10 Reasons God’s a Faithful Father

Before we discuss characteristics of a faithful Father, I wanted to share something exciting.

While I’m blessed to have contributed to several published anthologies and books, along with devotions and articles, this week CBN published my devotion on their website’s devotional section. I’m so grateful for this opportunity, and give Jesus all the glory and honor for using me to reach others. The devotion link is at the end of this post.

Loving. Caring. Faithful. 

These words pop in my mind when I think of fathers.

And if you know anything about my story, you know my earthly father abandoned me for part of my childhood.

When my dad reappeared in my life, he was a self-proclaimed atheist. He held no belief in God, much less the idea of a heavenly Father who loves us and never leaves His children.

Yet, after sixteen years of praying for him, my dad finally believed in God and accepted Christ as Savior.

Dad passed away in 2010. So, I’m always a little tear-filled, a tad heart-broken, and a bit soul-grieved this time of year. 

Because I miss so many things about my dad. I miss his presence in my life and talking to him. I miss making him a lemon pie on his birthday and Father’s Day. Oh, how I loved him.

Still, I have the honor and privilege to celebrate three fathers every year. My biological dad in heaven, Gene. And my first stepdad, Wendell.

Wendell helped raise me, and he loved me and cared for me exactly the same as his own biological daughter (my younger sister). I still get to see Wendell on occasion, chat with him by phone, and love him dearly.

Both of my earthly fathers will always have a special place in my heart. But, as we honor fathers this month, I also want to highlight my heavenly Father. He’s the third father mentioned, but first in my life.

10 Reasons God’s Always a Faithful Father

(1) He adopts us.

How to Laugh and Play More as a Family

In our hurry-up culture, our fill-every-spot-on-the-calendar life, and our present social media world, we sometimes lose sight of what matters most. And we forget in all the planning and going and doing to spend quality and fun time with our family…those who mean the most to our hearts. 

Because we all need to laugh more, play more, and create more.

But you may wonder how to plan enjoyment for family members including adults and kids of various ages.

Yet, most of us are big kids at heart anyway. 

Even if we’ve been adult-ing all day or all week, what better way to bring out the child in us than by a little creative recreation. 

And sometimes add in extended family like grandkids/grandparents or cousins and their parents.

So here’s a few ideas with the acrostic “family fun.” I hope these activities inspire the laughing and playing often missing from our lives.

Family Playing and Laughing

Fly a kite. While on our beach trip one year, we enjoyed watching a dad and his kids flying a kite near the ocean’s edge. I’m willing to bet it was one of the highlights to their trip. With so many electronic devices in the hands of kids these days, why not show them a different activity by putting a kite in their hands. And take advantage of windy days in our yard or nearby park.

3 Reasons I Refuse to Apologize for My Faith

These days, the world seems to have gone half mad. Sadly, the madness often surrounds the foundations of the Christian faith.

Christian values are ridiculed. Or, spiritual and biblical principles are questioned as valid and relevant or relatable. 

And people (and the enemy) try to convince us truth is relative and up for debate. Or, culture whispers in our ear, We each have our own version of truth—and that’s okay.

But it’s not okay.

If you follow this blog, you know I’ve experienced rude remarks on social media about my faith.

Even my recent social media post where I stated, Jesus is enough! One commenter’s crazy rage mentioned witches and how women need to get back in the kitchen where they belong. 

Then, he said my claim that Jesus is enough! was a terrorist statement. Really? Yet, I refuse to apologize for the foundations of my faith.

But how do we stand firm? I’d like to offer 3 key foundations to never apologize for.

1.) Refuse to Apologize for The Bible and its Truth

10 Wife-Commandments for a Strong Marriage

There are no easy or fast rules for marriage. No unseen code to break.

Also, no scientific formula guaranteeing 100% satisfaction.

But, our heavenly Father provides the answers we need.

Because God created marriage, He helps us manage and sustain our marriages as we submit to His ways…His commandments.

Even more, the Lord possesses all the knowledge to lead our marriage. Yet, our job as a wife is simply to seek God’s knowledge.

Rather than producing our own marriage commandments with good advice, let’s use the truths behind God’s Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:7-21.

So keeping the original thought, while adding a little creative spin, here are ten lessons to supercharge our marriage.

Wife-Commandments to Supercharge Our Marriage

1.) You shall have no other gods before me. After God, our husband is our most important relationship. What “other” things or relationships do you put before God? Then, what about your man?

2.) You shall not make for yourself a carved image…for I am a jealous God. God is jealous for our complete loyalty and whole-hearted devotion. In the same way, our husbands desire a loyal and devoted wife. Sexual and emotional faithfulness, and being your husband’s faithful friend is important. Do you feel you are loving your man with a steadfast, deep, and sure devotion?

Marking Mother’s Day This Year

I’m so honored to have my Literary Agent, Blythe, and her mother, Helen, as guests. I met both of these lovely and godly women at a writers conference. Their book, Mended: Restoring the Hearts of Mothers and Daughters, spoke to my heart as both a mother and daughter. Their message is sure to touch you as we set our hearts on marking Mother’s Day this year.

By Dr. Helen McIntosh and Blythe Daniel 

As daughters and perhaps mothers, I would imagine you’ve had your heart broken a few times. Things were said that shouldn’t have been shared.

Maybe even now it’s still difficult to talk with your mother or daughter. And then there is a marked holiday that puts the status of your relationship in front of you, right?

Always before a holiday or special event it’s especially important to guard our hearts. Many of us are prone to have expectations–that’s normal and natural–but a handful of expectations leads to disappointment and control. We simply want to control how things go. 

So, as Mother’s Day comes, how do you want to mark this day? Will it be to stay as busy as possible so as not to think about your disappointment from a mother or daughter? Do you expect that she won’t call or send a card?

Marking By Letting Go

Would you consider letting go of your hopes for the day? 

Certainly we hope it’s an exquisite day from your loved ones, but what if there is disappointment from a mom or daughter? 

It’s important to think ahead of how you will handle it. Can your purpose in your heart how you will look not just at this day, but the coming days ahead with her?

How to Center Our Marriage Love in Jesus’ Love

Dear Wife,

When we center the love for our husband in our love for Jesus, it deepens our love as a couple.

My love story with Christ began when I was sixteen as I gave my life and heart to Jesus. What a sweet love for sweet sixteen! 

Furthermore, my love story with my husband, Mike, began when I was twenty on a college campus. We were in a sociology class together, Marriage and Family. I know—crazy! 

So, the professor gave students an opportunity to earn extra credit by attending an event on relationships and writing a paper.

And it was at this event, sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, where I shared my love story in Christ.

After class, I heard a male voice behind me calling, “Hey!” Then I turned around to the cutest guy who said he enjoyed my testimony. I still joke with Mike about his Christian “one-liner” hoping to date me. But I was thankful he had his own love story with Jesus.

We became fast friends, dated for three years, and reached a milestone this year of thirty-four years of marriage.

Center Our Love Story In Our Jesus Story

If a love story is what we claim to be the overall picture of marriage—how we fell in love and why we fell in love and why we are still in love. Then what better way to keep our love story anchored and strong and stable than to center it around our love story in Jesus Christ. 

How to Let Empty Refine Us and Not Define Us

“I’m sorry, there’s no heartbeat.” 

My heart skipped a beat. A miscarriage landed me in the bed with low back pain and abdominal discomfort. The same as birth bangs when my daughter was born. Except there’s no baby to hold or name or take home. 

The doctor described this three-day nightmare as a natural way the ten-week-old fetus continued to exit my body. He even said this was the best case scenario to avoid a medical procedure to clear anything left behind. But I just cared about what had happened to my unborn baby and the unseen scars left behind. 

My womb not only emptied itself of the baby I dreamt would be our second child, but I also felt an undeniable emptiness—a hollow space with an echo of loss.

Months after, my empty womb threatened to rob my joy as a woman and as a mother. Sadness crept in while explaining it to my two-year-old daughter every time she asked, “Is the baby in your tummy, Mommy?” Even telling my co-workers and friends seemed daunting. And the waiting period before attempting another pregnancy seemed like forever. 

Shed Prison Clothes and Dine at the King’s Table

Neither prison itself nor the clothes prisoners must sport appeal to this girl. And no doubt the entire experience proves undesirable. 

Like confinement to a small space, lack of freedom, prison food or no food, missing my family and friends, and dreaming of a future.

Likewise, Jeremiah 52 recounts this kind of story with an evil king of Jerusalem, Zedekiah, who rebelled against God, and also rebelled against the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar (don’t see those names listed in baby-name books).

So, as a result, Nebuchadnezzar sieged Jerusalem; its king, city, and people fell to this utter destruction and despair:

• Imprisoned King Zedekiah until his death.
• Burned down houses and the house of the Lord.
• Broke down all the walls of Jerusalem.
• Plundered items from the temple.
• Killed the chief priest, keepers of the threshold, and men from the king’s council.
• Took thousands of captives from Jerusalem as exiles to Babylon (seventh and eighteenth years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign). Then, hundreds of captives from Judah (twenty-third year of his reign).

Yet, when we arrive at the final four verses of this last chapter of Jeremiah, we meet Jehoiachin, king of Judah. Exiled to Babylon and imprisoned when he was a young (Matthew Henry Commentary suggests at eighteen-years-old).

Captivity Turned to Freedom

But here’s the rest of the story in God’s Word when despair turned to joy, and captivity turned to freedom. It’s also my story.

3 Ways to Awaken Courage: Your True Self

By Lisa Murray

The truth is, sometimes I’m not fine. There are moments my day hasn’t gone great, and yes, some days the weather really does stink.  

That’s what I want to say at least, but I rarely do.

How about you?

There are a lot of things about me I don’t say, many truths I keep tucked inside, hidden in the bottom drawer of my heart, for fear others wouldn’t want to hear about what’s really going on with me. 

Somehow I believe if I let them see the real me, they might think I’m crazy, too much to handle. Or they might just reject me altogether.

Courage To Your True Self

So I’ve learned to edit myself. If we’re honest, I think most of us edit ourselves. We’ve learned to do a fair job stitching together the prettiest sides of ourselves to show people while keeping the worn and ragged edges hidden out of sight. We pray no one will notice and try to convince ourselves our patchwork looks as good as new. As long as no one gets too close.  

Up close is where the reality of our threadbare and disheveled selves might poke through. Where the tears, the insecurities, the pockets full of unworthiness spill their ugly selves onto our identity. It isn’t pretty.

The problem is, all the years I hid my truest self, all the years I kept everyone at arm’s length, I also kept the beauty of intimacy and vulnerability from ever reaching my impenetrable, fear-filled heart. 

Marriage Math: How 2 Become 1

Welcome to Marriage Math Class.

In school, I sometimes struggled in math. I mastered basic arithmetic. And as an abstract thinker, I soared in Geometry. 

Yet, theorems of Algebra threw me for a loop. I wondered if any of it applied in a practical way to life.

So for this article, let’s stick with the basics. 

What’s the only way two of anything becomes one? We take one away. Right? Two take away one equals one, (2-1=1). In mathematics, it works with apples or dogs or numbers.

And Scripture sheds a bright light on the concept in marriage. 

“The two will become one. So they are no longer two, but one” Mark 10:8 NLV.

You see, God’s teaching on marriage shows the answer always equals one. Unified for one purpose paints a picture of the bride of Christ, the church. Jesus taught His followers to be one as He and the Father are one. 

Then, how does this happen in marriage?

2 Become 1 

First, we need to jump back to the preceding verses. “From the beginning of the world, God made them man and woman. Because of this, a man is to leave his father and mother and is to live with his wife. The two will become one” Mark 10:6-8a NLV. 

Leave and live…leave parents and live with each other.