Are you a futuring-type person? Or as a friend of mine says, a future-think? In other words, do you constantly project into the future?
I do.
For this NON-procrastinator, it is very difficult to live in the moment, in the today! My mind is always racing ahead...to the next responsibility, the next event, the next idea.
Read MoreMy babies are gone. They left this morning to go back to their home ... to the place that Uncle Sam assigned after the birth of their fourth child, their first daughter (after three awesome, lively sons). This was the third time that the military transferred them immediately after the birth of a baby. Now that baby was celebrating her first birthday.
Read MoreMuch of my life I lived under the "frown of God," or so I thought. I wasn't a bad kid; in fact, I was quite religious and moral. But I wasn't perfect for sure. (For one thing, I was a terrible big sister, mean and self-centered toward my siblings.) But I knew God required perfection, so I was always working my way down a spiritual "to do list" of some kind (depending on the Christian group I was with. They each had their own, you know).
Read MoreI had an interesting discussion with my daughter the other day. She asked me,
"Have you heard any messages about prayer that talk about how the Holy Spirit prays the prayers in us? Where in the Bible is that?"
Read MoreA wise person thinks a lot about death,
while a fool thinks only about having a good time.
Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 NLT
Death!
The word puts terror in our bones! We know it's coming but we ignore it when we can, and we act like we will live on this earth forever. But then there's the health crisis, the loss of a loved one, the thoughts in the darkness of night, the day-mare or nightmare. And the realization of the truth of where we are all heading (some of us sooner than later) comes sneaking or crashing in. And then we have to face the inevitable or drown it all out with some artificial comfort.
Read MoreA question jumped out at me in my "catch up" chronological Bible reading this week. It was so simple yet profound, but it grabbed hold of my mind and heart.
Is there no God in Israel?
A curious question to just jump off the page and grab me, isn't it? Where did this question come from? And why now?
Read MoreThis is scary. This is hard. But I have Jesus!
I was on my way to the hospital to pick up a CD and written report on my CT scan done several days ago. Something suspicious had showed up in a previous test. I wanted to find out, but I didn't want to know.
Walking from the parking lot, I sensed the Holy Spirit give me my "Jesus Prayer."
Read More…Sorrow is better than laughter,
for sadness has a refining influence on us.
A wise person thinks a lot about death,
while a fool thinks only about having a good time.
Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 NLT
My twelve year old grandson Kaden and I were chatting in the car the other day. Somehow the subject came up about those in the Bible who never died. And of course, I volunteered Elijah, and Kaden immediately remembered his chariot of fire.
I said, "I love Elijah." To which Kaden responded, "I love Elijah too."
The conversation kept on going with Enoch coming up next. And I'm not sure where it all went after that. Other people/kids were in the car so it may have gone to Fortnight or StarTrek or who knows what else.
Read MoreHave you ever been so exhausted, so overloaded, so overwhelmed (even with good things or a mixture of good and hard) that you are numb ... on the verge of tears one minute then totally blank the next? That's me right now.
Three weeks with "littles" (I love them to pieces, but the energy doesn't coincide), overlapped by my husband's medical procedure that cancelled out a looked-forward-to trip to visit siblings on my beloved Jersey shore, capped off with my own need for a CT scan of an unexpected abnormality found in a previous ultrasound -- all have contributed to my "blank" numbness.
Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart. Proverbs 27:19
I love 4 year olds...they understand so much! A few years ago, I told my then 4 year old grandson Evan that we choose our attitude. And he got it!
I didn’t always think that was true, but the older I get the more I believe our choosing has a lot to do with it. And if we are children of God, the living, indwelling Christ empowers us to have an appropriate attitude for the situation.
I experienced this simple truth with another 4 year old when I was teaching preschool many years ago.
Read MoreI've spent much of my adult life in the conservative evangelical Christian "camp," so to speak. I still place myself there doctrinally but I disavow myself from the tendencies that were prevalent over the years to look at other believers as "enemy brothers and sisters," in particular, charismatic Christians. Thankfully, that trend has been changing in recent years. We now often embrace each other freely and even espouse each other's differences as our own.
Read MoreSome of us are low volume people. Others of us are high volume folk. And others are everything in-between.
...I think this realization affects how I view myself and others.
We all tend to be so insecure and self-conscious, constantly rejecting who and what God made us to be. On the other side, we expect people to be more than they are and be able to do more than they can. Or we think that those who are doing a lot are just showing off!
Read MoreI'm weary and blank. The death of a friend, new health issues arising, aging making itself felt, even good things piling up beyond energy levels, desires to do too much and then paying for it ... all of it. So I'm revisiting my "words" of recent years. And I'm especially parking on this year's word "REST." Journey along with me?
Are you going through the dark valley today, my friend? Have there been oppositions, losses, stresses of many kinds looming all around you?
Darkness, darker than the dark?
I'm with you...especially this week...
But this morning, in the midst of it all, moved by an inner Mover, picking up a volume dating back many a year, there was balm for my exhausted, beat-up soul.
Read MoreNo longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:15 ESV
The other day I had this conversation with my Friend:
ME: Yes, Lord. We are friends ... we go way back, don't we?
Read MoreMotherhood is filled with emptyings -- from the emptying of the womb in childbirth to the emptying of self in child-raising to the emptying of the nest, the ultimate goal. The stripping is hard, every step along the way.
And eventually, it may mean being alone on the day when moms have always been lauded and honored. This happened to me early on in the empty-nesting process. It could have shattered me were it not for my Abba Father's loving gifts to this hurting mama.
Read MoreThis moved me to tears this morning...especially as it gets toward the end. This is for grandpas who have a little bit harder time than grandmas with the chaos involved -- it's so worth it because of those precious babies, little now, but too soon to be big, people who are the future of the world …
… In the meantime, they are the freshest and fairest you have. After you're gone, it is mainly because of them that the earth will not be as if you never walked on it.
You are the salt of the earth.
But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again?…
Salt! What a prolific commodity!
In the past salt was valuable and rare. But now it is cheap, always there, on the table, in the cupboard ... available. And so taken for granted -- by me, at least ... UNTIL a few days ago.
Do you ever feel like there are holes in your soul? I do. In fact, right now I feel a bit like a piece of Swiss cheese. And I don't mean "baby swiss." No, the real holes kind.
The interesting thing is that nothing bad is going on right now in my life. It's all good stuff! But the constancy of the schedule with a newborn (darling first granddaughter!), a two year old (energetic boy, I might add!), two older boys (awesome, each one!), plus sleep deprived young parents (getting ready for a military move next month, I might add), and two aged, also sleep-deprived, grandparents (John & me!) has been hard and delightful at the same time. But to be honest, we adults are all living "on the edge" of something (I just drew a blank as to what).
Read MoreJanet Renner Loyd has been a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ most of her life. Her formal education includes a degree in education from the University of Arizona and also a degree in Bible & Theology from Moody Bible Institute. For more than thirty years, she has been involved in teaching and leading women’s Bible studies, retreats, and meetings…most notably Precept upon Precept and various studies that she has personally developed. Professionally, Jan recently retired from teaching language and writing to GED and adult ESOL students.
About her life, Jan says, “The most important thing about me is my relationship with my Father God through my Lord Jesus Christ. I am forever grateful to Him for His love, mercy, and grace to me and my family and friends...and the world.”
Jan has been happily married to John Loyd for more than forty years. They have two adult, married children and five lively young grandsons.
