Hungry Self
Have you ever gone to the grocery store hungry? Oh my gosh I have and it is not a pretty sight! Everything looks delicious and is what I need RIGHT NOW to fill my starving self! I throw all sorts of things into the cart that are calling my name from every aisle and my bill is always more than I had budgeted for. Of course, once you get in the car and rip open something and start to chow down you realize that shopping hungry might not have been the best idea or in your best interest. Did I really need those Hot Fries, Three Musketeers and Diet...
read moreLife is so messy, I can’t see the line!
The Sweetly Broken Workshop has a healing service as part of the 6 weeks we spend together and last week we had that service. It is always a time of worship, communion and prayer. I encourage those attending to look at all we have discussed over the last 4 weeks and start to make a decision to let go of the negative emotions they carry. To lay it down so they can move forward into the life God has for them. Well one sweet girl that was attending sent me this email…. “Thank you for the beautiful class last week, it was truly...
read moreMoment by Moment….
What a month and a half this has been. Life in FULL force on so many levels. It has been filled with celebrations, sadness, adjustments, laughter, tears and let me catch my breath moments. It is in times like this that I have to take pause to the littlest things that show me God is present in this whirlwind we call life. He was there last night when I was in a meeting…. I was feeling a bit tired and weary in the motherhood department, when a young lady I had not met before said she was in a young adults group with two of my big boys....
read moreYou are in TIME OUT!
After having 5 kids I have the “Time Out” thing down. I have had one or two that have been dragged to time out mad as hornets. Then some went crying and exhausted into time out, and one that all I had to do was look at them in a certain way and they would say “I know, I’m going to time out.” But one thing was for sure they all needed to be there to take a breather, to calm down and pause. As I was driving over to the beach the other day I started giggling thinking about how I was putting myself in a time out. You...
read moreJust Because We Could….Should We?
There is this great line out of the movie Jurassic Park that I have always loved. It is when the wonderfully eccentric (and I find very sexy) scientist played by Jeff Goldblum is talking to the owner/creator of the dinosaur park, Hammon. They are discussing the creation of the park and all the dino’s in it and Hammon is so excited about the amazing fact that it could be done. Then the challenging scientist says…” Yeah, yeah, but you were so excited with the fact that you could, you never took the time to think if you...
read moreMixed Bag of Loved Nuts
Coming off a vacation in the mountains with the FAMILY, (and we are not just talking about the ones I birthed but grandparents, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, firsts and seconds, maybe even a once removed or by marriage FAMILY), always gives births to a mental therapy session. I happened to be driving in the car with my niece as the “SESSION WAS IN PROCESS” and I said to her, ” You just have to take the good and the bad with a big family, it’s a mixed bag of NUTS.” And her response was, “I feel a...
read moreSummer Showers….Let it RAIN!
The other day I was thinking about a powerful moment I had on a mission trip I took to Panama with my son Andrew. It had been a long hot day, no air conditioning of course and showers were limited at the base camp we were at. We had come together in this small outdoor pavilion for worship after dinner. As Andrew led us in worship the wind started to picked up due to a thunderstorm brewing. The breeze felt refreshing and cool against our warm dirty bodies. Then as we began to sing Grace Like Rain it started to pour. AHHH…..Relief in so...
read moreA Summer Love Affair
This summer I have started a wonderful love affair with a new author named Barbara Brown Taylor. A reading love affair that is, but one of the best in a while. Over the years I have stumbled across different writers that just connect with me in a very soulful way. John Ortberg, Carl Hiassen, Henri Nouwen, Joan Borysenko and Wayne Muller to name a few. These authors captured me with their words and called my name on hot lazy summer days. Their writing was so delicious that it was like sitting down to a great meal of comfort food that leaves...
read moreSwinging Doors….
Whenever I am waiting for an answer to something, I start to think of all the doors that have opened and closed in my life over the years, and boy have there been a lot! Some, I never thought would swing open, while others slammed shut and left me hunkered down wondering “Why? What am I to do now?” But as I have “grown up” ( if you can call it that, I just like it better than “grown old”), I can see how important it is to stay settled in the fact that all I really want is God’s will in my life. His...
read moreThe Game of LIFE
The other night after a speaking engagement I came home and took Sunshine for a long walk. It had been a long day and I needed some down time to clear my thoughts. It was a beautiful summer night around 8:30 and there was even a slight cool breeze and a full moon on the rise. We got up to the baseball field in our neighborhood and played chase for a bit then both plopped down in the middle of the field. Happy, tired and done for the day. As always I was pondering life. Really the “game” of life and what a game it is…. We...
read more
Merrill Is a mother of 5 who has found her calling in sharing her experiences from life with others. She can help you break out of your routine to live life to its fullest potential.