Gwendolyn Harmon's Blog: Learning Ladyhood, page 16

The Path Beneath My Feet

In my part of the world, January and February tend to be dark, gloomy, rainy, and cold. The warm glow of Christmas time quickly dissipates, and it can be easy to let the gloom outside our windows darken our hearts as well.

The first week of January feels like a fresh start: it’s a time of new beginnings, new goals, new opportunities, but that newness wears off, and we find ourselves discouraged and apathetic.

This time of year, God often convicts my heart with the truth that His will is to be do...

Be Not Conformed

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)

This is probably a passage you are very familiar with, but as I listened to a sermon recently, I was struck by the point the preacher made: that you...

A Tale of Two Bible Reading Plans

Last January, I decided to break out of my normal pattern and buy a new study Bible. I had wanted to try the Reese Chronological Bible, but couldn’t find one anywhere, so I bought the A.W Tozer study Bible I found at my church’s bookstore.

Encouraged by the fact that my far-busier-than-I Sunday School teacher makes it through the Bible twice each year, I decided to give it a try. After all, if he could do it, maybe I could too!

In the process, I had the helpful opportunity of comparing two Bible...

This is Love

Earlier this week, I joined some people from our church to go Christmas caroling for some of our church family who are shut-in or otherwise unable to come to church. We do this every year, and I always look forward to it.

            Every year, one of my favorite stops is the home of a dear elderly lady for whom we have caroled for many years. She loves music, and always stood at her door with a great big smile, and always said we sounded beautiful—even on years when our group struggled to carr...

Christmas for the Lonely

Christmas is a season for rejoicing, but for many, it is a season of deep loneliness.

I myself have struggled with loneliness at Christmas over the years, particularly in my teens and early twenties when I flew through the season on the breathless possibility of somehow meeting “the one,” then experienced the disheartening thud of reality as Christmas arrived without the appearance of Prince Charming. But even in my younger years, whether from friction between family members as we frantically cl...

The Mystery of Christmas

Growing up, I devoured mystery stories. There is something about a puzzle that just beckons to be solved. Perhaps that is why, when I first came across the term “mystery” in a theological context, I balked.

It’s not so much the idea that there are things we don’t know that throws me—after all, mysteries are there to be solved. But mysteries in the theological sense are things we can’t fully know.  It’s all well and good to take certain things on faith, but the idea that we won’t ever be able to ...

The Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God

The amount of detail God puts into His Word never ceases to amaze me.

As a child, I often dismissed the words of elderly Christians who went on and on about how every time they read the Bible, they would discover something new. Now that I’m older and have read through the Bible many more times, I am beginning to see what they meant.

For example, I was listening to a sermon the other day as I drove home from church, and a detail popped out at me from the verse the preacher was reading. It was Rev...

From Thanksgiving to Christmas

I’ve often heard people voice dismay at how quickly we turn from the Thanksgiving to Christmas.

It is a little odd to have a big celebration one day, and then begin preparing for a different celebration right away. But I have noticed in recent years that the transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas, or Advent, as the case may be, is for the Christian a logical progression.

You see, we spend Thanksgiving celebrating God’s goodness to us in providing food, shelter, and fellowship with family and f...

Finding Thankfulness

The week before Thanksgiving is always busy. Between school, church, and family, it all seems like one big, hurried rush culminating in a day spent one one’s feet, hurrying to prepare food for the feast.

In all the bustle of preparations, I tend to forget just what it is we are preparing to celebrate. We in America are blessed indeed to have an entire day set aside to remind us to give thanks to God.

But gratitude towards God isn’t just for one day in the year; we are commanded in 1 Thessalonian...

A Change in our Perspective

When I go somewhere new, I become a stereotypical tourist. Every new thing delights and amazes me, as I annoy the people around me by exclaiming over everything that to them seems perfectly ordinary or insignificant.

But I am in good company, because in Mark 13:1, one of the disciples does this very same thing, exclaiming over the massive stones and majestic buildings of the temple:

 

“And as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples saith unto Him, Master, what manner of stone and what buil...