Pencil in His Hand: A Mother's Journal of Stories, Thoughts, and Poems.

  If God Is Enough, Do You Need All That Stuff? Inspiration For Simple Living By Alison Lawrence Photographs and drawing by the author Copyright: Alison Lawrence. All rights reserved. Scripture from the Authorized King James Version. Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible are vested in the Crown. Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible are administered in the United Kingdom by the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press. Introduction The Bible is clear: you don’t need all that stuff! That doesn’t sit too well with us though. We may nod our heads as we read the verses, but when it comes to our stuff and to the way we live our lives, we’re rather clingy. Realistically speaking, it can be very hard to let go; to not worry; to stress less. Our brains struggle to find a more relaxed tempo and we balk at the idea of living simply, fearing that we’ll get stuck in boredom. Mac n Cheese every night anyone? Fears and brain wiring aside though, it c...

  Hurt: A Devotional " Hate stirs up trouble, but love overlooks all offenses." Proverbs 10:12 "Love does not keep a record of wrongs." 1 Corinthians 13:5 Dear Reader, Here is a tough question. You've been hurt, badly treated, perhaps slandered. You are in the process of forgiving the person(s) who hurt you daily, and you may even be praying that God will bless them. But what about that deep hurt that remains? What do you do about that? How does one get rid of it? And if you do somehow manage to throw that hurt in the dustbin, won't it jump out at you daily, taking you by surprise and clutch at your heart? Will you need to deal with it every day until you leave your earthly home? You may ask, shouldn't these difficult people be made to pay for the way they hurt me? Surely burying the hurt will negate my pain? They're all heartfelt but difficult questions. What I do know, is that God's Word is clear. We must forgive. And we must cover up the trace...

How are you Doing Today? Cloudy  How are you doing today? If someone asks you this oft asked question, what do you answer? "OK." "Fine, thank you." Or perhaps, "I'm doing alright." Your answer may be perfectly true, or perhaps not. In all honesty, and I realize that this may sound a bit dramatic, most of us are not actually doing that well. Life for most of us consists of a rather complicated arrangement of circumstances. Of course, we do grow accustomed to them, and may not even think about them overly much as we go about our busy days, but our background problems do not just go away. Many of us end up living  with less than ideal circumstances for much of our lives, or even until our passing. Pretty negative and gloomy sounding isn't it? I'm thinking now of the failed marriage that never comes right. The adult child who never seems to flourish and move on. The health problem that has no cure, and poisonous people who steal your peace and rema...