• Life

    When You are Tired of Waiting

    I sat on the curb after practice, wondering, “Is mom ever going to come?” It was a particularly hard high school year. For one, my nose got hit with a field hockey stick. Even today, it sits a little crooked. And on this particular day, after all those sprints, shooting pains shot up my legs. I could hardly sit. Every position was agony. So with my teammates long gone, I moaned. Then, I replayed everything: the shots I didn’t make, the girls that were faster than me, and how I must have looked downright stupid. Five minutes turned into twenty. Would she ever come? Times of waiting are battles –…

  • Life

    Jesus Saves, Again and Again

    I say this sometimes to my kid: “If mommy and daddy had all the kids of the world in front of us, and we had to choose one, we would search and search until we found you. We examine every kid face-to-face, looking far and wide FOR YOU. And, we’d keep going until you were safe in our arms. And, when we found you, we’d pick you and keep you forever as our own.” My friend in Christ, Jesus did that very thing — for you. He wants you. He chose you “before the creation of the world…in love.” (Eph. 1:4) Though (Jesus) was rich (in Heaven), for your sake he became…

  • Life

    Today, Break the Yoke of Your Bondage

    The thing about leaks are – they start slow. I’ve had a roof leak before. Imperceptibly, a bit of water makes its way through your roof. At first, you have no idea it is happening. You see nothing. Until a water spot appears. Left unattended, that water spot becomes a drip. Unchecked still, it floods from ceiling to wood floor. Disappointment starts as a leak until discouragement comes like a flood. I thought along these same lines as I tried to detangle my daughter’s hair the other day. Because I hadn’t attended to her knots daily, now her hair was a woolen blanket, 1-inch thick of a knotted mess. Whoops. It was torture…

  • Life

    How Assumptions Can Injure You

    Give. That’s what I do when I meet with people. They ask to meet. I link up with them. And, usually, then they ask me: 1. How to write and get published 2. How they can stop feeling afraid, held captive or stuck  3. How to start writing … Or, they just unload and tell me their whole-life story. Rarely, do people ask about – me. Which I am okay with. On good days, I say to myself: God, it’s not all about me; it’s all about you. And, God, with beauty, shows up through me, for them. I love seeing Him work. But, on this particular day, I felt tired. After…

  • Life

    I Size People Up

    When I sat down on my porch, I looked up. A little spider connected to his web was hanging down a little bit over me. Why harm him? He’s just sitting there. He looks dead, anyway… I continued on with God, reading, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” (Romans 1:17) I thought about groups of people who desperately try to earn God’s favor: through works, through trying to be enough and through focusing on all they are not, rather than focusing on who Christ has made them to be. Maybe they aren’t really, saved. No sooner did I think this, than I felt an itch on my back.…

  • Life

    Intimate Words from a Father

    I love how God wants to speak to us, intimately. Through prayer, I have gotten such a glimpse for his heart for me, for you and for all we are facing. This is how I believe God might want to speak, personally to you today… Oh, how I hope these words and bible verses speak to the deep of you! My child, What you cannot see, I can. I know the plans I have for you – for prospering – and not for harming you. What would it look like for you to really trust me? To lean on me? To know me? (Kelly’s response: I guess, God, it would…

  • Life

    Choose Kindness!

    The world doesn’t feel very kind these days. As we read social media posts, we see so much anger and dissension rising up. The sad thing is, we say things online that we would never say to a person’s face. We argue about everything under the sun, and it feels at times that people have forgotten one of the basic rules we learned in kindergarten, to be kind to one another. In a recent Choose Chat, Laura Pedersen and I discussed how we can make kindness a choice. We can choose to be the hands and feet of Christ by sharing the kindness that Christ modeled for us. Kindness is…

  • Life

    A Family Stitched Together

    In this video with Thelma Wells “Mama T” shares how a “family stitched together with love seldom unravels.” In our family, sometimes we do get angry with each other, but there shouldn’t be a time when conflicts allow Satan to come in to tear your family apart. Know that God created families and His desire is for you to live in peace and harmony with your family and with others. His love for us must be shed abroad in our hearts so that hurts, shame, disappointment and sin doesn’t cloud our hearts and minds against each other. In this day and age when everyone’s voice is being heard through social…

  • Life

    Thanksgiving with Psalms 97

    1The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. 2Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. 3A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. 4His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. 5The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. 7Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods. 8Zion heard, and was glad; and…

  • Life

    Resting on the Sabbath

    So the week has been overwhelming? You want a sanitized house. Your family deserves nutritious meals. Your job is demanding (whether you are an office slave or a household servant!). You would like to take an art course, write a poem, create a garden, maybe take a trip. . . . “I can’t do it all!” you screamed above the hiss of the shower over and over when you were alone half a blissful moment. Of course, you can’t. Don’t you think God knew that? That’s why He created Sundays. Now the helter-skelter existence will commence anew on Monday. But maybe you can face life a day at a time if you use…