How to Break Cycles and Change Your Thinking
We use different filters in photography and post-processing to neutralize a bright scene or enhance blue skies, or draw the eye to a focal point. I have created presets for bringing out the eyes, whitening teeth, and getting rid of pesky under-eye shadows....
How to Flip the Script and Turn Your Thoughts Around
If thoughts are good, it's wonderful. Thoughts about the effervescent giggle of a child who found a lost lovey or the way the sunlight made you glow as you basked in it's warmth bring comfort and encouragement. But when those thoughts damage trust and...
The Biggest Lie About Surrender – and Why You Can’t Afford to Believe It
I'm inviting my friend, Jennifer Dukes Lee, to tell her story of breaking the cycle of control she wielded in her life. Her latest book is releasing today, and this excerpt is one of my favorite parts of her book, It's All Under Control. It's a pleasure to welcome her...
Capture Those Thoughts to Break Negative Cycles
Do you remember those old Western movies with John Wayne? He rides easy in the saddle, holster slung low, and has an iconic drawl. But what I remember are the scenes of runaway horses and stage coaches. The horses move as one, faster and faster, dust billowing, the...
How Your Thoughts Pave the Way to Broken Cycles
Have you spent time listening to yourself? I'm amazed at how negative my thoughts can be sometimes. Before I know it, I've tried and quartered the person that seems more like an enemy than a friend. Or I've embraced despair over a situation. Or I've declared...
How to Break Cycles and Gain Victory
I have a problem. Maybe you can relate? It's this: I don't do what I want to do and I do what I don't want to do. I'm quick to speak and slow to listen. Quick to judge and slow to show mercy. I make up excuses. I put requirements on the "thing" that needs doing...
The Gift that Waiting Brings to Your Heart
Waiting seems discouraging, depressing, and detrimental. I want an answer now, yesterday, and three minutes ago. I want the shortest line at the grocery store, the shortest drive from Point A to Point B, and the shortest wait time for an answer to my prayers....
How to Have a Holy Spirit Controlled Life
Imagine a wee little spring bubbling and gurgling, laughing and splashing life giving water on it's surroundings. We see beauty in the rock's hidden treasures that only wetness can bring. Our eyes caress the little mountain wildflowers and we wonder at that...
Perilous Freedom
What does freedom look like? When I think of freedom I think of jubilant dancing, arms lifted high, lots and lots of chocolate and comfy spaces with a great view. I don't think of deserts or cliffside trails or enemies. Freedom leads us into some...
5 Ways to Live in Forgiveness Towards Others
Can you imagine leading a people who constantly opposed you? Who constantly accused you of trying to harm them? Who longed for the benefits of the land of their bondage and who found freedom too burdensome? This was Moses' experience. But every time the...
The Forgiveness Ripple Effect and How You Create One
I sat by the pond today. The sun shone on my head and the fountain twisted left and down in the wind, but continually sending droplets of water upward and downward. Thousands of them splashing down and ring after ring spreading outward to the shore. I sat,...
How to Forgive God When He Keeps Secrets
How do we reconcile our disappointments with unanswered prayer when the Psalms distinctly says that God does not disappoint us? What about the things we beg God for that appear to line up with His will, such as no one should perish, and a loved one dies without ever...