Happy Father’s Day!
For those who have been hurt by their earthly fathers, there is hope. Redemption of Hearts
You have a loving father, even when you feel lost. I Need A Daddy.
Blessings,
Visit Our Sponsors:
You Should Not Be Friends With Her
“Oh my gosh! The water turned to blood!” 9 year old Tina flung open the bathroom door and ran toward the living room, her waist length black hair streaming out behind her.
My heartbeat thumped ferociously with fear as I dashed out hot on her heels.
We gasped for air in the living room.
“Did you see it? The water turned red like blood!” Tina’s eyes grew wide as she looked at me.
I shook my head. I hadn’t seen anything, but fear shook through my limbs. Did we really conjure up a spirit by reciting “Red Rum,” three times into the bathroom mirror? Had we turned the faucet on in the bathroom? No, I knew we hadn’t.
“Let’s go look. Maybe she’s in the mirror.”
I shook my head. If we’d been successful, there was no way I was going back into that bathroom.
“Come on, Mel. It’s not that scary.” Tina took my hand and lead me down the hall to the bathroom door. She tried to pull me into the dark room but I dug my heels in feeling the indention where the carpet ended and linoleum began against my toes.
“No way, Tina. I’m not going back in there.” I whispered.
“You’re such a chicken.” Tina pressed her nose in close to the mirror. “Whoa! Did you see the water’s been turned off?”
I backed up shaking my head no. “Nope. I never saw or heard the water turn on, Tina.”
Her brown eyes glared at me. “You calling me a liar, Mel?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I just didn’t see it is all.” I turned and headed for the living room. “I need to go home. I’ll see you later, Tina.” I hollered back as I reached for the front door knob.
I kicked a small rock down the concrete road towards my house. Tina lied. Why did she always pull stunts like this to scare me? Like the time last week when she told me that a photograph “just appeared” in her bedroom out of no where from one of the abandoned houses by our bus stop. Both abandoned homes contained stacks and stacks of photographs strewn all over the little homes. But did one just magically show up in Tina’s bedroom? I doubted it.
Maybe my mom was right.
“There’s something about that girl that I don’t like. Maybe you should find some other girls in the neighborhood to play with, Mel.” She’d said.
Mom never came right out and forbid the friendship, but she tried to discourage it. Who else was there to play with though? There were only four girls my age in a ten block radius and Tina lived a half a block from our house.
Being home alone all the time filled my heart with loneliness. Desperation for someone, anyone to call friend won out. Years of manipulations, horror films, and creepy rituals filled years of friendship for the two of us as girls. When my mom moved us two hours away, the relationship began to crumble because of the separation. It would be four more years before the bonds were completely severed.
Have you ever had a destructive or manipulative friendship like this? What would you do if your own children chose a potentially dangerous friendship? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
Blessings,
Let’s Stop Being Fine and Start Being Real
The drug induced dream started to wear off. Reality flashed into view behind groggy eyelids.
“How are you feeling?” The nurse asked.
“I’m fine.” I squeaked out between clenched teeth.
“Well, you don’t look fine. Do you need some more pain meds?”
With scrunched face, I nodded my head. Liquid relief dripped into my veins.
You don’t need to have major knee surgery to learn that life is painful. But one lesson many of us get straight A’s in is learning how to hide our own pain. I’m on the honor roll in this area of life. Are you?
Be kind. Don’t hurt other’s feelings. Put on a smile. Be pleasant. Don’t worry, be happy.
But what happens when the feelings aren’t nice and kind? When your own feelings are hurt? When your face muscles no longer wish to force a cheesy smile they don’t feel? When life simply sucks?
Fake happy.
Unreal expectations.
It has to stop.
It. Has. To. Stop.
We need to stop waiting until the struggle is finally over to share our “testimonies” on how we got through.
We desperately need to know others are going through tough times.
Struggling with depression? Me too!
Having a rough time with your kids? Me too!
Feeling like the worst wife in the world? Me too!
Stressing over how you’re going to pay your bills this month? Me too!
Please tell me I’m not alone in the pits of life. Hold my hand and let’s get through it together. Because we need the life line of others to survive the pits even more so than the highs.
Your story is now, in the muddy parts, not at the end where you’ve cleaned up and spit polished it.
Let’s do life together in the mud. Honest. Raw. Real. Because someone needs your story. Someone else needs to not feel so alone.
Are you a faker? What holds you back from being real with the world? Share your thoughts in the comments.
PS – Since returning from Haiti, I’m not fine. I’m struggling with my purpose, direction, feeling like a failure as a mom, finances, and a bunch of other negative yuck. I don’t like to be a whiner but I could sure use some prayer.
Blessings,
Free Kindle Books June 11
Enjoy a couple of Kindle freebies to start your summer reading!
The Bumps Are What You Climb On is NO LONGER FREE as of June 12 but Shattered Rose below is FREE.
Remember to always double check the price before purchasing. Prices change frequently on amazon. I haven’t read these books so check out the description and reviews before purchasing.
Enjoy! Feel free to share this post if you think others would like free books too! Leave a comment if you’d like me to post more Free Kindle Books here!
Blessings,
10 Tips That Will Save You From Anxiety
To cast something means to throw it forcefully in a specific direction. Anxiety is very difficult to cast off and leave behind but with these ten tips, you can work toward taking your control back.
I am an anxious flyer. That didn’t work out very well for me for our trip to Haiti and the many hours of flying. I found myself anxious about the flights. Anxious about being stranded at the airport in a foreign country where I not only didn’t speak the language, but wouldn’t be able to get around if we weren’t picked up.
Why did I allow myself to worry so much that I felt ill over these things? Because I could. Because I was not trusting God to take care of us. That’s the bottom line.
If Jesus were standing before you, would you tell Him, “Hey, sorry, I don’t trust you. So I will just go ahead and worry about this thing that I can’t really control”?
Of course not! But that’s exactly what we do! There is no reason for you to be anxious about anything. If you are able to read this today, then you’re still breathing in oxygen and kicking around the planet. So clearly, God’s got you through some tough stuff and kept you alive this far!
If the plane went down what was I going to do? Flap my arms and attempt to stay in the air? If our hosts didn’t show to pick us up on time, would we have ceased to function? Or maybe melted into the floor like the wicked witch of the West?
Nope.
What can you do when anxiety starts to take over your life?
- Dig into the scripture and capture words that speak to your heart and situation. Memorize scriptures like the 1 Peter 5:7 above.
- Pray for release.
- Deep Breathing. Seems simple but I use this technique all the time. Breathe in as deep as you can and hold for 3 seconds and then slowly exhale. Repeat until you start to feel calm.
- Talk to someone. Are you heavy burdened and need a friend or counselor?
- See your doctor. Anxiety can be an indicator that something is off in your body; thyroid, blood sugar, blood pressure, allergies, etc.
- Cut the caffeine. Stimulants will make you feel more anxious. You don’t have to go cold turkey but start cutting your caffeine intake and see if there’s any improvement.
- Cut your sugar. Yeah, not so fun but sugar spikes in your body can cause problems in unpleasant and dangerous ways.
- Take your thoughts captive by telling yourself you are no longer going to think about what ever is tormenting you. You don’t have to think about everything that enters your mind. You will have to do this again and again. Memorize some scripture to repeat when the anxious thoughts try to play ring-around-the-rosey in your mind. Take your power back. Break Free.
- Exercise. Sometimes you need to go take a quick walk and work the anxiety out of your body.
- Journal. Write it out. Try writing a letter to God and go through the situation and every feeling you have. Sometimes we just need to get it out of our system. Again, don’t dwell on it.
Anxiety is a tough battle but we’ve been equipped to fight back. Do you have any tips on how you battle anxious thoughts? Share them with our community in the comments below.
If you enjoyed this article and scripture art, please share it with your friends.
Blessings,
This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting our family in this way.
