@bethvogt I struggled to write this blog post. For the better part of Tuesday, I thought I just wouldn’t write anything. The hours kept ticking away, and I kept tossing aside possible topics. And at ten o’clock Tuesday night I started typing words. Just how honest would I be? Life’s been hard the past few days – the kind of …
Reading Between the Lines of the Serenity Prayer
@bethvogt (With acknowledgement to Reinhold Neibuhr (1892-1971), who wrote the Serenity Prayer.) God grant me the serenity Help me to stay calm. To not yell at my family no matter how much longer we’re quarantined together or say out loud all the snarky comments I’m thinking, even if I do think they’re funny. to accept the things I cannot change …
How Do We Handle Life When We Feel Like We’re in Limbo?
I asked my friend, Casey, how she was doing with the extended stay-at-home order in Colorado Springs. “Hanging in there. Trusting God,” she said. “But limbo is a hard place to hang out in.” Yes, yes, it is. And that’s what’s wearing on all of us right now: we’re stuck in limbo, waiting for someone to set us free. The …
How Do We Choose Love and Grace Over Being Right?
Sometimes I just like being right. And that’s when I usually end up saying the wrong thing. Yes, I’m telling you this because I “righted” myself into the wrong corner a few days ago. I didn’t realize how my conversation with my friend Gianna had veered into unexpected territory until she said, “You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” I stopped …
Coronavirus, Christmas, and Choosing Truth to Change Our Attitudes
Have you heard about people putting up their Christmas decorations during the coronavirus pandemic? I hadn’t considered hauling out my decorations and decking the halls – until yesterday. I don’t know about you, but I’m still adjusting to life in the midst of COVID-19. It’s a daily tug-of-war between my expectations and reality. Between my emotions and my faith. My …
Choosing to Face the Effects of Uncertainty
My youngest daughter, Christa, is home for spring break from college. Only it’s not the spring break she planned on. It’s not the spring break hundreds of thousands of college students planned on. After I wrote that last sentence my husband, Rob, Christa, and I paused to do some quick mental math and decided the sentence should read “millions …
Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #22
Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes! The hunt BEGINS on 3/12 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com. Hunt through …
Choosing not to be a Grumbler
I’ve been grumbling a lot this past week. Out loud and often, about one particular thing I’m frustrated about. It doesn’t matter what I was complaining about – although some of you are nodding your heads and thinking, “I’ve been listening to your grousing. Enough, already!” It’s so easy to get upset about things, especially when we feel so right, …
How Grief Shapes Us
My son-in-love, David, lost his mom when he was 10 years old. Losing your mom when you’re a young child? I see the faint flicker of his heartache in David’s eyes whenever he mentions his mom. All of us are familiar with the companionship of grief. Throughout our lives, we all must learn and relearn the halting steps of grief …
Love is a Choice We Make Every Day
Today’s blog post is pretty straightforward. With Valentine’s Day on Friday, I thought it would be fun to share a few quotes about love. “Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Mother Teresa Now before you move on from this post because you’re not into all the forced, commercialized …