The Nothing Blog

Our daughters Grace and Mary are now 20-somethings. When they were very young I told them -- more than once -- that there was nothing they could do to make me stop loving them. I said, "You can say and do things I disagree with, I can get hurt feelings or fret over your safety and well-being, but you're my daughters and my love runs deep."  It still holds true today.  By the grace of God both of them are passionate...about many things...but most importantly they are on-fire with their love for their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus saves, and He chose them to come into His kingdom as His children. Even my dysfunctional attempts-- at times-- mothering has not robbed them of their passion for God and for abundant life! Whew! I am so thankful! My godly hubby Don had a lot to do with that, too. Grace, Me, Don, Mary Celebrating Grace's  Birthday, 2009 I've also told the girls that I wished they could see themselves as I see them. I always get tears when I ...

For some reason God has chosen to give me three--yes--three spiritual mothers ...so far! All I can think is: "Wow, I must really need a lot of help if God sends me three when my own mother loved me unconditionally and was my greatest cheerleader and loving encourager!"  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a spiritual mother is a mentor. The concept comes from Scripture. "Older women are to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God" (Titus 2:3-5).  Spiritual mothers can be any age, what matters is the older woman is to teach the younger. She could be old enough to be our mother and/or grandmother or a 35-year-old mentoring a 20-year-old. My experience with my spiritual  mothers i...

I don't know if this happens to anyone else but sometimes during my personal Bible reading I come across a verse of Scripture I've read many times before but then all of a sudden the words jump off the page because I've seen something new. I usually say something aloud like, "Yikes! Wow, LORD, this is amazing". Then I proceed to get out my concordances and dig deeper. I know it's going to be another devotion for my next book. And I know God wants to teach me something. It happened this morning while I was engaged in the online  IF: Gathering  devotional study on the book of John. It's a fresh, ongoing study hosted by IF:Gathering Founder/Visionary Sweet Jennie Allen  and her adorable peeps.   Its home base is Austin, TX, where Jennie lives but everyone everywhere is  invited to join in by the way..that's why they're hosting it on the worldwide web! I invite my sisters to check it out! Now back to the words jumping off the pages and onto me this...

Are we hungry? Do we know what we are hungry for? Are we really hungry for a meal or are we craving something else? What is it? What do we really want? Peace? Joy? Contentment? Love? We have this empty place in us and we want it filled. Right now! This is America and that's how we as a nation roll these days. We want something now . Don't know exactly what it is, but someone needs to give it to me, now.  We're tired of being  hungry,  right?  Where do we go to get what we really need? Think about a child who says to her mother, "Mom, I'm starving to death! There's nothing to eat here!" And the pantry and the refrigerator are full of food. The mother says, "I can make you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a ham sandwich and a glass of milk. Or I'll pop some fresh popcorn for you."  The child says, "No! I don't want that! I want something else but I don't know what I want to eat...hmmmm."  Then she gives up and stomps out ...