Lara Love's Blog, page 393

When Bad Advice Sounds Good

The advice sounded good when I got it. I can't say I liked the advice; I did not. But it sounded good enough for me to follow. So I did. But there was a problem. A major one. My job isn't to follow human advice. I'm supposed to follow Jesus. So where did I go wrong? Hard question, huh? No, actually it's plain and simple. Do you remember what Solomon in the Old Testament prayed for? Wisdom from God. And do you know what the Bible teaches in the Book of James? To ask God for wisdom because He g...

A Doggone Lesson - SHUT UP CUPCAKES

When a dear friend shared with me how much she wished Cupcakes would shut up sometimes, I couldn't help but think of how many lessons, and reminders, I have learned from God in this very manner. But before you think I've gone over the edge, let me explain. Cupcakes is a dog, and my friend wouldn't mind a little more peace and quiet sometimes. After all, Cupcakes wouldn't know what to do with herself if she stopped barking for more than a few minutes. I should know. I am the one who rescued he...

What Are You Holding Back?

Ever heard of Ananias and Sapphira? When it was time to sell their possessions and to give the proceeds to the apostles to be distributed among everyone along with everyone else's giving, guess what they did. They held some of it back. The must have figured their possessions belonged to them, and apparently forgot all that we have belongs to the Lord. Do you know what happened when their sin against God was discovered? They dropped dead.

Somehow we get it in our human heads that our bodies, an...

Goodbye Darkness

Are you walking in the dark? Stumbling and crashing into stuff? Wondering why you can't get anywhere you're trying to go? Finding yourself on the ground more than upright, metaphorically speaking? Why exactly are you walking in the dark? You don't think you have fellowship with God in the dark, do you? Or with anyone else, right? Jesus doesn't live in the dark. He is the light of the world.

photo courtesy of pixabay.comDo you know what happens when you choose to come into the light, confessing...

The Man Who Beat His Breast

I know. It probably sounds just as crazy as all the other stuff going on in the news these days, right? But if you had seen what I saw as I watched the man beating his breast, maybe you would understand why I think this is so worthy of front page news. It's not every day you see a man beating his breast in public, is it? To top it all off, the guy kept his eyes to the ground as though he had no intent whatsoever of drawing attention to himself. Or maybe he was ashamed. He just couldn't look u...

The Big POOP Faith Lesson

There is nothing quite like a lesson in a big pile of poop, is there? Sniff, sniff. Yuck. Just as I sat down in the sunshine with my laptop to write about my lesson in a pile of poop, wouldn't you know. There it is again. Another pile of it. Poop, that is. Now I'm not talking about my life, which in fact for many years didn't seem to amount to much more than a big mountain of it. Poop, to be quite frank. Nor am I speaking of the poop pile I just located about two feet to the rear of my little...

The Other Side of YUCK!

The grass may always be greener on the other side, but what in heaven's name is on the other side of YUCK! Huh? Before you think I've lost it, let me grab your attention for just a few minutes and see what you think. Can you relate? Have you ever felt so stuck in the YUCK of a situation, or circumstances, in your life that you simply can't see past it, around it, under it, over it, anywhere but right smack stuck in the YUCK of it? Well, there is another side of YUCK, and I am a self-professed...

The Danger of Happiness

I sought happiness to no end, and therein was the problem. Whatever happiness I found, no matter the measures I took to find it and regardless of where I found happiness, it was always ephemeral. Fleeting. Temporary. The happiness I found  always came to an end, and it always does, doesn't it? For happiness is contingent on people, places, and things, and all of this slips through our hearts and fingers because that is the nature of life on earth. Always changing, and ultimately always c...

Don't Follow Your Heart

"Just follow your heart," my mother told me over the telephone, giving me what she called her dime-store psychology. Little did she know how many times I would come to her through the ensuing years with my sob stories of unrequited "love". Suffice it to say her well meaning advice, shared by zillions of people who subscribe to this advice of following one's heart, was not in any way, shape, or form what I needed to do. I didn't need to be told to follow my heart. I needed to be told this: Don...

Are You Missing God's Beauty?

Have you ever gotten so caught up in what you’re thinking, and what you’re doing, and what you think you should be doing, that you woke up one moment, or one morning, to realize you had been missing God’s beauty? This sweet spring morning, ripe with chit-chatty birds, lazy sunshine rising and shining, happy green grass stretching its arms with a yawn, and plenty of dogs bee bopping around the ever growing yard, I was caught up as is so often the case in my endless stream of thoughts. 
pho...