Everyday Imperfect

It's been a full year - as of today - that I nearly lost the love of my life. If you don't know my hubs is a little older than me, so I've always had it in the back of my head that there would be a day that I'd be without him. But in the middle of a pandemic? We had no idea how close we were to living without him. For weeks he's been dealing with a cough - we blamed it on allergies (though he swears he doesn't have any). The last week of April, though, he was getting progressively worse, short of breath, and very weak. He barely got through that Wednesday night's lesson online. And by Friday he couldn't walk from the bedroom to the living room without gasping for air. He swore that it was just a bad chest cold. I was convinced he either had Pneumonia or Covid! Nevertheless, he kept taking meds to help with his cough and "chest cold". He was supposed to meet our children's church teacher at church Saturday morning, but was too weak ...

One day, my little family and I walked into our local restaurant for dinner.  Some friends from church own the restaurant and our town literally has about 600 people, so we knew several people there. My husband got stopped at one table, while I went over to another and started chatting with some church members there.  As I was talking to the mom, their adorable little 4-year-old girl tilted her head, squinted her warm brown eyes at me and said, "I tink you go to my chuhch (church)."  I'm her pastor's wife, she'd seen me there every Sunday and Wednesday (and sometimes in between) for a year or two at that point.  Before we had the chance to assure her that yes, she did know me, my husband finished his conversation and walked over to the table, draping his arm across my shoulders.   When this little sweetie saw my husband, her eyes got as big as saucers and the biggest smile lit up her face as she exclaimed, "PASTUH! PASTUH!" (toddler speak for "pas...

Boy, that title sounds like this is going to be a really deep post...I guess I'll leave that up to you to decide. Have you ever become disillusioned with something? Church is one thing a lot of people become disillusioned over -- in that they find out that the church (or church people) has flaws and is a lot more human (good or bad) than they realized. So, the let their disappointment and disillusionment keep them from the level of commitment to the kingdom (by way of their local church) than they had previously had. I've been there, believe me. Years ago, working for a national ministry, I'd gotten to the point that anytime I walked through the doors I was at "work" -- whether it was during the work week or not. It's pretty disconcerting to think you're going to a worship service only to get called out and "asked" to work on the teleprompter, or make calls for an airtime contract, or get your boss's coffee. We ...

I felt led a few days ago to share something in the Beautiful Tenacity group on facebook. Since then several women have let me know how much it helped them. I hope this helps you too!

Last month was a hard month. I was battling some things physically; I had made huge goals in my business - AND TOLD OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT THEM! My son officially left middle school for the last time and my mom-emotions were all over the place. But I kept going. I mean, what choice did I have, right? Things have to get done, bills have to get paid, etc, etc. And there was NO WAY I was going to put that huge goal out there and not BUST IT till I hit it, right?? I'll be honest, I really didn't think I'd hit that goal. But little by little, HAC by HAC, that goal was met and then surpassed! But do you think I had a "bossbabe" mentality about it the whole month? That I never wavered in my desire and determination to "bust it"? Heck, no, sister! I literally had to put my phone down and walk away once so that I wouldn't call someone in my anxiety to cancel an event simply because I was exhausted from the busyness of the ...

We ALL deal with discouragement at some points in our life. In my quiet time earlier this week, I was praying about some of my friends dealing with this (knowing, of course, how often I deal with it myself) and I felt strongly that I needed to share the two main reasons we become discouraged- at least two reasons I've noticed within my own struggles. Why do we need to know the reasons we get discouraged? So that we can do something about it! And these are two things that every one of us can do SOMETHING about - so we don't have to stay in that space of discouragement! Whether you're battling discouragement in your health or weight, or business, or family, or church....discouragement can come at you from any direction. I learned a long time ago how to deal with my discouragement, and while that doesn't mean I have it all figured out or that that I never get discouraged, it does mean that I've learned that discouragement is truly a tool that the enemy uses...