The Titus 2:4 Project

Someone posted a lovely meme this morning, complete with a beautiful Christian song playing in the background. Nice, right? I see posts like this every single day from people I know, respect, and love. But today, I was especially in tune with the Holy Spirit. As I read the words, He clearly showed me something: this is the problem today. Satan rarely tries to get a believer to outright worship him—that would be absurd, and we would never do it. What he does do, very effectively, is shift our eyes off Jesus and put them on ourselves. If we try to heal ourselves without God, we’re only treating symptoms. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3) If we try to find ourselves apart from God’s plan, we remain lost. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) If we try to know ourselves without knowing our Creator, we know nothing. “Bef...

How do you strike a balance between being content and desiring to move forward?  There seems to be an element of guilt to the list of things I want to accomplish in the new year, but maybe it's just me. It's probably a safe bet that the most common resolution for any new year is to lose weight...no matter how we choose to cleverly 'disguise' our desire to look and feel better. Some people are in denial and refuse to admit they want to lose weight (because that sounds so vain ) so they adopt the socially acceptable language and say they want to "get fit and start living a healthy lifestyle".  (And if they happen to lose weight in the process, then oh well.)  Me, well, I'm not ashamed to admit that my favorite jeans don't fit anymore...and that makes me mad...so to get back in them, I'll do whatever it takes (eat less, move more) to lose enough weight to get my behind in them once again.   So if you ask me if I'm content with my body, the a...

Ever had a bad haircut?  I mean a BAD haircut.   I have.  As a woman, it can be emotionally devastating.   This haircut isn't that bad.  It's not my hairdresser's fault.  I pretty much got exactly what I asked for.   More or less.   It's a long story.   I wanted to embrace my natural color...which includes a great deal of gray and some other color I'm unfamiliar with.   My plan was to grow out my roots until I couldn't take it anymore then go shorter, removing as much of the fake blonde as I could.  Then my natural color would take over and I could grow my hair back out.  Easy. Peasy.   In theory.   The cut I was going for... In truth, here's what happened: I couldn't take the roots anymore.   Called my hairdresser.  Show her a picture of the adorable pixie haircut and told her my plan.    Her suggestion was to put some shades in my blonde to blend ...