The Titus 2:4 Project

Remember 5th grade health class...when we got the 'talk'.  It was the highlight of the year.   I have no idea what they told the boys in 5th grade, but for the girls it was all about our body and the changes that were occurring...aka puberty.   Menstruation.  "Yippee skippee!"  Seems like we talked a lot about it.  Read books about it.  (My favorite:  Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret,  by Judy Blume.)  Most of our mother's talked to us.  Or older sisters.  Or our friends with older sisters.  We all plenty of information (albeit, most of it was likely inaccurate.) We survived puberty and became grown women.  Many of us became mothers, ourselves.  And we talked to our daughters about puberty.... Then we turn 50... and something awful starts to happen. Chin whiskers appear out of nowhere.  Gray hairs stick up from our scalp like alien antennae. We sweat at night.  Profusely. We want to do bod...

  I love that women today are feeling more empowered to do hard things. Whether it’s working toward a healthy lifestyle, seizing a career opportunity, facing parenting or relationship challenges, or even literally fighting for their very lives—women are stepping up to do the hard stuff. I also deeply appreciate how we are supporting and encouraging one another in these battles. There’s beauty in the way we rally together, lifting each other up in the fight. But I want to offer a loving word of caution to the many women I see standing confidently in their own strength:   Sister, you DON’T got this . As much as you might want to believe that you’re tough and can handle it all—you can’t. Not in your own strength. Not alone. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Apart from Him, we simply don’t have the strength we need to face the battles that inevitably come our way. So, while you’re gearing up to fight and your friends are cheering y...

My mom always referred to my wardrobe by the activity the clothes were intended for...play clothes, church clothes, school clothes....so naturally, as I was growing up I added my own references: work clothes, going-out clothes, cleaning-house clothes, fat clothes... not that 'fat' is an activity...maybe I should have called them my eating-too-much clothes.  My first real job was in a department store.  I worked in the Junior Department.  I loved that job.  I made friends with other employees, and the question was always, "What department are you in?"  Shoes.  Dresses.  Lingerie.  Misses.  Men's.   Perhaps a more effective way to organize a store would be by activity.  But today, as I begin a new year with the hopes of fitting back in my "not-eating-at-all clothes" (see yesterday's blog), I was thinking about what to put on this morning.  It occurred to me that the world now lovingly refers to athletic cloth...

God created humans, male and female...and we compliment and complete each other in the most magical ways.  But God knew that Eve would need someone to talk to when Adam was being a jerk, so He gave her girlfriends.  **disclaimer - this is not exactly scriptural...** Little girls need other little girls to play dolls with...teenaged girls need other teenaged girls, because quite frankly, no one else 'gets' them.  (Not even their adult counterparts.)  And women need women friends.  Females can relate to each other in a way that males cannot. C heck out this hysterical video to see what I'm talking about.    When men try to act like US, they look ridiculous.  I can't imagine coming home to find my husband and his BFF floating around in the pool together, floaties tethered so that they don't miss a word of their important conversation.  I can't imagine my husband in the fitting room at Macy's with his buddies, asking "do these jeans...

Have you even seen a "cat fight"?  No, I don't mean two felines. I mean two girls, scrapping it out, complete with hair pulling and limbs flailing. Well, if I could travel back in time, I just might get myself into that sort of situation. I would find myself in the Garden of Eden, standing near the forbidden tree...just waiting for Eve to show up.  And I would try to talk reasonably with her...but if that didn't work, I would not be above an all - out cat fight. I would do whatever it took to keep her from sinking her pearly whites into that sumptuous looking fruit.  Why? Because I'm tired of being a slave to my hormones!  And I blame her for PMS, and lots of other issues too, but I firmly believe that before the fall of man, the body (in it's state of perfection) stayed in balance all month long, no ebb and flow of strange emotions running rampant through the mind. Even though I know why I am behaving badly, I feel helpless to stop the sullen attitude, the...

Proverbs 4:23 is a serious warning about guarding your heart.  To get a feel for how important Solomon believed this was, you must start at verse 20 and read all the way through 27.  The 'heart' is not referring to the organ in your chest pumping blood throughout your body...it's the subconscious mind. Our being is made up of different parts, as referred to in the Bible:    1. the physical body - often referred to as our 'flesh'    2. the mind  - our conscious thoughts    3. the heart - our subconscious thoughts    4. the spirit - the Holy Spirit within us When God says to hide His words in our hearts - that means to dwell on them so much that they are tucked away in our subconscious mind, influencing everything we think, say or do.  That's the part of us that is influenced by the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the things we say to ourselves...that 'self-talk' that we play over and over in our head. How do...

Yesterday, as I was cutting the grass (as you'll find that I really do enjoy - just read my profile!), I had my headphones in my ears, and was listening to Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church out in California.  There's a cool app called One Place (can't remember who turned me on to it) that has a list of different ministries and you can listen to a large number of archived messages any time you wish.  What a great use of technology!  (You can get it too!) Anyway, Pastor Rick was preaching on having the courage to follow your calling.  I'm positive it was no mistake that I picked this message to listen to, since I had been praying in earnest for days, even weeks, about my calling...my purpose in life.  I eagerly listened to every word.  As God began to speak to my heart and show me the path I had been searching for, I couldn't wait to get started. Later that night, as I sat at my computer, creating the blog site, I was completely lost for a title...