uptomytoes

Category: Hope

  • A Common Theme

    Around 9 years ago I became a single parent to my five beautiful children.  About the same time, I started writing.  Although I’ve always been a writer in my own way – journaling, making notes, jotting down thoughts here and there. As a teenager, I even wrote a few poems although those might never see…

  • Hope?

    Hope. Such a beautiful word.  In it is bound up all that is good in our perspective and all that we have to look forward to in our lives. It is spoken concerning the smallest of things, “I hope I remember where I put that”, to the big life-changing desires we hold, “I hope I…

  • Are you ready to stop wrestling and start resting?

    This was eye-opening for me. In the throes of a deep conversation with a dear friend, I was asked by him to stop and be thankful.  To spend the rest of the conversation thinking about things that we could be grateful for…instead of things that we struggle with… Can I tell you…it wasn’t easy.  …

  • When Someone Joins this Journey

    A friend sent me a copy of a blog yesterday.  It was a blog sharing the loss of another Christian marriage. I’d already read it, but I opened it…just to glance at it again.  As if to remind myself what had just happened to this lovely Christian woman.  And fresh heartache came to me…not just…

  • Grab the Robe with Me

    There was this song at my old church …it was a solo I sang on worship team sometimes. It was called “I See the Lord,” and I loved it. It was based on Isaiah 6:1 …I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the…

  • Running with Endurance

    A few weeks ago I was frustrated by my lack of time to do some things. Things like exercise, serious Bible study, sleep… My how things have changed and not in the way I imagined…I don’t know what I imagined but this wasn’t it. So a few weeks ago, I decided to just do it…just…

  • Trust and the Consequences

    You know how you think you know stuff and then you realize all of a sudden that you really don’t?  That has been my experience this past week. A dear friend of mine is working through some books and studies with me to figure out how to get to a healthier place in the whole…

  • Too Many Words

    Last Sunday I excelled at words.  They poured forth from my mouth like a fountain. Unfortunately, they were not a fountain of refreshment, but rather a fountain of refuse.   I remember some time ago I read a parenting book that described nagging as using a lot of words to convey a point.  Good gravy!…

  • What are feelings anyway?

    On the way to church recently my 7 year old daughter asked, “Momma, what are feelings?” I started to say, “They’re how you feel.  I mean they are what you feel…I mean…ahhh!!!” I couldn’t figure out how to define it without using the word “feel.”  I thought if I used the word emotion it would…

  • This Place at This Time

    I was shuffling through my bookcase – reorganizing and deciding which books I’d like to keep and which books I’d like to donate – when I found a book that a friend had written and sent to me a few years ago.  It’s called “Walks with Rich” by C.W. Hambleton.  I opened up to the…