I love what a friend of mine said in our devotional together, “God is in the miracle business. Hallelujah! But you don’t get a miracle unless you need a miracle!” This couldn’t be more true! It seems to me that we have to exhaust all our efforts before God steps in to do “…through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” That way He gets all the glory! If people see we do great things in our own power and strength, how does that make an impact for God’s power? We want our lives to point people to Him so they too will have a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father (through salvation through Jesus) and live eternally with Him. We want that for our kids, our loved ones, and honestly for everyone. But like my friend said, we need to be in need of a miracle, come to the end of ourselves, and allow God to show up and show off! Trust! Surrender! Wait! Miracle! All these things add up to giving God the glory in our love to point more people to Him! “Thank You, Father for always

One of Satan’s schemes is to take our focus off the good and only focus on the bad. One of God’s blessings He has given us is the intimacy and relationship of marriage. “Now the Lord God said, “It is not good (beneficial) for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [one who balances him—a counterpart who is] suitable and complementary for him.” … [and] they shall become one flesh.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬, ‭24‬b AMP‬‬ God illiterates why He designed us for relationship in Ecclesiastes‬ ‭4‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT, “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” When we do life together and have each others’ back, we can conquer, and resist the devil! But Satan doesn’t want us to be able to resist him. He wants to weaken our effectiveness in our lives so we don’t have any impact. So, how does Satan keep us from having each other’s back? By shifting our focus. We need to keep our focus on the Lord and see our loved ones through the eyes of God and not through the lies

I read recently about an interesting concept: being able to erase hardships in your kids’ lives before they happen. As a mom, I want to protect my child for all pain, but deep down, I know that pain results in growth. This knowledge comes from being tall. Because I was becoming tall, when I was growing up, I experienced intense growing pains. Without those pains, I wouldn’t have experienced the growth I eventually had/have. This reminds me of a verse Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬ One of those growth opportunities for my daughter was when she had a sports injury that resulted in five surgeries (in six years), and to intense pain of learning how to walk and run again; years, days, and hours of pain. When her D-1 diving coach asked her if she wished that injury never happened, she said