Empowering Daughters of God

The ability to feel is a gift.....a miracle really.  To feel the whole spectrum of emotions can be amazing, euphoric, and overwhelming.  Emotion is something that can be hard for us to get a handle on.  A few weeks ago in a Sunday School class we were discussing stones.  Stones we carry.  We all have things we hold on to, things that happen to us and things that just are.  Our emotions can be stones, trials, challenges, judgement, decisions, mistakes, sins, and pains can be stones.  We always carry these with us.   Stones often times get a bad rap.  Stoning was a horrific way to die.  We carry stones that weigh us down, they drag us down, they slow us down, and make us weak.  Carrying these stones is hard and we just can't do it sometimes.  Stones crush, stones harm, stones can be so awful!  As this discussion ensued, a wonderful woman spoke up about how she couldn't stop thinking about marble and how it's made. ...

 In 1990 I was 5 years old and living as a mermaid under the sea with my best friend.  We were transported to this sea every time the music sparked our imaginations! The Little Mermaid was iconic because it was the first princess movie where the girl was not completely isolated, sound like a little kid,  had more than a handful of lines, and had more motive than just falling in love.  The animation and creativity had improved quite a bit too.  It was the beginning of a long, long run of inspiring characters, beautiful art, creativity that blows the mind, compelling plots and story lines that pull at the heart strings of anyone in possession of one, that is, a heart.   I was completely enamored with The Little Mermaid and I think prince Eric was my very first crush!  I would watch the movie multiple times a day and that went on for a few years.  I would sing every song and pretend to be Ariel.  I would splash in the bathtub like I was sin...

 "Let me just tell you a little about the devil first, so that you've got a clear picture in your mind of what we are praying against.  First of all the Bible does not paint him as a horned creature with horns and a forked tail.  That's the sort of thing that makes us laugh at him, take him less than seriously.  See, the Bible says he is a real person.  The Bible never calls the devil it, always he.  Next the Bible says that he has a heart and a mind and a will, and if a heart and a mind and a will don't make a personality, I don't know what does.  It talks about the devil's feelings, talks about his thoughts, and it talks about his motives, and that means to me, a person.  So the devil is not just a kind of vague word to sum up all forces of evil in the world.  No, he is a person in his own right and if there were no human beings at all, Satan would still exist.   Now Jesus himself took Satan desperately seriously, He never made a ...

 I was recently watching the 1973 animated version of Charlotte's Web with my kids.  Charlotte's Web is a timeless, beloved children's classic.  It has always been a favorite of mine.  My son is in a class that is all about Charlotte's Web!  Since he started this class and often talks to me about it, I've been reminded of its profound, yet simple morals.  This story is most charming and delightful in its telling as Charlotte, a grey spider, saves a pig's life.   I think it's by careful design that E. B. White used these two unlikely creatures to tell a story so kind and tender.  A grey spider is not usually a desirable creature.  Not a creature associated with warm fuzziness, or tenderness.  However, this arachnid is very industrious and good at survival.  Its nature is beautiful and interesting despite outside appearance and maybe some inside venom.  Not a creature we associate with saving or preserving life, except its o...