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The One Person I Forget to Pray For
It seems strange to admit that I rarely pray for myself. As a list-maker, I found that creating prayer lists and assigning them to certain days really helps me get focused. Every day of the week is dedicated to a different group of people. Mondays I reserve for my husband, Tuesdays for my children and so on. But recently the Lord convicted me of prayerlessness. I was a bit astonished. After all, I pray for my country, my family, my church, etc. with regularity. I can’t go to bed at night without making sure I hit everyone on that day’s list. Except there is one person I rarely intercede for.…
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The Melancholy Prophets: A Study in Extremes
Of all the redemptive gifts, the prophets are the hardest to live with. They can be hard on both themselves and others. In my experience, most people have three giftings that look like two primary and one less prominent. For me, I operate mostly in the mercy and exhorter giftings. But I have enough prophet in me to get me into trouble regularly. And of my children, I have at least two who fall into this category as a primary gifting. And believe me, they can be a challenge to raise. The difficulty in locating your redemptive gifts is that wounding can really mask who you truly are. I thought…
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How to Tell if You Are in a Cocoon Phase
We Christians often like to talk about transformation, but the cocoon phase of that process is less glamorous. The Bible spills over with stories about men and women in cocoons of one sort or another. The message each time is the same. Some metamorphosis happens fast, but more often than not, change takes some time. The growth required to move from caterpillar to butterfly fascinates me. I remember as a child finding an exotic caterpillar in my backyard. I put it in a small plastic container with food and a stick. Soon a greyish sack, smooth on one side and puckered on the other, hung from the twig I had…
Healing Through Art & Words
