Conntecting the Dots

Posts Tagged: perspective

How to Remain Confident When We Feel Like Giving Up

How can we remain confident when we feel like giving up? By ignoring the little voice that feeds us doom and gloom. You know how it goes…. Worry whispers that inflation is going to make it impossible for us to pay the bills and we’ll soon end up a homeless statistic. Anxiety assures us that… [ read more ]

Choosing Our Perspective in Hard Places

  Life being what it is, we occasionally face tough situations over which we have no control. Every time this happens, we get to choose the perspective we want to hold: we can either focus only on what we see and understand, or we can focus on what we cannot see or understand. The first… [ read more ]

Splashes of Beauty Amidst the Mess

  On a trip to Kathmandu several years ago, a friend and I walked down a narrow dirt lane in a residential neighborhood. We skirted potholes and dodged piles of broken red bricks. The road was an eyesore, to say the least.   Then we came to a T-intersection, and that’s when we saw it:… [ read more ]

Bad News, Good News, and Hope

I recently read an article in which an author admitted never reading reviews about her books. Her reason? One negative review could send her into a downward spiral, cause her to question her calling as a writer, and make her feel as though she had nothing of value to say. She may have received a… [ read more ]

Jonah and the Pandemic

  What will Christmas look like for you? We had plans to celebrate Christmas this weekend with our son and our youngest daughter and their families, but pandemic restrictions changed everything. We’ve canceled those plans and will be home alone until the restrictions lift.   I suspect that most of you are in the same… [ read more ]

Is There Purpose for Our Pain?

  is a well-known promise for Christ’s followers: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”   When bad stuff happens to us or when life takes an unexpected (and sometimes unwelcome) turn, we recall this… [ read more ]

3 Keys to Surviving Life’s Hard Stuff

Life is flat-out hard sometimes. Stuff happens when we least expect it, and it can send us into a tailspin or drive us to our knees. Sometimes life’s tough stuff lingers much longer than we’d like. We tie a knot and hang on for dear life, but fear threatens to slip our grip. I’ve experienced… [ read more ]

God is Good—All the Time

  God’s sense of humor makes me smile, especially when the joke’s on me. I wrote the Bible study Forever Changed exactly a year ago, and now the weekly online Bible study group of which I’m a member has chosen to use it. So, here I am, a student of my own study—learning from the things… [ read more ]

Canceled Flights, Bedbugs, and Giving Thanks

    But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God. ( NLT)   I’ve just returned from a two-week mission trip that provided lots of opportunity to practice giving sacrificial thanks. The first came when our flight was… [ read more ]

Keeping Our Battles in the Right Perspective

  He prayed, “O LORD, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!” (NLT)   Terror filled King Jehoshaphat as a vast enemy army marched toward his kingdom. He responded… [ read more ]