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Too Many Turkeys Will Spoil Your Shot
Both my brothers are avid hunters, and although I am 110% for sportsmanship, I’ve never been hunting (unless you count shopping for good deals). As a result, I enjoy hearing my brothers’ stories. Recently, one of them was telling me about a time he went turkey hunting, and there were so many turkeys he couldn’t focus on one to take the shot. Turkeys are ADHD creatures by nature, and they can’t stand still. Dozens of them together are like the blurry results of an overdue vision appointment. I couldn’t help but think that we Christians can have the same problem in our spiritual lives. How can we get anything done…
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How to Escape Tickle Sticks and Other Temptations
During a recent trip to the Florida Keys, my husband James taught me how to use a tickle stick and net to catch lobster. If you’ve never lobstered before, here’s how it works. You snorkel until you spot two long antennas peeking out of a hole in the ocean’s hard bottom. Then, you insert the tickle stick into the hole to annoy the lobster enough to expose itself. While distracting the lobster with the tickle stick, you swoop in behind it with the net. Lobsters swim backwards, so poking the lobster with the stick usually sends it directly into the net. Although the tickle stick is dangerous only to lobsters,…
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How Can You Hear God’s Voice? Lessons from the Lake
How many of you want to hear God’s voice? That’s not a trick question. Any believer would give a wholehearted yes! By “hear,” I’m not referring to an audible voice but perhaps peace or clarity in a situation where we feel unsure or fearful. Maybe we’re struggling to see God’s hand or wanting to simply find the reassurance of His presence. However, before we can hear God’s voice, we must first be prepared to listen. This first step is one we often forget and maybe why we often fail or become frustrated in our conversations with God. We’re too busy doing all the talking or perhaps just plain too busy…
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The Command to Rest
If there’s one adjective we all use to describe our lives, it’s probably busy. Some days, I look at my list and wonder: How did all that get there? One item you won’t see on the to-do list is this: Rest. But I think we would all do well to add it. I’m not talking about lazy, couch-potato rest, although if we burn out our bodies to the point of illness, that sometimes becomes necessary. Instead, I’m talking about a quiet rest, a renewing rest, a distraction-free rest. What that looks like differs for each one of us, but here are some suggestions: Spending a quiet weekend morning with our…
