. This is a message for everyone. As the body, we should encourage one another, and we should strive to understand, so we can help, and be the light of God in a dark situation. There is an old Cymbalta commercial that sometimes comes to mind. Cymbalta is an anti depressant medication. The commercial said: "Where does depression hurt? Everywhere. Who does depression hurt? Everyone." I don't really remember the rest of the commercial but those words sometimes haunt me.  If you have ever experienced in intense depression these words may ring true to you. Where does it hurt? Everywhere. I felt tired all the time. I could never bring myself to get...

Creatively Christmas   Christmas is vastly approaching, and my husband and I happen to be part of families that have several birthdays going on within a dangerous vicinity of the Holidays. So with the economy being as it is, and money being tight (especially with a new baby in the house!) we have decided to try and be as creative and frugal about presents this year as possible.  We are going to try to make gifts, but also keep our eyes open for great deals. I'm not the best bargain shopper, but in this day and age places like Ross and Amazon sometimes make it easy! (Keyword: sometimes... lol) So, I keep my eyes peeled for things that I think people would like, or things I know they want. Luckily, my side of the family decided for extended family gifts (since there are so many of us and we are all tight on the green stuff) to do name drawings. This is always a great idea if you have a large family and everyone could use a break money-wise or even time-wise (who ha...

Life isn’t always easy, in fact, I would argue most of the time it isn’t. Everyone goes through stuff, everyone has a story. This is a little piece of mine. At first, I really identified with Joseph. God gave him a dream, he spoke to him in a very real way, with a word, and from a God who can’t lie, a word, or a dream means a promise. Crap happened, but Joseph never let go of his dream. How do I know? When he was in the bottom pit of a jail cell for something he didn’t do and someone said, “I had this weird dream last night…” What does Joseph say? “OMG! Don’t even mention dreams around me, I’m getting as far away from dreams as I can, it was a stupid dream that got me here in the first place!” Nope. He actually said, “You’re in luck, man, I can interpret dreams.” He wasn’t afraid of dreams, he could have let the enemy tell him, ‘You can’t interpret dreams, you fool, remember the last dream you tried to interpret? Your interpretation was totally rejected by everyone you loved. Ev...

Sometimes we all come to that place in our journey when we forget what we were in for in the first place. Where are we going after all? What is this quest? Sometimes it takes a step back and a glance around to remind us. When our own plans fall apart, when people we loved betray us, when the goal starts looking less and less appealing and more and more not worth all this trouble, there is but a single shaft of light peering into our dark situation. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 NIV I like the way Jesus Culture says it in their song "Your Love Never Fails" they say, "You make all things work together for my good." It takes that verse and makes it personal for you and me. We look into our lives, our futures, our dreams, and when everything seems hopeless and falling apart our Father's promise is boldly shining forth, He gently calls to us, "Just ...

Unfortunately, everyone has to grow up sometime... tough as life is, it feels like it can always get more tough. How does one "grow up" anyway? And why do people always say that when times are hard? "Why don't you just grow up?" Gee, thanks for kicking me while I'm down... How does being "grown up" help us deal with life's hard questions, or difficult situations? It hurts to grow. We get more mature the more crud we deal with in our life. Interesting... The Bible says in Romans 8:28, " And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." An interesting plan. When life gets tough we grow, we mature, we gain valuable things like character, or learn "lessons." If life was never tough, would we grow? Would we learn? Would we gain character or learn life lessons? Wouldn't a good father not shelter his child from the pains and trials of the w...