Lisa Brenninkmeyer's Blog, page 13

For Your Weekend: Two Types of Wisdom

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 16:21–27

You may not know this about me, but I am a royal watcher. I researched their scandals, followed their family drama, and even cried when Queen Elizabeth II died. You can imagine my delight when my children’s babysitter handed me a book with Kate Middleton’s face on it. My family and I were going to the Florida coast, and it would be the perfect beach read. 

I started reading the book and loved learning about Kate’s early life. However, someth...

For Your Weekend: The Hard Rock Life for Us

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 16:13–20

As I write this, I’m sitting on the banks of a river in West Virginia. We come here every year. Rising twelve feet from the middle of the river is a massive rock, seventy feet long by fifty feet wide. My kids and husband like to swim to the rock, climb it, and jump off it into the deep water below (I usually close my eyes for that part). Sometimes they’ll use kayaks and shuttle over towels and snacks to set up “camp” on their little island f...

Learning to Lean on God—Applying Proverbs 3:5–6 to Daily Life

I believe that America’s greatest idols are self-autonomy and self-reliance. It is all too easy for our identity to become wrapped up in ourselves—to be “self-made” women: 

to be the best at what we set out to do to have a “perfect” self-care regime to be that healthy #bossbabe who drinks eight glasses of water a dayto have an immaculately clean house while being a fully present wife and mother

Our culture feeds us the lie that we only need to listen to our “personal truth” (whatever that i...

For Your Weekend: Lessons from an Unlikely Source

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 15:21–28

In this week’s gospel, I have no doubt that if I had been the Canaanite woman, I would have been tempted to walk away from Jesus—offended and hurt. And yet this woman, a Gentile who does not know Scripture or Jewish tradition, has more faith than many of the people Jesus came to minister to. Perhaps, even more faith than I have.

We read in this passage from Matthew that a Canaanite woman begs Jesus to have mercy on her daughter who is suffer...

For Your Weekend: The Perfect Storm

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 14:22–33

We recently had some powerful summer storms come through our small Pennsylvania town. It was as though the skies opened up just seconds before I had to leave to pick up my youngest son from camp. I drive a big car, affectionately nicknamed “Big Mama” by my kids. Yet, the wind was so strong that I had to work to keep her on the road and not in a ditch. The perfect storm of torrential rain, high winds, falling tree limbs, hailstones, and flash...

How to Live the Abundant Life in John 10:10

One of my favorite verses in Scripture is John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I love that Jesus' desire for us is not merely to exist or cope with our circumstances but to live abundantly. It sounds so hopeful and exhilarating. But what is the abundant life? And how do we obtain it? Here are three practices I’ve found that have helped me to embrace this plan for my life. 

1. Identify the Thief
The verse that en...

For Your Weekend: Rocky Mountain Jesus High

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 17:1–9

A few years ago, my family and I spent a month volunteering at a youth camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Week after week, groups of teens would come from all over the West Coast for activities, talks, music, and fellowship. The weather was absolutely perfect, the people were amazing, and my faith grew exponentially. (Oh, and I never had to cook a single meal!) It was literally and figuratively a mountaintop experience for me. 

The original ...

A Future of Hope in Jeremiah 29:11

In the midst of uncertainty, when we do not know which path to take; during the seasons of our life when the seas are stormy, and Jesus appears to be sleeping in the boat; in times of darkness, when grief has a stronghold on our heart, there can be the temptation to doubt God’s goodness and love. Suffering, it seems, has the power to draw people more fully to God or to make individuals question His very existence. 

When we find ourselves in these situations, to what do we turn? 

In my life, I ha...

For Your Weekend: What Is Your Obsession?

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 13:44–52

During my senior year in college, I was laser-focused on achieving one thing: landing a television newsroom internship. I quickly discovered this would be a challenging task. Although I combed through my contacts and blustered the two local news stations near our campus with phone calls inquiring about internships, nobody would return my calls. So I drove my green, two-door car to the ABC-affiliate news station just up the road from the univ...

For Your Weekend: The Things We Can’t Fix

Dig Deeper into Sunday’s Gospel: Read Matthew 13:24–30

Fun fact: If you have seen the Walking with Purpose promo video, you have seen the inside of my home. What you cannot see are the English gardens this 1805 farmhouse rests on. As our real estate agent walked us through the grounds, two and a half acres dense with hydrangeas and lavender, I imagined potting perennials with the children in the greenhouse (yes, there was a greenhouse) and sipping lemonade in the gazebo after a long day of tilli...