Living as a Victorious Christian Woman

I'm proud to admit that I'm a word nerd. I'm that Bible study girl who has to look up all the words I don't know because I have to know what they mean! What can you get out of the passage you're reading if you don't understand the words themselves? Have you ever noticed the different kinds of words in Scripture? It's like going back to elementary school English class - there are nouns, adjectives, adverbs, all the many tenses, words that describe people and places and things and ... and ... and ...  My favorite words are verbs. No boring, inanimate words for this word nerd! I want to know what people in the Bible did. Tell me that they followed and worshiped and listened. Describe what the disciples did when they were with Jesus for those few years. What did Jesus Himself do when He was with people who loved Him, with people who hated Him and with people who weren't even sure who He was. Did the Old Testament believers act differently than the New Testam

It's February in Iowa, which means it's a combination of brown trees, off-white snow and the occasional white cloud in a blue sky. So this is the perfect time to make your planner pages a riot of bright, beautiful colors to offset the dreary outdoors. This is the time of year when the cold and the dark start to take their toll on our hearts and minds. That means it's up to us to take every thought captive and change our outlook on the world. We can fill our world, our journals, our devotional and our planners with all the beautiful colors, patterns and images we possibly can. These are the ephemera from Justina Nadolson of Peace Over Anxiety for Illustrated Faith. What can you do in your life this week to add some color and brightness to the world? Is it something as simple as designing a creative planner layout? Or starting your spring cleaning and decorating? Or maybe you make some pretty greeting cards and mail them to some women you know who need a pick-me-up, too. What

If we're being honest, I'm really not a fan of this part of winter. I love snow and I love the Iowa countryside all decked out in white. However, I don't love the brown that comes after the snow has melted. Brown trees, brown grass, brown everything. I also have a brown dog, but that's a different shade and I love that brown. Just not the brown of nature outside the window right now. But one thing I do love during this part of winter is seeing things I can't see in summer. When the trees are full of bright green leaves, I can't see the branches and the trunks the way I can right now. Today I can see just how many trees we actually have, how tall they are and if they're broken or damaged. (Stupid beavers.) I can see how strong they are, how they've grown despite their surroundings and how they've intertwined with the trees around them. It's so interesting to see that they're not like the stick-figure trees we drew in elementary school, with sy

In a world where you can be anything, choose to be kind in all situations. There are already enough people striving for more, not caring who they run over to get there and pressing their own agendas. Instead of giving in to the flesh and lashing out like everyone else does so easily these days, let's determine in our hearts to just be kind. The kind of kindness Paul described so practically in his letter to the Ephesians. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Ephesians 4:25 When you're tempted to say something that's not entirely true, just be kind. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Ephesians 4:26 When your anger is ready to boil over and all you want to do is go to bed and pout, just be kind. Neither give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:27 When your armor is cracking and the enemy could potentially find places to squeeze into your situation, just be kind. Let him that st

Sometimes we need a day full of color and pattern and bold moments to stir us up. But other times we just need subtle reminders that God's got this, and everything's going to be ok. Life doesn't have to be a string of giant "oh wow" moments - God speaks to us in that still small voice of the quiet moments, too. That is the theme of my planner pages this week. I don't feel like I need a riot of colors or funny pictures. I need to study to be quiet, rest in God's grace and just enjoy the moment. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 has always been one of my favorite verses. And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you. That's what I want to see when I look back at this week - that I did what God called me to do and focused on Him and the task at hand. Knowing that God will hear me when I call out to Him is one of the greatest gifts in this life. Knowing that He alone can deliver me from my fears is anot

It's honestly not that hard to communicate with your dog. The word "subtle" is nowhere to be found in their dictionary. This look, for example means "I know you're busy doing something, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm here." This one: also not subtle. It clearly means "I'm going to stand here and guilt you into taking us outside, even though we were just outside 2.5 minutes ago." Our boys are also not subtle. I have never seen a more pouty dog than this one. Those eyes are saying "You've stopped scratching my head, so I'm going to stare at you with my big, brown eyes until you start up again. Just so you know." And this move is the least subtle of them all. When his whole leg is waving like that, it means "This is my belly. It needs scratches. Come scratch it, please." And, of course - just like with the other three - my heart melts and I give in. Yeah, not subtle at all.

Every now and then I let our teenagers pick the topics they want to learn more about, and it's always interesting to see what they pick. We've studied the book of Job, how to make Jesus part of our everyday lives and Revelation and the end times, all because it was something they didn't know much about. A couple of weeks ago one of our girls picked Noah's ark. I made a comment recently that there were more than two of some animals on the ark, and the crowd literally went wild. Oh no, Mrs. Laura, it's two-by-two! So in the interest of Bible truth and accuracy, I made a whole lesson for them about Noah, the ark and the flood.  Here are just a few of the points we talked about that go well beyond the kindergarten version everyone remembers - how many of them did you know? 1. In His anger, God reduced man's age from hundreds of years to 120 years. (Genesis 6:3) 2. Gopher wood was probably Cyprus wood, and pitch was a coating to water-seal the ark. (Genesis 6:14) 3.

Our youth group started a five-lesson series on love this week, and it's already been such a blessing. We talked Wednesday night about several verses describing the love of God and how His love is so very different from human love. I love opening their eyes to new truths in Scripture, showing them the little details they've never seen before. And, of course, I had to spoil them with gift bags! The bags are filled with all kinds of little treasures, each one with a story about God's love or a message of Christian love. But I would never just hand them a bag of stuff, so I made gift bag toppers to dress them up a bit. I start by cutting a piece of colored card stock slightly bigger than the zip on the baggie. Then I cheat and round up to an easy number. Remember that I'm mass producing these for several bags, so easy is better. After cutting the long edge, I measure again so there is enough card stock to fold over and have a good-sized space to decorate. I usually eye-bal

There's a long list of things I'd like to try in the kitchen at least once in my life. I want to make flatbread from scratch, tur-duck-en, egg noodles like I grew up with, desserts that look like other kinds of food and fudge in every possible flavor imaginable. Making and baking a marble cake was on that list, too, but now I can scratch it off. And it's so much easier than I thought it would be.  I chose yellow and chocolate cake batters and prepared them according to the box directions. Then I scooped each batter into an 8-inch round cake pan, alternating colors so there were six scoops in each pan. One top of each batter I scooped the opposite color, making two layers in opposite colors, then added a third layer alternating again, using up the last of the batter. And, seriously, all it takes to make the marble effect is dragging a butter knife all the way through the batter from side to side. These beautiful, feathery swirls bake into a gorgeous marble cake. The two cake