Robin Gilbert Luftig's Blog, page 9
January 30, 2024
Consider it Pure Joy
If you are a women’s ministry director, pastor, or event planner, prayerfully consider booking me for Consider it Pure Joy.
In Consider it Pure Joy, I use God’s promises and my own experiences–sprinkled with a dash of humor–to show that joy can be experienced during some of life’s most tragic circumstances. Dates are available during the spring and through to the fall. Several positive reviews can be found on the speaker’s page scroll. Topics can also be customized to meet an event’s specific need or theme.
If you're a women’s ministry director, pastor, or event planner, prayerfully ponder booking me for Consider it Pure Joy.
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I look forward to hearing from you! Just email me at robin@robinluftig.com if you have any questions.
While You’re Here …
Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget the other finds on my Book page. There’s something for everyone. Fiction and Non-fiction. Testimonial and devotional.
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January 23, 2024
What to Do with Dreams
Dreams–those unjointed, sometimes whacky thoughts that dance through our brains while we sleep–can plague many a night. Or other times they bring comfort. Reassurance or premonitions of things to come. Seriously, what are we to do with dreams?
Being chased as your legs are stuck is a prevalent bad dream (nightmare). Other examples of nighttime terrors are: being late, not being prepared for an exam, or missing an important event. ACK! These make me break out in a sweat just thinking about them. Yet God, in his complete love, directs us how to deal with unsettling dreams.
Psalm 91:3-6 tells us:
Surely he will save youfrom the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
… Or are they good?
Scripture offers samples of God speaking to prophets in dreams. Jacob’s dream of a stairway for angels to and travel to/from heaven made perfect sense. Or how about when an angel spoke to Joseph and Mary found favor with God and was with child, or to flee to Egypt because of Herod’s desire to kill him? Don’t overlook the comfort given in Acts 2:17.
Are Dreams Just Strange?In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams …
Whether dreams are random thoughts our brain is trying to clean out or they’re premonitions of things to come, consider seeing your dreams with a new perspective. Instead of trying to understand them, pray for what you see.
After waking, my morning prayer starts with, “Father, thank you for the opportunity to wake up to see this new day. Bless those who were in my thoughts while sleeping, even if I don’t know them or even remember the dream. And Lord, if the dreams were wrapped in evil, please protect me and banish that ugliness from me.”
Was it the late-night pizza or a true premonition? How do you deal with dreams?
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After I began praying over my dreams … those people I never knew, places I never traveled to, and the situations I never experienced … the strangest thing began to happen. I found myself waking with a new energy. A positivity I didn’t know I lacked until I saw the hole in its deficiencies. And my nightmares stopped.
Now, I look forward to dreaming again. Will it be a speckled horse I ride in on or will I be in a house with a circular excellator? I never know. But what I do know is that God is standing guard over my dreams.
And that, dear friend, is a great feeling to take with me when I sleep.
What say you?
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
The post What to Do with Dreams appeared first on Robin Luftig.
January 16, 2024
News on Ladies Uncover a Secret
I’m super excited to share that Ladies Uncover a Secret is now available in audible format. Christy Lou, the narrator, captured the essence of the story.
Want a reminder?
Here’s a brief recount of Ladies Uncover a Secret.
She’d known her family hid secrets. Will she ever learn the truth?
It’s 1972 and Fiona Kasey-Boyd is living her dream life in Shaker Heights, Ohio. She’s married to a wonderful, successful man and eight months pregnant with his child. So, why is she wracked with sadness? Is she suffering from the baby blues or from deep-seated resentments from her childhood?
Fiona decides to visit her childhood home in Applegate—a quick trip before the baby arrives. Surely reconnecting with her friends Lily-Rose Prembrick and Sugar Bowersox will brighten Fiona’s mood. But their time in Applegate is cloaked in mystery. Fiona’s childhood guardian-like figure, Miss Fergie, refuses to answer Fiona’s questions. Her mother is secretive. Her brothers, hostile.
Only the power of friendship can help Fiona face the darkness found in family secrets.
Leaning on her Ladies of the Fire friends for strength and clarity, Fiona seeks to unravel the secrets of the past. Will learning the truth heal Fiona’s heart or break it?
Reviews of Ladies Uncover the Secret“Compelling is the word for Ladies Uncover a Secret. The further you get into it, the less you want to put it down. You find yourself caring deeply about these characters and wanting to know more about how they handle what life throws at them. The first book of the trilogy is Ladies of the Fire, and though it’s not necessary to read it first, I recommend it (it’s also terrific!). It lays a great foundation for some of the characters and how they care about and relate to each other.”
There's News on Ladies Uncover a Secret. The second book in the Ladies series has gone audible! Great for a road trip listen.
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Want to see how it all began?
Can a woman on the run find herself again?
Ladies of the Fire brought us to the late 1960s as we met the newly-widowed Lily-Rose Pembrick reeling as she fled Lincoln, Nebraska, with her children. Only taking the cash from the house safe and what she could get her hands on at the family bank, she left the recently-inherited and successful Pembrick Transportation company behind. Exhausted from driving all night, she stopped in Applegate, Ohio, and decided to start a new life on Norwood Street. There, she met Fiona Kasey, an African-American no-nonsense housekeeper/companion to an elderly white woman, and Sugar Bowersox, a Southern spitfire who has lost herself in motherhood.
Together, they enjoyed Lily-Rose’s backyard fire pit, where dreams were spoken and secrets revealed. As they embraced a kinship they never would have sought, Lily-Rose began thinking her past could finally be laid to rest—until someone ended up dead.
Check out the other Robin Luftig books at https://robinluftig.com/books/
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January 9, 2024
Closer Than Family, Then We Weren’t
Bonnie (not her real name) was my best friend from days long gone by. We were incredibly close; our lives were so in sync. We were pregnant at the same times, liked the same herbal teas, and even went back to college as non-traditional students during the same season in our lives. We were connected at the hip. When one came up with a thought, the other finished it. We had a wonderful friendship–closer than family.
Unfortunately, Bonnie and I also dealt with similar compulsions in our lives at the same time. When I filed for divorce to start a new life, she did the same. I began steeping in my dysfunction, not realizing the harm I was causing myself. And as a good (and compulsive) friend, Bonnie came right along.
As we entered another season, she and I were still inseparable. We scheduled our children’s visitation evenings on the same nights so we could go out and enjoy ourselves, painting the town red. Life was our oyster. We were two young-ish women looking for attention and enjoying all that we received. There was no limit to what was before us.
When Closeness EndsBut, as scripture warns, we enjoyed the “pleasures of sin for a season”. Slowly our lives began to fall
apart as sin filled our lives. Bonnie and I began spending time with people we never should have met, doing things we never should have done … going to places we never should have visited. This, in turn, led to making choices—different choices—we never should made. In the middle of our wallowing in muck and mire that was due to these choices, Bonnie and I severed our friendship. Of course, we remained civil with each other. But the bonds we now shared were our hidden secrets. And these secrets had the potential to be weapons that could do great harm if shared indiscriminately.
I moved from the area where Bonnie and I lived and as it always does, life moved on. Years later I found myself on my knees, asking God to take over my mismanaged life, and was thrilled that his grace was waiting for me. My walk with Christ began filling me with wonder and awe of how he loved me completely … watched me walk away … then forgave me totally when I changed my course in life and asked for forgiveness.
A few years later I had the opportunity to return to the town where Bonnie and I had lived. While there, happened to I walk into a fast-food restaurant. There. I saw a young man who I knew immediately to be Bonnie’s son; his features reflected his mother’s so strikingly that I had to ask and confirm if Bonnie was his mother. Yes, he said, shyly … how did I know her?
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Galatians 6:7
I briefly shared how she and I had spent some time together years ago. I gave him my cell phone number and asked him to have his mom call me. I was so excited about having the opportunity to chat with Bonnie. I had been spending lots of healing time in scripture and embracing God’s Word. The thought of offering an amend to my friend thrilled my heart. I wanted so desperately to share my new life with her. We had always been like two peas from the same pod and I knew when she heard me share Christ’s love to her, she’d get it, too.
But her call never came.
How Can This Be?I thought maybe Bonnie’s son misplaced my note, so I called her number … the same phone number from all those years earlier. No one answered, so I left a message on the voicemail I recognized from years earlier, asking her to give me a call. I had lots to share with her. Wonderful, glorious news of how Christ healed my life.
But again, the call never came. Then I realized it would probably never come. She wanted nothing to do with me.
Those secrets from years ago … the ones Christ freed me from … could they still be controlling her? Just because I found peace in truth didn’t necessarily mean that she found it, too. I had faced demons and shared all my ugly past with the people who mattered—my new husband as well as trusted friends—and experienced a peace that can only come from trusting a God bigger than me.
What happens when you're closer than family, then you aren't? What kills friendship faster than anything?
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I then realized that Bonnie had the right to not want to hear my amend; that she had the right to not accept the new forgiven me. If she wanted to hang onto her memories of me … that was her right.
To this day, it saddens me to think that “sin for a season” had the power to destroy the great friendship that Bonnie and I shared. But it did. Was it my sin, her sin, our sin … who can say? But the truth is, it was sin.
Consequences of SinI have few regrets in my life. I have offered everything to God and it has been important that every part of my life be directed to glorify him. Even the ugliest parts. But if I had the chance to take anything back … if I could have a do-over … I would fix my relationship with Bonnie. I miss her and I can only hope that she renewed her relationship with Christ as I have.
Seasons come and go. I was reminded this morning that as one season closes another season begins. It is January, and although it is still cold in Central Pennsylvania, the days are getting longer. This reminds us that another Winter season will soon come to an end and a fresh Spring season will greet us soon.
Just as it should be.
(originally shared 2/21/2012)What say you?
A Note from Robin
Being transparent isn’t always easy. But it’s necessary to heal. If you need to share the weight of past seasons in your life with someone, please write me.
robin@robinluftig.com
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
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January 2, 2024
How Are We Doing?
The partying schedule is over. The calendar has turned to a new year. It’s the second day of the new year. New days are waiting for us with open arms. We have our list of what will make our lives better in the new year firmly in your grip. So … how are we doing?
New Year’s resolutions rarely stick to our lives past February. We may have the best of intentions … and what we want to do can be great for our lives … but we mustn’t set ourselves up for failure. Perfectionism is a killer of anything positive. Do what we can and congratulate ourselves on a job well done.
Last year is behind us. Learn from it, but leave it there. Maybe it was a great year for you … congratulations. That doesn’t mean this year will be the same. We need to focus on the good days ahead. Anticipate a wonderful year. But know God’s plans are not always our plans. I’m sure we can all look around and see people whose lives were crushed in an instant. Conversely, if last year was the worst year ever, this year could be your time to shine.
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.
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What all that means is this: Life is a gift. We’ve done nothing to earn it. Love it. Love others in it.
Jesus Knew We’d StruggleJesus knew we’d struggle. Read the comfort he offers in Luke 12:22-26.
Here’s My Plan“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”
Between you and me, I had some horrific experiences last year, but I had some of the sweetest as well. And I am grateful for them all. I’m choosing to take the lessons I learned into 2024. If I stumble along the way I know how to regain my footing. I know very well that experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. That’s a win-win, right?
Let’s love ourselves in 2024. Embrace the experiences coming our way. If we can do that, when we’re asked how we’re doing, we can then smile and say fantastic.
Does that seem too lofty or out of reach? Drop me a note. Let’s chat.
What say you?
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
The post How Are We Doing? appeared first on Robin Luftig.
December 26, 2023
Preparing for 2024 Goodness
Christmas 2023 is behind you. As we look forward, do you remember the 2023 Jar of Goodness challenge? Last year I challenged you to start keeping a Jar of Goodness–a plain jar with a screw lid where you slip in notes of simple goodness. The notes were to be reminders of what made you smile during the year. The jar need not be anything flashy or delightful. The focus is not on the holder but on what you put in it that brought you moments of happiness. Now, I’m going to challenge you to prepare for 2024 goodness.
I put out the call–who would look for the positive, not the negative. Who would take a moment starting January 1 to write down a thought or two, a reminder of what brought you a smile? Then, on December 31st you were to open the jar and revisit all those tiny moments of joy.
If you missed it
If you missed keeping a Jar of Goodness in 2023, try it this year. Is your life a wreck now? Maybe you think 2024 will bring nothing positive. Between you and me, my 2023 was the most challenging I ever experienced. Maybe over a cup of coffee sometime I’ll tell you about it.
As 2023 comes to an end, consider preparing for the 2024 Goodness that's waiting for you, right around the corner.
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I challenge you again to consider it. It’s one of our highlights for New Year’s Eve. Lew and I look forward to hunkering down with a charcuterie board filled with goodies and opening the jar of memories.
If you kept it
If you kept a jar, let me know how New Year’s Eve goes. Let me celebrate with you all the wonders and goodness that were sprinkled through your year.
Are you secretly afraid you’ll be disappointed? Don’t be! If you look for good experiences to write about and put in the jar, you’ll find them. I promise you!
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
Trying to remember good happenings can be difficult, but give it a try. Grab a jar and get ready. We all need good memories. If what has happened in 2023 makes you think you need a bit of help, then go for it. Who knows, once you get into it, you may find you’ll need a taller jar!
What say you?
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
The post Preparing for 2024 Goodness appeared first on Robin Luftig.
December 19, 2023
From Long Ago
This is such a busy time of year. Shopping, wrapping, planning menus, and the “Oh, no, I forgot’s” … come to mind. Honestly, I need to force myself to pause and take a moment to reflect on Christmases from long ago.
When I was young
It’s hard for my kids to realize I was a child once. Do youngsters turn their heads when you tell them you weren’t always who you are now? Often, they cannot comprehend my life as anything other than that of a mother or grandma.
But I saw magic during Christmases of long ago.
Is Christmas still magical or just hectic? We can pull those feelings from long ago back into our lives once again.
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While Christmas lights still shine brightly these days, there’s something about those old lights. Their magical glow has yet to be matched. And the heat that those bulbs threw off! (Did you ever burn yourself on one of the big lights?)
But that magical glow couldn’t match the feelings in the air when I walked down the main street of my small northwest Ohio town. Songs crackled through store speakers. Folks laughed as they greeted one another. And if we were lucky, snow scrunched underfoot.
Were We Different Long Ago?
Is it the memory of a child, or were we different back then? People stopped what they were doing to celebrate Jesus. Even those who didn’t routinely go to church entered the doors of their local place of worship to honor the Baby King. Work was put on hold. Families came together to eat, laugh, and tell stories.
I choose to take from the past that makes my present better. Laughter’s good. Spending time with family is good, too. There may be hurts that need to be addressed, but what better time to do so than while celebrating alongside one another?
What say you?From our house to yours, may you
have a blessed and merry Christmas!
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
The post From Long Ago appeared first on Robin Luftig.
December 12, 2023
A Platter of Darkness
How are you doing this holiday season? Be honest … does Christmas this year seem like a platter of darkness served to you instead of turkey or ham? Wars in the streets. Youngsters are confused. Ugliness is everywhere.
But there’s more
Maybe your life was touched by a medical or relational trial. All can be daunting, especially when folks are singing about goodwill toward men. Depression can be magnified.
The Christmas holiday season doesn't have to be served as a Platter of Darkness. Prepare yourself for depression before it happens.
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I know these struggles … and I bet you do too. Maybe someone you love had a stroke and is learning to walk again. Or maybe you’ve lost someone–a spouse, friend, or even child–to a medical issue. How can you celebrate when all you feel is anger, resentment, or even worse–that void? You come across well-wishers with their cast-off platitudes:
“God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.”
“ That which doesn’t kill us will make us stronger.”
“You’re better off than you think.”
Really?These next few days may be strewn with land mines for depression. Walk through this season cautiously.
These next few days may be strewn with land mines for depression. Walk through this season cautiously.
With the proper planning and a support team around you, you can make it through.
Tell your closest friends you need their strength to get through the next few days.
Have them check on you a bit more than usual.
Write words that have power on note cards and put the cards in your pocket. When you find yourself slipping into a funk, pull out the card and give yourself a lifeline.
Holidays come, but they also go. Healing will continue. Pain will lessen. Live in the moment as much as you can, because really … that’s all we ever have.
What say you?
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
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December 5, 2023
Find the Christmas Spirit
Below is a post from Heather B. Iseminger, Chaplain for the Florida Christian Writers Conference. Let her words bless you as they blessed me.
Lights of Christmas illuminate the eves of homes and twinkle on evergreen branches in living rooms. Candles flicker as carols softly play in the background. But even while sipping hot chocolate sprinkled with peppermint, I find myself grasping to find the Christmas spirit.
It evades my heart.
In a personal season of chaotic to-do lists and ever-increasing responsibilities, I keep hoping for just a sliver of the peace we talk about while celebrating the birth of the Christ-child—God with us. A deep sigh escapes as I wonder where I’ve gone wrong, at what point did I stray from the path of joy.
Yet, in my grasping, God is still good.
He whispers one phrase into my ear over and over again. Mary said yes.
These three wordsThese three words have called to my heart throughout the last several Christmas seasons and beyond. I hear them in the baking of cookies, in the writing of exams, in the grading of essays, in the care and keeping of my family.
Mary said yes.
She boldly proclaims a resounding yes to the Father.
The mystery of her words, her uttered obedience without hesitation, her intense willingness to follow God in selfless devotion. I am inspired, and yet, also left feeling inadequate. How am I ever supposed to measure up?
Do you struggle to find the Christmas Spirit? Maybe you could shift your priorities from no to yes? That's what Mary did.
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It’s not that the men and women of Scripture are there to be our yardsticks of obedience and dedication. No. They were sinful, too. But theirs is also the legacy God used to bring us His Gospel. I look to the examples of these humans, with their flaws and faith, to help guide my choices.
But how?Mary’s yes often leaves me wondering how. How did she have the courage, the boldness, the conviction to agree to a task that could have left her outcast, without a husband, and even dead? Why was she able to give herself so freely and with such joy?
Because this was not Mary’s first yes to our God.
This single truth changes everything. We don’t get a glimpse of the full breadth of Mary’s life in the Bible, nor can we pull back the curtain on her daily sweeping of dirt floors and rolling out each morning’s bread. But we do know she loved her Creator. A living, breathing relationship with her heavenly Father is evident in her response.
She sings a song of praise to God—one that shows us her deep devotion to Him and her understanding of Jewish history. This young girl was a servant of the Heavenly Father. She must have said a thousand yeses to God before Gabriel approached her.
Maybe they were simple yeses, like not fighting with siblings or choosing contentment over grumbling as she did chores. Simple, everyday acts of obedience added up over the years of her young life—slowly preparing her to say one of the biggest yeses of Scripture.
So Mary teaches me. She teaches us.If we aren’t walking obediently in the small, simple ways of God, we are failing to prepare our hearts for the incredible ways God wants to use us. Far too often I am worried about what God may ask of me in the days to come instead of what God is asking me to do in this moment. The one I’m sitting in right now. I ignore countless opportunities to lean into Emmanuel. I give Him thousands of excuses in my exhaustion and my choices. Yet, if I practiced the intentional yes of making God my priority, I would better understand the how of Mary’s yes.
… if I practiced the intentional yes of making God my priority, I would better understand the how of Mary’s yes.
And in the practice of yes, maybe, just maybe grasping hold of Christmas wouldn’t be as difficult as I make it out to be. Because when I am walking side-by-side with Him, it is His peace, His joy, His love, His hope that sustains me. Even in the chaos, the darkness, the days of grief.
The truth is, Christmas exists every single day. Whether I feel it or not.
Mary reminds me that Christmas came in the form of a babe so small to give us the chance, the opportunity, to say yes—to say yes to the most incredible gift mankind has ever known.
As we pray this month for each other, may we graft ourselves into the Living Word and ask, “What am I doing right now to say yes to my Father?”
What say you?What do you wonder about? Are you happy … or are you doing what you never thought you’d do? Do you see consistencies … or are you all over the place? Drop me a line. I’d love to chat.
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
The post Find the Christmas Spirit appeared first on Robin Luftig.
November 21, 2023
It’s Time
This is the season when families get together; celebrating their special closeness. Unfortunately, so many families are splintered … feelings have been hurt over forgotten issues, and wearing a painted smile and staying close to the liquor cabinet are the best ways to deal. There’s more to Thanksgiving than sharing turkey. It’s time to make amends with one another; it’s a time for families to heal.
It wasn’t an accident that you were placed with your family. Either through birth or adoption, God’s plan put you there. Yet so many think they can improve that plan by putting up walls of unmet expectations and hurt feelings around their hearts.
“I don’t want to be hurt anymore.”“You don’t know what they did to me.”“We have nothing in common; it’s best we just keep our distance and live our lives apart.”While you may think statements like these and others make sense, let me say … as kindly as I can … they are all wrong!
If you have hurt someone, apologize. If you have been hurt, forgive. It wasn’t suggested by God, it is what he tells us to do:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
John 13: 34 (NIV)
Can I tell you a Secret?
Can I tell you a secret? Forgiveness is not my first go-to move. I struggle with it, like everybody else. However, when I take the focus off myself it’s a lot easier to do.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Matt. 5:23-24 (NIV)
I didn’t say it’s easy … I said it’s easier. Ouch!
Is It Time For Change?“… If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Luke 17:3-4 (NIV)
It may be difficult to accept, but Jesus died for the person you’re upset with or the person who’s upset with you. They have value. You have value. That value isn’t about you; it’s about our Heavenly Father.
Consider a do-over. How would this year’s Thanksgiving meal go if Jesus had a place at your table … between you and an estranged family member?
Think about it, and don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Have a Happy … and Healthy … Thanksgiving!
What say you?
What do you wonder about? Are you happy … or are you doing what you never thought you’d do? Do you see consistencies … or are you all over the place? Drop me a line. I’d love to chat.
Struggling to find good in your life? Check out my award-winning book, God’s Best During Your Worst, now in audible! And don’t forget to check out any of my other books on my Book page.
The post It’s Time appeared first on Robin Luftig.
