Live. Love. Lead.

     Surely I cannot be the only one who has seriously tried to pray someone out of my life. You know those "thorn in the flesh" kind of people. The kind of people you pray Psalm 35 over like "may their way be slippery..." The kind of people that look for you to fail and when you do (because you're human) they are right there jubilant and ready to remind you of your shortcomings.      Recently, I was studying 1 Samuel 1, which recounts this courageous woman of faith named Hannah. She had one of these kind of people in her life. A hater.  Hannah was barren. Hannah would go to the house of God and be bullied and ridiculed time and time again by Peninnah about her barrenness. This woman made it her aim to poke fun and consistently bring to Hannah's mind that for which she deeply hoped for--a child. This woman threw this in Hannah's face consistently.  I think we all know what that's like at some level.     What was fascinating to me is th...

     In my last post I wrote about how we can easily place so much emotional energy into asking the question of "how do I know if he likes me."  The post centered on how we should respond when we find that this particular man for which we prayed does not have those feelings for us.  It is incredibly simple for us as women to deposit so much emotional energy into the potential of a relationship.  You know what I mean...when in our daydreams we imagine perfect dates, sharing dreams with him, what type of tux he may look best in, and we find nervous anticipating delight thinking this man might truly be the one we have sought God's heart for.      The previous post focused on responding to the deferred hope of when we find that he does not have romantic feelings for us.  The thesis essentially was that we must press ourselves into uncovering what it means to be God's workmanship and in so doing find our true and complete worth as a woman in...