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Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month
It feels weird to acknowledge this month because my RP is progressing slowly. I can see much better than those who are in the later stages of the disorder, and I only have one or two truly bad eye days a month. I’m incredibly thankful for that and thank God for it often. Even though I don’t currently struggle with extreme vision loss, plenty of people are dealing with the effects of RP every day. It’s a scary disorder, knowing that more than likely you will lose most of your vision but not knowing when. Accepting it as the new normal can be difficult as well. I know my future…
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The LORD is faithful
Does a thought that you just can’t shake ever enter your mind? You may have moved on from it, but something happens around you that reminds you of it and brings it back to the surface, like a catchy song. For the past six months or so, the unshakable thought for me is God’s faithfulness. A few Bible verses I read and a few songs I heard have kept this theme at the forefront of my mind. God is faithful. I’ve known that truth since I was young, but my actions haven’t always proved that I believed it. In my mind, if something doesn’t have at least two contingency plans,…
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‘Do you know what the best smell in the world is?’
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The eyes God gave me
Growing up, I wanted blue eyes. My brown eyes were too normal for me, so I would often wish that they would change colors. It wasn’t until I learned the story of Amy Carmichael that I decided my brown eyes weren’t too bad. Amy wanted blue eyes and remembered her mother telling her that God answers prayers. So, she prayed that God would give her the blue eyes she wanted. Amy was very upset the next morning when she didn’t get what she had prayed for, and her mom explained to her that God sometimes answers “no” and that God had a reason for her brown eyes whether or not…
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‘Does it scare you?’
It was a simple question, but it caught me off guard. We talked about our perfect heavenly bodies tonight in class, and as an example of our imperfect bodies here, I told the kids about RP. I explained that I’ll be disease-free in heaven. But, I wasn’t ready for the questions. “Wait, Ms. Elizabeth, you mean you know you’ll be blind one day?” “No, because God works miracles, and every case is different. I may never have any major issues with it. We’ll see what God allows.” “Does it scare you?” “Yes, sometimes it does. But do you know what makes it OK? I can still tell others about Jesus…
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When God chases you
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Feed My Starving Children and The Hope Project International
Would you skip lunch one time if it meant a starving child could have a meal every day for a month? If you’ve followed me on social media for very long, you’ve probably heard me ask that question a time or two. The reason is because I’ve seen how far a handful of dollars goes, and it’s further than you might think. I want to tell you about two important groups to me and give you the opportunity to get involved in them. The first organization is Feed My Starving Children, and the second is The Hope Project International. Feed My Starving Children Feed My Starving Children partners with mission…
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‘Do you know what the best smell in the world is?’
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Leviticus: An overlooked book
Leviticus is a difficult book to read. When I was little, I would just skip over the laws and the genealogies because they didn’t seem as important. My family didn’t sacrifice goats and rely on priests to intercede for me, so those books really didn’t matter as much as the other ones, right? I recently started back at the beginning in my Bible reading, and I’m working through Leviticus right now. Let me tell you: There’s nothing that makes me feel more unworthy than reading commands of God, no matter where they fall in the Bible. God’s Word throws my brokenness and weaknesses in my face, showing me my desperate…
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When the storms come
Adversity and faith. Those topics were at the center of our young women’s Bible study discussion tonight. How do you respond to adversity? How do you keep your faith strong when you face trials? What are some situations where you find it difficult to give them to God and instead try to control them yourself? Tough questions. Questions that remind me how far God has brought me in the past three years, and questions that remind me how far I have left to go. When my family broke apart three years ago, I fought to believe that all the pain would be worth it. I told myself multiple…
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From knowing Bible stories to knowing the Bible story
“It’s one thing to know Bible stories; it’s another to know the story of the Bible.” — Matt Smethurst, associate editor for “The Gospel Coalition” For someone who grew up in church, I had a hard time figuring out how the whole Bible connected. I had a stack of devotionals, Awana books, The Mailbox Club studies, prayer journals, and daily Bible reading plans beside my bed, and I did my best to faithfully complete every one of them every day. Honestly, it frustrated me more often than it helped me, but that’s a part of my testimony that I’ll share at another time. Even with all the input I was…
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Waiting, praying, and God finally saying ‘Yes’
Surely God must have been tired of my aching heart crying out to Him at all hours of the day and night. I must have prayed a thousand prayers and shed a thousand tears before God’s answer went from “Wait” to “Now is the time.” After a very long, very hard year and a half, I finally have a church family, a place where God wants me to serve and a people He wants me to love. My story has always included church. I grew up in and attended the same church for 24 years, and I had the best time serving there. I knew the importance of fellowship with believers,…
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Why he won’t complete me
I’ve been mulling over an article by Tim Challies titled “4 Marks of a Godly Husband’s Love” for five days now. Challies is pulling from a commentary by Richard Phillips on Ephesians, and I think he does an excellent job of explaining the different aspects of the love a husband should have for his wife: a self-sacrificing love, a redeeming love, a caring love, and a committed love. If you’re a man trying to pursue your relationships the God way, I think you should take time to read it. If you’re a woman wanting to understand the man’s role in a marriage, I think you should read it. As I…
