Gwendolyn Harmon's Blog: Learning Ladyhood, page 2

Too Soon

Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” There is no temptation we will face that Jesus doesn’t already know how to handle with victory. One encouraging and enlightening passage God has given us in the Bible is the account in Luke 4 of Satan’s attempts to tempt Jesus to sin. Seeing how Jesus responded to temptation helps you and I as we face temptations in our own life.

There is much I could mention from that passage, such as the fact that Jes...

Big Picture, Small Steps

As Christians, we are called to live life with our eyes on Christ. We live with a sense of purpose, the wideness of eternity ahead and a great harvest of lost souls all around.

But living out the big picture of God’s purpose and promise requires us to take small steps.

Sometimes the steps seem more significant than others. Sharing the gospel with a neighbor seems more important than tying a little one’s shoe or choosing to be kind and cheerful to the cashier in a slow checkout line at the store—...

What the Lord Knows

One of the delights of a new schoolyear is getting to share truths about God with a brand new bunch of children, some of whom might never have heard before that God is all-wise, all-loving, all- powerful, and eternal. And of course, as I teach them, I remind myself of those same truths.

There’s something about speaking those truths out loud to others that never fails to drive them deep into my heart all over again. But this year, I had already been reminded of the amazing truth of God’s omniscie...

An Uncluttered Heart

There’s nothing quite like walking into my classroom the morning of parent orientation. It is clean, quiet, and peaceful. Everything is in its place, and the only remaining clutter is safely tucked away behind the doors of my storage cabinet.

When the students arrive for the first day of school, they will bring with them supplies, jackets, lunch boxes, and a few of their little treasures that inevitably end up on my desk. That kind of “clutter” is natural, an unavoidable byproduct of having stud...

The Lord is Good in Your Waiting

“The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.” Lamentations 3:25

Do you like waiting? Neither do I. This verse has been a comfort to me over the years, but I recently realized I had been making an assumption about God’s goodness that isn’t at all what this verse is meant to convey.

You see, I read this verse, and was comforted to think that God is good, that someday whatever it was I was waiting for would come, or the wait would be over, and then I would see God’s g...

Embracing Your Season

This week is a somewhat abrupt transition from one season of life to another. Normally, I take a week or two before my teacher work begins to get my classroom set and get my mind (and heart) settled into the fact that a new schoolyear is about to begin. But this week, I went from a book launch, to a three-day writing trip, followed by the first day of teacher inservice—all in just one week!

The book launch was a lot of work, or rather, a lot of details and decisions, and by the time the launch e...

Wisdom from Above

Does it seem to you like there is a lot of bitterness, envying, and strife running rampant in the world at large right now? It might seem that there are more of these things in our world today than ever before, and that this is all something new, but that simply isn’t true. The Bible shows us many examples of people acting out of bitterness, envy, and strife throughout Scripture—these aren’t new problems for the human race.

But even when it seems these things are on the rise, Christians are not ...

A Lesson on Prayer from Psalm 25

As you might already know, I’m journaling my way through the Bible, and am currently working through the book of Psalms. As I read through Psalm 25 this week, I was struck by the focus of David’s prayer. He begins with what’s right in front of him, with the situation and enemies he is facing:

“Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

O my God, I trust in Thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgre...

When God Says “Return”

Genesis 16

Last Sunday, my pastor mentioned a verse in passing that suddenly stood out in a new way. It was a detail in the account of Hagar. You probably remember that Hagar was Sarai’s servant, and that Sarai had decided Hagar would be the one to bear the son God had promised, since Sarai herself had not been able to conceive. There is no doubt that this situation was wrong from the very beginning, and Sarai’s plan stemmed from not believing God would fulfill His promise, or at least not believ...

Faith and Failure

John 14 is one of those chapters I find myself coming to again and again. Jesus’ words are just so full of comfort:

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” (v.1)

But that verse does not stand alone—neither does the chapter. It is part of a bigger conversation, in which Jesus spoke those specific words in reply to something Peter said. Look at what comes just before those words of comfort:

“Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou?

Jesus answered him, Whi...