Michele Cushatt's Blog, page 7

When Mother’s Day Is More Than You Can Handle

Today’s guest post is not only about a tender topic that is close to my heart, but it is written by someone I love and respect. Mikkee Hall is both a friend and a colleague. She’s worked with my team for more than two years now. But more than experiencing her talents, its been my privilege to to experience her heart. Of all the people who could write a Mother’s Day post filled with both the joy and pain of the day, I couldn’t think of anyone who could do it with more sensitivity and h...

The Gap of Christian Women Leaders — And What We Can Do About It

She asked me the question during a coaching call. Her coaching call. She’s a leader, responsible for speaking into the lives of thousands of other women. I was supposed to be asking her the questions. Instead, she turned the tables and put me in the hot seat:

Where do you see yourself in five years? What do you want to be doing then?

It’s a great question, one I’ve asked in coaching calls for years. It’s about vision, goals, and being intentional about the direction you’re headed and what n...

What a Late Night Uber Ride Can Teach Us About Calling

The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. —Oswald Chambers, My Upmost For His Highest

After eight days of non-stop travel and speaking, I couldn’t wait to walk in my front door. I fantasized about crawling underneath my flannel sheets and sleeping for days. Don’t get me wrong: I love what I do—this career and calling. And those days of invest...

Grit and the Hard Work of Never Giving Up

It’d been his plan since grade school. As proof, I have a note in my Bible with a pencil-drawn airplane in little-boy script. He drew it for me after a field trip to the Denver Museum of Science & Nature where he marveled at model airplanes. He wanted to go to the United States Air Force Academy. And he wanted to fly.

For the past 20 years, we’ve lived forty-five minutes from the Academy. We know about the stringent requirements, the scant number of applicants that actually get in, the grit n...

Living the Risen Life

I’ve thought about him a lot this week, in spite of the two thousand years that separate us. We have similar stories, I guess you could say. The unexpected illness. The brush with death. The risen life on the other side. There is only one stark difference: Lazarus died. I didn’t.

His wasn’t a momentary death, a stopped heartbeat followed by a quick resuscitation. Instead, Lazarus spent a solid four days dead. A long weekend, you could say. Long enough to jump on a plane and get a decent tan o...

The Story Behind the New Website

A Christian community is therefore a healing community, not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for a new vision. Mutual confession then becomes a mutual deepening of hope, and shared weakness becomes a reminder to one and all of the coming strength… Thus ministry can indeed be a witness to the living truth that the wound, which causes us to suffer now, will be revealed to us later as the place where God intimated a ne...

3 Questions to Ask Before Offering Advice

Her Facebook post was meant to be humorous, not a solicitation for advice. Instead, a comedic head-nod to all the new-year weight-watchers who were already weary of salad. Which was just about everyone.

Thus she posted a hilarious quip from her recent class on weight and healthy living. A way to diffuse her very real and ongoing battle against weight and help fellow strugglers to find a little laughter along the way.

I smiled when I saw it. She’s one of my funniest friends, always finding...

A Worship That Costs Everything

I sat in the fourth row from the front, right hand side of the center aisle. The lights of the church’s worship center had been dimmed while white-hot spot lights flooded a stage filled with musicians.

There was a time I’d been one of them, not all that long ago. A pianist and vocalist, often the worship leader or soloist.

But not today. Not anymore.

I felt the familiar sting with the memory, but pushed it back down, like packing up last night’s leftovers in Tupperware.

Nope, don’t go ther...

When You Have No Idea What to Do Next

A Guest Post by Lynn Cowell

Today I’ve invited a friend to dive into raw and difficult subject, one that sits painfully close to my heart. Her willingness to expose the complicated pieces of her own story lends you and I courage to authentically wrestle with our own. And the longer I live this undone life, the more grateful I am for such bold women. Please welcome Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker, author and my friend,

Lord, this feels bigger than me. I need Your help.

Even as I type, I can...

Best Of Books: 2017 Edition

Merry Christmas, friends. Advent has begun, the days of preparation for the coming of our Salvation. Jesus, our God WITH us. But although this is certainly Good News, I know there are many who struggle to celebrate this season. In other words, Christmas is complicated. I know, because I’ve been there. In case you missed my last post, I’ve put together an I Am Christmas Bundle for loved ones who need to know they are not alone. It includes an autographed copy of the I Am devotional, scriptu...