No One Can Understand You (Part 2) ~ Guest Blogging Day

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When he has brought out all his own, 

he goes on ahead of them, 

and his sheep follow him 

because they know his voice. 

John 10:4 NIV

Have you ever had the embarrassing experience of carrying on a telephone conversation with someone who you THOUGHT was someone else?

Perhaps it doesn't happen quite as much now with caller ID and the use of cellular phones, but there were many times that people would call our house when I was a teenager and mistake me for my sister or mother.

Our voices can get distorted, and there can be noise on the "line" which makes it difficult to tell one voice from another. 

Similarly, my daughter struggles with her speech, and has always had a speech delay. She was diagnosed with speech apraxia at five years old and developed a stutter as recently as 2012. When she was five and received her apraxia diagnosis, the test results showed that she was only understood by a naive listener 12% of the time. Can you imagine that? A five year old who goes through her day being MOSTLY misunderstood?

I still find that I will "translate" her statements to people if they don't know her well because even with years of speech therapy, her communication is something one has to grow accustomed to.

Where am I going with this? 

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos... 

Wanting to be Well ~ Guest Blogging Day

Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

John 5:3-8 NIV

Do you want to get well?

It sounds like such a harsh question with an obvious answer; but really, it isn't.  We know a lot of people who actually seem more comfortable wallowing in what they DON'T have rather than looking forward and working toward happiness.

Do you want to get well?

We moved to Nevada over a year ago and immediately I fell in love with Lake Tahoe.

But, during the course of this summer, I have decided that Lake Tahoe is not just my FAVORITE PLACE, it is my HAPPY PLACE.  Lake Tahoe is the place where I GET WELL.

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

Living in the Gap ~ Guest Blogging Day

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I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. John 17:14 NIV

We were in the car a couple of weeks back, on our way home from Lake Tahoe and we passed the sign on I80 which read "Emigrant Gap."  Having recently visited the museum on Donner Pass, and been freshly familiarized with the tragic story in America's history of the Donner Party, I started thinking about what the Emigrant Gap actually represented.

I started to research "Emigrant Gap" and found that it actually is a city in California.  But, along with that, I found out that, according to the Office of Historic Preservation, 

The development of discovery of gold in California is due in no small measure to the men and women who came by the California Emigrant Trail and who stayed to build our state. No other method of entry can parallel it in danger, privation, fortitude and romance, nor is anything more closely associated in the mind of the average American with the Gold Rush than the covered wagon.  (accessed on-line 11/5/14 at No. 403 Historic Landmark)

The early American emigrants who braved a new and unknown world set out on a journey which they knew would not be easy.  They had heard the promises of possibilities, and they knew that the road would be beyond difficult.  They left behind family and friends with the understanding that they would likely never see them again. 

Read more about the inspirational pioneers of the West... 

The Interview~Am I Qualified? Guest Blogging Day

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Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  John 14:6 NIV

I sit anxiously in the waiting room...the administrative assistant is clicking away on her keyboard, and the phone seems to be ringing non-stop.  I feel the sweat pools forming under my knees creating an inability for me to sit comfortably on the pristine couch in the corner of the room.

The door to his office swings open.

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

How Many Times Do I Have To Tell You? ~ Guest Blogging Day

John 6:35 ...I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  NIV
John 6:41 ...I am the bread that came down from heaven. NIV
John 6:48  I am the bread of life.  NIV
John 6:51  I am the living bread that comes down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.  NIV

As a mom, I know what it's like to have to repeat myself.  Whether it's calling her to the dinner table, hurrying her to get dressed and ready for the bus, or asking her to turn the TV down; I have to repeat myself all the time with my daughter.  

Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...