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Burst My Bubble!

April 8, 2016

God-is-at-workI typically attend a Lutheran church in a fairly well off area. We are a comfortable middle class family with two working cars. I don’t have to shop at a thrift store unless I want to. I don’t worry about how to pay the bills each month or what my kids are going to eat. Most of my friends are just like me.

I realize how blessed I am, but sometimes it can be hard to see God at work when I’m comfortable, safe and sound inside my bubble.

Last weekend I attended church with a friend in a town about four hours away. On Sunday morning we drove through some areas of town that compelled me to lock the car doors.

The service was not my usual liturgical style and worship was far from the typical hymns we generally sing. The ministry caters to recent parolees from prison. Many of the members live in church-owned trailers. Some are unemployed. Several have battled addiction to a variety of things nearly beyond my comprehension.

I was way outside my bubble.

Learn the rest of the story at CreativeInspirationsatMyMessyDesk.com.

Filed Under: Love at the Well

If you struggle with failure, let’s celebrate!

March 16, 2016

lightstock_105437_medium_christie-5To every woman who feels like a failure by March, I’ve got some news for you.  It’s your birthday!  It’s your birthday!  Sure is.  So Happy Birthday to you, to me, and to ALL Women at the Well. Because today this site is “officially born.” 

And to put a dollop of icing on the cake, it was birthed from failure.  Yep. Like every other New Year’s “resolutionist,”  I promised and double-dog dared myself to get the site up and running even before the New Year.  But I opened up the year like a worn out basset hound instead.

I started.  Stumbled. Stalled.  Started again.  Then I sat down at the Well.  And then I got down.  Down on myself and down on my dreams until it sent me once more down on my knees.

Remembering why I desired to have this sweet space of grace—in the first place.  Where women can gather—failures, flaws, falls, faults and all, at the Well of His Word.  Linking arms and touching hearts—together.  Loving. Believing. Living. Serving.  At the Well.

So I missed the mark, and my January and February plans were a complete and total failure.  But then came March, when The SONshine Box was to be featured in Guideposts Magazine with a link to THIS new blog and not my personal one.

Why on earth would I do that? Oh yeah, because God said to.  Be to others what you desire for yourself.  But “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  (Phill. 2:3-4)

March loomed and I nearly threw my hands up and gave up. Until women came to the rescue—and to the Well, led by Merri Dennis, my right hand woman at the Well, who installed the figurative curtains here and all the pretties, and everything else.

When I thought I blew it and before I even knew it, precious women trailed in to lend their stories, as warm and as welcoming to me as a counter full of rich casserole dishes and a table laid out with a rainbow spread of sweet savory treats.

And just in time.  When I finally held my Guideposts issue that held the inspiration for the SONshine Box and the faith for this blog—I wondered why God had me in the March issue.  This Easter month.  I sure didn’t plan it.

Then my eyes locked in on the date and the answer, as my mind sang out the first verse I’d memorized as a kid and clung to as an adult. The date read:  March 2016, or 3/16.   But to me, it read as a life-saving verse straight from God, found in John 3:16.  “For God so LOVED the world that he GAVE his one and only Son, that whoever BELIEVES in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

And today is a save-the-date straight from Heaven.  3/16/16.  Our birthday at The Well. When we remember God already has a plan in place when we miss the mark.

Reminding us that even when His creation was a complete and total failure in the beginning of time, He came to the rescue with a redeeming plan. Just in time.  The salvation plan of Jesus, and He never gave up on us.

He didn’t throw His hands up and give up.  Jesus threw His hands out, took the marks, and gave up His life so that we could have ours back. He came through for us so that through Him we can spend eternity in Heaven.

Now that’s worth a new birth celebration.   So WELLcome and come on in.  I’ll pour the water, warm the casseroles, no wait, let’s eat cake first.  After all, it’s our birthday.

And to continue the celebration of Women at the Well’s official launch, I’d love for you to share the birthday love on social media and subscribe to our weekly blog posts, if you haven’t already.

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One of our readers will also win a birthday gift bundle, including a turquoise Jesus Calling devotional, a coordinating 2016 planner (because it’s never too late to begin AGAIN), and an “It is Well” print. All you have to do to enter is follow the prompts on the giveaway link below. *This giveaway is open to our readers in the U.S. only. Women at the Well Birthday Gift

Filed Under: Believe at the Well, Live at the Well, Love at the Well, Serve at the Well

Dealing with Difficult People

March 9, 2016

best tip for dealing with difficult people, relationships, christian living

Dealing with difficult people might feel like swimming with sharks. How can we swim with sharks and not get eaten? And, how can we swim with sharks without becoming one?

When you don’t know how to hold your own in relationships,
and someone takes advantage, it feels like being held under water.

When I walk in the flesh, my heart rebels against verses like this:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘Do not resist the one who is evil…And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles’ (Matthew 5:38, 39, 41, ESV).

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. So much for avoiding difficult people. My go-to-moves for dealing with manipulative, selfish, narcissistic people are very original: (1) run and hide OR (2) stand and fight. But, Go with him TWO miles—REALLY? Yes. Really.

This idea has often made my skin crawl.

People who force you to walk with them, or force you to talk with them, or force you to spend time with them, or force you into anger with all their forceful forcing…these people…they are not. my. people!

I have asked: Lord, how? How can I do this?

Read the rest of this post at BrittaLafont.com.

Filed Under: Love at the Well

Relationship: Commitment or Facebook Comment

February 24, 2016

relationship-susan-b-meadAre you are going to try it on or tie the knot?
Is it a commitment or a comment on your Facebook status?
Or is it a covenant made to last a lifetime?

Will you try it on or toss it aside when it doesn’t feel like it fits anymore?
Or will you close the door of doubt and decide.

Read the rest of the post by visiting SusanBMead.com.

Filed Under: Love at the Well

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About Christie

What about me? Ugh! Don’t ya just loathe this part? How do you cram who you are into a few chunks of paragraphs? I like doing that about as much as I liked saying cheese in the bobble-head photo hovering above. But just like the pic and the blog, I’m a work in progress. A real WIP. Read More…

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