Untangling Life's Knotty Messes

Last night I discovered that the yarn on one edge of my throw blanket was knotted together. The individual pieces were tangled instead of loosely hanging as designed. The other side was completely free from problems, but this one was a mess. Some strands were easily pulled out, but more often so many were intertwined that I could only loosen one to get to another. I spent more than an hour freeing the yarn from interwoven knots.

Isn’t life often the same way? We attempt to deal with a problem and find that it involves a whole knot of issues. Far too often we implement easy answers that don’t work because the difficulty is too complex.

Directionless or Directed?

God doesn’t seem to be leading me anywhere right now. It has been almost two years since I left my church staff position. At that time the only direction I had was to write a book based on my curriculum designed to grow women’s influence. I spoke at women’s conferences and retreats—opportunities which God clearly provided by his sovereign hand. I am now completing the final edits on the book to self-publish it. But what is next? No doors have opened; no voice has spoken; and no sign has appeared in the skies. I don’t like being in limbo and am getting impatient with this waiting. Have you ever felt that God left you without a compass?

How do we navigate such times? What path do we take without clear direction? How do we maintain faith when God seems to have forgotten that we are available? How is God guiding when he seems so silent?

Grieving the Older Generation

Two weeks ago my ninety-four-year-old father-in-law passed away, only three-and-a-half months after his wife. I have been in their family for forty years now and am very saddened by their deaths. My own father died when he was sixty-three, an age when he should have been enjoying his grandchildren. I have learned a lot about grief in the ensuing years. I am certainly no expert; I am merely one journeying through the loss of the older generation.

What have I learned so far?

Words of Love

Even in the best of earthly relationships or the closest marriage, we don’t always feel loved. For many people Valentine’s Day is a difficult reminder of what we don’t have, whether we are single or married. Because we live in a broken world, our expectations are often unrealized and our dreams of love are far from reality.

We long for a perfect lover, one who knows us intimately and loves us unconditionally. No one on earth will ever meet those expectations but God.

As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, it’s a great time to ponder words of love from God to his people.

Attention-grabbing Blogs

What grabs your attention and draws you to read a blog?

I have now been writing them now for a year-and-a-half and reading them even longer. I would love to hear what appeals to you, the reader. I not only have this blog, but I write on Tapestry and watch the number of reads and wonder about these things. Other than liking a particular topic, what else appeals to you?

What do you see that makes you link and read an entire post, not just go to the page and fail to READ MORE? Do any of the following draw you into the post?

Growing in Prayer this Year

When I led women’s ministries in churches, the position of prayer coordinator was often difficult to fill. Most of us (and I include myself here) have a mental image of the ideal pray-er, and we are aware of our own inadequacies. The women I approached often expressed their surprise at being asked to shoulder such a responsibility and their belief that almost anyone else would be better equipped for the role.

What is it about prayer that makes us feel so inadequate? What steps can we take to move forward?

Your Personal Top Ten List of 2011

Looking back at the ending year makes me thankful and more conscious of how I need to change in the next year. What has God done this year? What do I need to work on next year? With all the Top Ten lists coming out this week, I thought I would make a list of Ten Top things in my life this year.

Here are the categories/questions I used. You may want to consider them when you have a few minutes today or the next week or two as you begin 2012. Enjoy the memories, but also be open for God to speakJ