Everyday Matters
Friday Matters
Everyday Cancer
“My husband has cancer” I wrote that in the subject line of an email announcement that I sent to over 100 family and friends in 2010. My brother responded, “Wow, Deb that’s powerfully blunt to write in the subject line.”
Everyday Cancer
“My husband has cancer” I wrote that in the subject line of an email announcement that I sent to over 100 family and friends in 2010. My brother responded, “Wow, Deb that’s powerfully blunt to write in the subject line.” I know. But it helps me to face what I fear. If I can’t talk about cancer or even say it, then it has control over me. Many times, Satan uses fear to immobilize us. Philippians 1:28 tells us not to be intimidated by our adversaries but stand with confidence and fearlessness because it’s a clear sign to the enemy of his doom, but sure evidence of our deliverance from God.
Satan knows that the only way he can overcome a believer is through deception and intimidation. It is okay if you’re shaking on the inside and feel afraid just don’t let it move you to let go and give up. Stand firm on the truth of God. Share your heart and pray with others and don’t isolate yourself. My husband is cancer-free but no matter what happened I knew cared, had a plan and would see us through the trial…everyday.
Thursday Matters
Everyday Nagging
Sometimes it’s hard not to get my way. Hey, who am I kidding, it’s always hard not to get my way.
Everyday Nagging
Sometimes it’s hard not to get my way. Hey, who am I kidding, it’s always hard not to get my way. I remember when our sons were little and I asked my husband to go outside and play with them because it was above zero Fahrenheit in our little winter town in Minnesota. My husband said “no.” I didn’t like his answer, so I proceeded to tell him in different ways why the boys needed to be outside and why their dad needed to be the one to take them there. I could hear what I was doing wasn’t effective but yet I just couldn’t stop talking. It’s exactly what Paul talks about in Romans Chapter 7; “I do not understand what I do. Nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I have the desire to do what is good, but I can’t carry it out.”
I need Jesus. AND I need to remember that the first time I tell my husband something it’s information, the second time; it’s nagging. And only through Jesus can I carry this out…everyday.
Wednesday Matters
Everyday Genie in a Bible
How do you view yourself? Do you think about what God sees or what others see?
Everyday Genie in a Bible
How do you view yourself? Do you think about what God sees or what others see? It’s definitely a process to be able to hear God’s voice and listen to Him alone. When I got my eyes off of how I looked, performed or cared about other thought about me, I began to truly trust God and see my identity in Him. THEN I was like; “Where should I go, who should I meet, and “How can I serve?” Prior to that I made wonderful plans and then asked God, “Bless what I’ve decided is good.”
God is not a Genie in a Bible. It’s not about saying the correct verses and doing super good deeds to earn His favor. It’s by His grace that He loves us despite what we do or don’t do. It’s about trusting God’s faithfulness and believing He knows the best plan for your life. God loves us for who we are and not for what we do. He loves us and gives us purpose with the gifts He’s given us because He knows that in serving others instead of self we’ll have true contentment…everyday.
Tuesday Matters
Everyday God is a Shelter
When feeling lonely or afraid I go to the Psalms for comfort. Psalm 91:4 really hit me the other day; “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. He will shield you with His wings. He will shelter you with His feathers. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.”
Everyday God is a Shelter
When feeling lonely or afraid I go to the Psalms for comfort. Psalm 91:4 really hit me the other day; “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. He will shield you with His wings. He will shelter you with His feathers. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.” Imagine God like the Psalm reads-- a strong and majestic eagle Who’s there to shield you with His wings and protect you with His feathers.
When you’re fearful and anxious it’s hard not to think about the “what ifs” and other scenarios that make you more anxious. Instead, I try to think about God’s promises of protection and redemption and acknowledge that my feelings of anxiety won’t last forever and they won’t kill me. In Romans 8:28 God promises to work all things for the good. Not all things are good, but God always is. It takes courage to walk forward in faith despite our feelings, but we can do it because of our God, the Protector and Comforter will cover and carry us through…everyday.
Monday Matters
Everyday Parenting Boys
My husband and I had four sons who are now adults. I thank God I was a mom of boys (too many hormones and hair products with a girl).
Everyday Parenting Boys
My husband and I had four sons who are now adults. I thank God I was a mom of boys (too many hormones and hair products with a girl). But because our son Peter was most like me, we had our challenges. Sometimes Peter’s phone was taken away as a consequence for disobedience. I remember one time I had to drop a note off at school to let him know I’d pick him up so he wouldn’t take the bus. I wrote, “Peter I’m sorry for my part in provoking you which led to hurt feelings for both of us. Please forgive me. I love you. Mom”
As parents we wanted our sons to develop strong characters from the inside-out. Not just temporary behavior change, but for them to have a heart change from God. At youth group that evening Peter heard a guest speaker talk about the grace God gives and how we can’t afford to withhold it from others. Peter apologized and said I could keep the phone as long as I wanted. He forgave me too. Jesus understands us all. He knows and walks with us in our parenting…everyday.
Friday Matters
Everyday God Bless You
Jan wrote, “I try to be compassionate and kind with a sense of humor but today I was feeling small-minded, hurt and mean spirited.
Everyday God Bless You
Jan wrote, “I try to be compassionate and kind with a sense of humor but today I was feeling small-minded, hurt and mean spirited. Jan had commented on my Facebook post about loving others, “When people are less than kind it’s then that I have a hard time 'loving' them.... mostly at work. The office can bring out the worst in people…including me.” Oh my, I so get it. SOOO, when someone hurts me I’ve tried and pretend their “nasty” aimed at me was only a sneeze and I respond (under my breath) with “God Bless you!” and guess what? It really does work.
God actually tells us in Luke 6:28 to bless those who curse us. Let me say that again, “Bless those who hurt you.” Because if Satan works through a person to hurt us and we end up hating that person back because we’re hurt than the enemy’s job has been accomplished two times over. But if we respond to another’s curse with a blessing then we’ve gotten Satan back and we walk away in peace. Thank You, God, for blessings US…everyday.
Thursday Matters
Everyday All the Feelings
It feels really good to experience love and even better to know that you’re love when many you’re feeling bad about yourself and think, “How could anyone love me now?
Everyday All the Feelings
It feels really good to experience love and even better to know that you’re love when many you’re feeling bad about yourself and think, “How could anyone love me now?” Most people, (including myself) tend to wrap love together with how it makes us feel. We let our feelings dictate how we, and others, decide what may or may not be true when it comes to being loved for who God created us to be. While love can produce some very genuine feelings, feeling cannot produce genuine love. God loves us so much that He came as Jesus, walked the Earth and became part of His creation. He then paid a debt we could never pay by taking our sin to the cross. He didn’t feel like it, but God’s commitment of perfect love is what brought Him to death on the cross and then resurrection so that we might live.
I have to choose to believe in God loves me when someone hurts my feelings or I’m the one who has done the hurting. God created you, gave His life for you and nothing you do or don’t do will change how much He loves you…everyday.
Wednesday Matters
Everyday Dairy Queen Pride
Our four sons are all adults now and one is married with kids. We have an empty nest. I love it.
Everyday Dairy Queen Pride
Our four sons are all adults now and one is married with kids. We have an empty nest. I love it. I also love that I’ve kept so many stories of their youth from journaling. We had a phrase we’d use and remind one another of when gloating took place, and it was, “pride stinks.” It was years ago eating lunch at Dairy Queen while my husband was out of town and 10 minutes in, the whining began. Joey couldn’t eat his grilled cheese because it didn’t taste like what I made, David didn’t want the bun to his burger, and Marco said his Blizzard was getting too mushy, so he wanted to leave. But Peter proudly announced, “I’m the only one who isn’t complaining!” “Yes,” I said, “but you’re comparing and that kinda stinks too.”
We can always find ways we’re better than someone else and ways we can knock someone down. It’s always easier to look at the problems of someone else rather than our own. Proverbs 22:4 says, “It’s through humility and putting others before ourselves where we find our honor in life and I think peace too…everyday.
Tuesday Matters
Everyday Success of Trials
A post on Instagram read; “A key to success is playing the hand you were dealt like it was the hand you wanted.”
Everyday Success of Trials
A post on Instagram read; “A key to success is playing the hand you were dealt like it was the hand you wanted.”
I had to really think if there was truth to that. Yes, I may not have wanted what was dealt but “here it is” so what am I gonna do with it? I do think expressing your feelings of anguish has a place such as screaming, crying and complaining because part of healing is expressing. God’s not surprised at the trials we go through, and we can ask Him to show us His redemption and find the blessing and lesson in it all. Character more often is developed in crisis. God promises to bring out “the good” of all things when we trust His love and care of us. During my recovery of scoliosis back surgery in 2003 I was miserable, yet I now see the blessings and ways God brought me through. Christ is the only one who can change our hearts. Where there is something broken, He can make it beautiful. Real success in life is from receiving real love and giving it back to others…everyday.
Monday Matters
Everyday The Will of Jesus
Feelings can be all over the place and especially concerning love. After 35 years of marriage, I understand love to be a choice and commitment
Everyday The Will of Jesus
Feelings can be all over the place and especially concerning love. After 35 years of marriage, I understand love to be a choice and commitment but it’s also a powerful feeling that can produce indescribable joy and also incredible anger toward someone I love too.
When Jesus was on the earth He tells us clearly in the Bible that He didn’t want to go to the cross. In fact, He despised the cross, so much He asked for another way and said, “take this cup from Me but not My will but Yours be done,” Luke 22:42. Jesus was so physically overwhelmed that blood came out of His skin pores. Love is a choice, not a feeling. Combining my feelings with right choices can be confusing and the direction I take might be more about my will than it is God’s will. God loves you and so He came to punish sin for you and set you free. Sin was a disease the entire Trinity came to heal. The cross is not a payoff … it is a rescue. God is love. The cross is love…everyday.
Friday Matters
Everyday New You
“Are you kidding? With the kind of history and past you’ve had… well good luck thinking you can overcome it.”
Everyday New You
“Are you kidding? With the kind of history and past you’ve had… well good luck thinking you can overcome it.” That’s hard stuff to swallow because not only is it hurtful but it’s untrue. Sometimes the voices from our past tell us we’ll never really have a meaningful life because of our mistakes or because of the things that have been done. Listening to those voices are lies. When we accept God in a real and personal relationship, He pays the price for our past messes and PROMISES to work ALL things for the good.
In the Bible, 2 Corinthians reads that with Christ our old life is gone and a new life begins. We are new creatures in Christ. God is greater than our past. The enemy liar will always try and mess with you. Carry on and know that with Jesus in you there’s power that causes the enemy to shake in his boots. I like to remind this the enemy (and say aloud); “Enemy you’re messin’ with the wrong girl. I’m God’s girl” …everyday.
Thursday Matters
Everyday The Mom
“Perhaps you’ve never entered into the teen zone of angry and angrier, but I have. I was there.
Everyday The Mom
“Perhaps you’ve never entered into the teen zone of angry and angrier, but I have. I was there. What’s crazy is that our anger can actually stem from love. We see the bad choices our teen is making, and we just want them to stop and listen, so we yell and then they yell. It goes from bad to worse.
The book of James says, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry because man’s anger doesn’t produce the righteous life God desires.” I like how the message Bible delivers James 1; “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re a listener when you’re anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! For starters it means listening to Proverbs 14:17; “She who foams up quickly and flies into a passion deals foolishly.” God can take care of you and your teen. Let go, stop yelling and don’t give up…everyday.
Wednesday Matters
Everyday Good News
What’s the message out there? I know…right? That’s a loaded question. There are a lot of messages “out there.”
Everyday Good News
What’s the message out there? I know…right? That’s a loaded question. There are a lot of messages “out there.” But there’s one message that I’ve become more passionate about sharing lately.
Okay this is IT. The message of Jesus is to LOVE and forgive others, which you can only do once you have seen your bad self and accepted His forgiveness. I have accepted this GIFT even though what I feel and see in me is often wrong, unfair, hurtful, and judgmental and to make it worse, there’s always more where that comes from. But again, that IS why Jesus died for us. He paid MY debt and forgave all my sin. When He died every sin we commit, all future ones, (like tomorrow’s sins) can be forgiven. I think this is why they call the Gospel, Good News which is actually great news. The fresh new hope and grace you can get each day is a gift of never-ending love and grace…everyday.
Tuesday Matters
Everyday Flower Love
I still remember the “just because I care” flowers from my husband sent a few years ago.
Everyday Flower Love
I still remember the “just because I care” flowers from my husband sent a few years ago. I had called my husband at his office to lament about some unresolved drama that I had …so Dan told me to come to his office. I did. But… then out of nowhere a “stress arrow” hit my husband and he began speaking from his book of Lamentations. He began talking about our finances, his workload, and health stuff. It was unusual for me, but I sat SILENTLY and prayed while tears ran down my cheeks.
I left the office with a hug and knew that everything would work out and be okay. An hour later a beautiful bouquet of flowers arrived and a card from my husband saying, “I love you.” At the same moment a friend called and said, “I was praying and thought you might need to talk.” That’s JUST like God, supplying what we need when we need it…everyday.
Monday Matters
Everyday What God Says
How do you view yourself? Do you think about what God sees or what others see?
Everyday What God Says
How do you view yourself? Do you think about what God sees or what others see? It’s definitely a process to be able to hear God’s voice and listen to Him alone. Hey this is Debbie Griffith with Everyday Matters. When I got my eyes off of how I looked I began to truly see myself the way God saw me. THEN I was like; “Where should I go, who should I meet, and “How can I serve?” Prior to that I made wonderful plans and then asked God, “Bless what I’ve decided is good.”
God is not a Genie in a Bible. It’s not about saying the correct verses and doing super good deeds, it’s about trusting God’s faithfulness and believing He knows the best plan for your life. God loves us for who we are and not for what we do. He gives us purpose with the gifts He’s given us simply because He loves us…everyday.
Friday Matters
Everyday Free Will
It all comes down to free will. We have a choice to choose good and evil actions.
Everyday Free Will
It all comes down to free will. We have a choice to choose good and evil actions. I have made bad choices whether it was telling a lie or stealing but I have also had the same bad happen to me, someone lying and stealing from me.
C.S. Lewis said, “If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. I have to really stop and think about that but it’s true. It’s the freedom of choice that makes love real. Being forced to love God is not real love at all. It goes back to the basics of what being a Christian is. Accept God’s love, His grace and HIS work on the cross. It’s not about our good works. When we understand His grace, we can really start loving others freely…everyday.
Thursday Matters
Everyday Wives
I don’t want to be like Rebekah who said to Isaac in Genesis 27:46; “What good will my life be to me if Jacob takes wives such as Esau did with these Hittite women (women who didn’t know the living God)?
Everyday Wives
I don’t want to be like Rebekah who said to Isaac in Genesis 27:46; “What good will my life be to me if Jacob takes wives such as Esau did with these Hittite women (women who didn’t know the living God)?” Once my husband Dan began a relationship with Christ, he didn’t see the point in dating, so he prayed very specifically to God for a wife. Three years after this prayer, God answered, and Dan got me! Because God knew both our hearts, He matched us together perfectly. I know, without a doubt, that the prayers of my great grandfather and other family members played a significant part in bringing my husband Dan and I together.
When our four sons where young, before school I made it a practice to put my hand on each their heads and pray for their future wives. I wanted them to also have the assurance that God chose someone specifically for them to spend their lives with…everyday.
Wednesday Matters
Everyday God Understands Fairness
God is bigger. We may know this in our heart but it’s acting it out like we believe it that makes the difference. One of the hardest things to do is to forgive someone who isn’t’ sorry for what they’ve done cuz “it’s so not fair!”
Everyday God Understands Fairness
God is bigger. We may know this in our heart but it’s acting it out like we believe it that makes the difference. One of the hardest things to do is to forgive someone who isn’t’ sorry for what they’ve done cuz “it’s so not fair!” And because it’s not fair we want them to know how wrong they are. What does God want? Go to 1 Peter 3:9 and read; “Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That’s what God asks, and He’ll bless you for it.”
Do you think God tells us to be good to those who’ve hurt us just because He wants to watch us suffer? No. The enemy works through people to hurt us and if we end up hating that person because they’ve hurt us then Satan’s job has been accomplished two times over. But if we respond with love then we’ve gotten Satan back and he’ll wish he never laid a finger on our lives…everyday.
Tuesday Matters
Everyday God is Home in Us
Life is hard. The earth experience is hard. It is not our home. Hard stuff for us all is stuff like forgiving those who never apologize or a health report that is terminal.
Everyday God is Home in Us
Life is hard. The earth experience is hard. It is not our home. Hard stuff for us all is stuff like forgiving those who never apologize or a health report that is terminal. Yet we can live free because the moment we receive Christ we are filled with the Holy Spirit with the potential to live a life of victory over fear, and struggles like forgiving others. This potential is released by faith as we surrender control over our lives. Look at 2 Timothy 1:14….the Holy Spirit makes His home in us and will lead by peace and wisdom as He speaks to our hearts.
In the Old Testament (in Ezekiel), God’s promised the day would come when He would give people a new heart and put His Sprit within them. Under the old covenant, the Holy Spirit only came upon people for special purposes, but He did not live inside them as He does when we know Him personally. This is AMAZING, so seek His control in my life, are you…everyday?
Monday Matters
Everyday Humility
Remember that song, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in everyday way?” We laugh cuz like yeah right,
Everyday Humility
Remember that song, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in everyday way?” We laugh cuz like yeah right, “as if.” But sometimes we’re so busy pointing out the faults of others that we don’t take time to look at our own that we need to address. My mentor friend Barb wrote, “True humility is not a denial of your positive attributes. It isn’t a humble person who says, “I’m not good at anything.”
This is an expression of pride which says, “Look at poor me. I just have to have special consideration because I’m so weak. Please pity me...treat me well.” On the contrary, the truly humble person recognizes their strengths and weaknesses and so rather than a concentration on yourself, humility leads you to look around you for opportunities to encourage and help others.” When you understand humility that way it helps you to be confident in the gifts God’s given you rather than feeling bad about what you don’t have. Happy and free people are humble people…everyday.