Bridget A. Thomas's Blog, page 12

Jehoshaphat’s Story – Facing a Battle

Last week I mentioned that we are going to walk through Jehoshaphat’s story found in 2 Chronicles 20:1-30.

Today we are going to focus on verses 1-2: “After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).”

This story starts off with a bit of drama. Jehoshaphat was notifi...

Jehoshaphat’s Story – Introduction

Worry, anxiety, fear, stress, dread. Do these emotions sound familiar? For some of us they are a constant companion. For others, they might just be an acquaintance. But no matter who you are, we have all felt these emotions at some point. And I think we all can agree that these emotions are not fun.

Often times these feelings come when we are facing something difficult in life. However, even when things are going well in our lives, the world around us can bring us down. From tragic reports on...

Don’t Give Up

The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though He may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

My husband and I have two favorite college baseball teams. One is my alma mater. The other is located in the town where my husband was born, and they are close to where we live now. Currently we are in the midst of the College World Series. The eight best teams in the country go to the World Series. My alma mater didn’t make it, but our...

Putting Jesus First

I’m a librarian at heart. I worked at the public library when I was in high school and I worked at the university library when I was in college.

When I went to college, I picked a school that had Library Science as an offered major. However, when I began my college courses, I was told that my university wasn’t accredited in Library Science, so I shouldn’t bother choosing that major. I don’t know if it mattered, but I took the person’s word for it. And I can’t even remember who told me that no...

Stepping Stones

Last a Saturday, David at davidsdailydose.org wrote about Anxiety + Resiliency = Anxiliency! Yes, David’s new word will grab your attention. And I told David that I had to say it slowly at first. But with practice, it falls off the tongue smoothly.

In his post, David talked about Romans 5:3-4:

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

About six weeks ago I had to give a five mi...

Greater Is He

Several weeks ago I wrote about The Best Thing I Did All Year. In this post I included a prayer based off of a couple of verses found in the Psalms. When I was typing up that blog post, the enemy tried to stop me from sharing it. The words I typed randomly disappeared from the screen. It was absurd. Yet I persevered and was able to get the post written. I wrote the blog post a few days ahead of time, and scheduled it to be published on that Friday.

There was more to the story that I didn’t me...

Thankful for Prayer

Yesterday Matt over at Jesusluvsall posted about how he was Thankful Prayer Is Not Like Internet Connection.

The title of Matt’s post immediately grabbed my attention because I just happened to have connectivity issues while on an important meeting yesterday. It was frustrating and embarrassing. Thankfully the other participants on the call were understanding.

So the brilliant title of Matt’s post really struck me. And I appreciated the excellent points about prayer within the post as wel...

Trusting God With the Unexpected

We recently invested in storm doors for our home. But it was a bit of an ordeal. We ordered them from one of the big chain home improvement stores, and we also paid to have them installed. We were given a date of when the doors should arrive at the store. And we were told we would be contacted by someone to set up a time for the install.

The day arrived when the doors should have been in the store, but we never heard anything. My husband went down to the store and talked to them; however, the...

Surrounded by God’s Love

One of my dogs, Tucker, has separation anxiety. He thinks he should always be with his Mom and Dad. When we leave him home, he might bark, whine, howl, sulk, or all of the above. He seems to have a fear that we are abandoning him. Perhaps he wonders if we will ever come back home.

I talk to my dogs like they are people, meaning I try to explain things to them. They don’t always understand. But they do feel my tone of voice. And they are smart enough to remember what certain words mean.

Som...

Hold On

I have two dogs whose personalities are very different. Even when we are in the car, their personalities show. Buddy doesn’t move a muscle and sits as stiff as a statue. He is quiet; and you might even forget he is in the back seat. But Tucker paces from window to window, squealing and panting. He makes his presence known. (And make sure you wear a hat.)

When Tucker is in the car, since he is always on the move, I try to prevent him from taking a spill. When I need to stop or slow down, I app...