Friends … sisters … kindred spirits …companions.

Don’t we need them all?

Isn’t it vital to have a girlfriend or two to lighten your load … to laugh with …to pray with … to talk to … to listen to?

There have been days when I have been a weak, blubbering mess …and other days when I have been a stalwart warrior against the kingdom of darkness.

Through it all … I have had a painful -yet beneficial- awareness that I have needed to increase my faith for the devastating days of life.

Do you need encouragement today? Have you been standing in strong faith for an answer to prayer … or a miracle … or even a breakthrough in your life?

Join Susan Myers on the blog this week as she shares 3 creative ways to remember God’s faithfulness. “He takes it all - my forgetfulness, my flaws, and my entire surrendered life - and somehow He weaves it all together for good. If that isn’t miraculous, I really don’t know what is.”

Looking back, we can clearly see how the lies we believed led us to place our worth in our appearance, define ourselves by our careers, and ultimately take on a counterfeit identity. How can you tell if you’ve taken on a counterfeit identity?

Since we lack a trusting-God-gene; one to make trusting God our default setting, trusting Him takes intentionality and a bit of work.

We must boost our wonderful trust-building memories of God until they drown out the painful trust-eroding memories.

When you think of revival, what pictures come to mind? Giant crowds? Megachurches? Emotional pleas from polished preachers? Lots of church folks involved, right? We’d hope so. We all have our preconceived ideas of what revival ought to look like. Ezekiel certainly did. He thought revival would happen in Jerusalem. The religious epicenter of his nation. He thought it looked like political freedom, economic prosperity and religious fervor. And he was wrong.

From Christy Christopher: It is so easy to fixate on what I am seeing with my eyes and feeling with my emotions. The temptation to hyper-focus on the waves and wind is almost irresistible.

From special guest blogger, Angela Donadio… an excerpt from Fearless – Ordinary Women of the Bible who Dared to do Extraordinary Things.

From special guest blogger, Becky Harling…Have you noticed? People are smiling again. In many states, as people have gotten vaccinated, the mask mandate has been lifted. I think many have wrestled with loneliness during the pandemic. Loneliness is the ache in our souls to feel connected and to belong. And you know what? That ache was given to us by Almighty God who wants us to feel connected to Him and others.

From special guest blogger, Jessie Seneca…What I realized was God was trying to get my attention with how many times in the middle occurred. From experiencing God in the middle of life’s experiences, to keeping Him at the center of it all, the middle became my focus for new teaching and personal growth.

I love America.

I am one of those people whose heart bleeds red, white and blue.

I have been patriotic since my 5-year-old feet stepped into the one-room schoolhouse in my small town. (That’s right … I am old enough to have attended a one-room schoolhouse!)

I’ll never forget the first morning of kindergarten in September of 1960 when all the children in every grade gathered around our new teacher’s desk. We placed our hands on our hearts and said the “Pledge of Allegiance” to the American flag that hung over her desk.

Discouragement never comes alone but often invites its first cousins whose names are “despair”, “hopelessness” and “sadness”.

Have you met this sorry family of uninvited intruders?!

And when discouragement lingers … you can bet that its difficult grandfather “Papa Negativity” will barge his way into your life as well!

Summer lasts for exactly 93 calendar days this year. The Farmer’s Almanac cites its onset as June 21, 2022 and lists its farewell on September 22, 2022.

93 days.

After only three short months of mosquito bites and baseball games, the beach towels will be packed away … the flip flops will be thrown away … and the lazy, hazy days of summer become a sweaty memory.

This world is such a harsh place, isn’t it?

What do we do when children are killed … and evil prevails … and anger boils?

What do we do?

We keep a tender heart.