We need a weight loss program for the heart, but we can’t do it alone, so a vicar steps in and declares, ‘You are forgiven. Be at peace.’ I could feel a kind of weight leave my body. I had carried this tension and held this stress for so long […]
forgiveness
To demand or expect forgiveness is like a chess player trying to manipulate the board, but that’s not true repentance. Instead, repentance submits itself to the poetry of waiting, praying, and hoping. They thought they could use the Bible to manipulate and control. Verses were hurled, and they were told, […]
Accepting the consequences is a repentant heart saying ‘Yes’ to what has been done, praying for mercy, and possibly discovering grace. A few years ago I was caught speeding. I was going too fast. The police officer pulled me over and asked if I knew what speed I was traveling. […]
We do something we regret and want to make amends for, but what about the heart. Come as a servant but don’t become a slave. I was working in a garden the other day when I accidentally knocked over a small pot plant. It toppled over and fell onto a […]
Are you tired of being the Scapegoat but don’t know how to stop it? Six key steps to stop being the dumping ground of other people’s rubbish. She felt like they were making her a scapegoat. They were saying she was responsible for all the terrible things that had happened. […]
We can live warped lives because of a shadow hanging over us, but that shadow can be removed if we face what’s causing the shadow and allow the light to flood in. Have you ever walked in a shadow? Of course you have, but you probably didn’t take much notice […]
We need to share the pain of life with someone, but what happens when the confessor, the one we are exposing our heart to, goes rogue. We need to be careful with who we share our heart with. What they thought was being said in private was now being passed […]
Anxiety can make you want to control, but learning to detach can bring peace. Perhaps you care too much and it’s time to let go. She was holding on tightly. Too tightly. It was care, it was love, but in that embrace, she was suffocating the life out of the […]
‘Shoulds’ can pile up on the shoulders and shape our thinking. But we have efficacy. We have the power to make a change and stop ‘shoulding.’ We don’t have to live under the slavery of a ‘should.’ It was always the same message. ‘You should be doing better.’ ‘You’re not […]
Some trauma memories keep us locked into our past. But there is a cleansing that can happen. We need to bring ourselves to the presence of one who will wash us pure. I didn’t know what to do when they were sharing some of the stories of their past. I […]