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Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoy what you see and find encouragement from my words as I navigate my thoughts and desire to serve the Lord.
I live in the beautiful Ozark mountains in Arkansas. I am a wife, mother of two, (son and daughter), a “bonus” mother (sharing my husbands daughter), and grandmother of six (minus one.)
My greatest pleasures come from serving God and enjoying family time.
My husband and I enjoy traveling and riding horses. Often incorporating the two using our living quarters horse trailer.
“This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
-Psalm 118:24
Click on the links below to read the latest content. I can’t wait for you to check them out!
With Love, Doris
- “Is prayer your steering wheel, or your spare tire?”
Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who survived the Holocaust. She and her family saved many Jewish people from the Nazis by hiding them in their home. Arrested and placed in a concentration camp, Corrie never stopped trusting God and sharing His love while imprisoned during this horrific time in history. This famous quote from her is just as relevant to us today as was then. So, I ask myself, am I using prayer as my steering wheel to guide my daily directions and decisions? Am I guilty of only calling upon God to fix things as I would do with a spare tire upon having a flat? 1 Chronicles 16:11 tells us we should, “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” Do we seek His face always, or just when we are made aware of our needs? Seek Him in every moment of every day. We are to praise Him for the things He has done, is doing, and will do in our lives. God doesn’t want us to just pray when we are in need or searching for answers. His will is for us to walk and talk with Him throughout our day just as we would a friend. In doing this we will be able to feel His love surround us. I know I can tell a difference in my day and my attitude when I stay in close contact with Him. FB Myer once said, “The greatest tragedy is not unanswered prayer, but the unoffered prayer.” We never know when, where or why a flat might enter into our life. Beginning our day in prayer, we can know that when we are faced with a flat (because we will always have them) which may come in the form of news of a loved one passing, medical crisis, wayward child, finically difficulties, whatever may come our way, giving God total control of the steering wheel, will leave us better equipped to handle the flats as they occur. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 NIV - His Perfect Peace
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27 ESV “Test results are in………….it is cancer” were the words out of our daughter’s mouth. My heart sank as my mind went into overdrive. I was trying to come up with anything I could do to change this diagnosis. All of the questions, “Are they sure?” “Could it have been a mistake?” “Can’t they do further testing?” “What can we do?” But in actuality, there was nothing neither I, my husband nor she could do to change the facts. Cancer was there, trying to destroy our beautiful daughter’s body with every passing moment. I lay in my bed that evening, with no more tears left to flow. I once again prayed to my Heavenly Father. Asking if it were His will that He would remove cancer from her body. This is when He gave me this verse in John. “Peace I leave with you, Doris”. Yes, you can insert your name in there too for He has enough peace for all of us. His peace is not like anything we can receive from anywhere else. It is nothing we can understand, (Philippians 4:7). It’s just perfect peace. Satan is constantly trying to cause us fear and anxiety. When we focus on thing’s we have no control over, anxiety, fear, and depression take over. This is when we need to focus on the scripture. “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”. I am aware that while our daughter is still fighting this horrible disease, God may not answer my prayer to heal her body. Does that mean I have little faith? No, I have total faith in His healing power. What this does mean, is I know His ways are not my ways (Isaiah 8:9). However, I do know that He will indeed answer my plea for our strength and peace to face each day. I know He will be with us every step of the way; I know this because I can feel His peace. She feels His peace and has been positive though it all. We know God has not left us; He is still very much here with us along this journey. Maybe you too are facing a difficult journey. Perhaps going through a divorce, abuse, financial distress, or maybe a child has gone astray. There are so many things can steal our joy. The only way to get through these trials is to trust in the Lord. Trust His plan and live with His peace. I may not understand why she has to endure this trial; but I do trust His plan for her life and mine. Does that mean I do this every moment? I wish this were true, but I often forget. That’s when I remind myself of His presence and His promise to be with us and to never leave or forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:8). Only then can I rest well in His perfect peace. Will you join me in trusting God’s word and His promise of peace? You can do this by placing your loved ones in His hands. We then can relax, knowing He is in control of all our anxiety-causing issues. You too can enjoy His peace today. - When I Depend on The Lord, I Deepen My Faith
I know I’m a little late to be announcing my word of the year, but still wanted to share with you what I have learned from this word. My word is “Depend”, (singular, not plural 😊). I disliked that word, and have tried to come up with another one. You see, I have a hard time depending on anyone. I learned at a very early age there were very few people in this world on whom I could depend. This made me become a very independent woman, which sometimes drives my husband a little crazy! 😂 After struggling with this word and it staying consistent in my mind I decided to lean into it. What I discovered is because I am independent, I also have trouble giving my needs to God. I love the Lord, I know I need Him, I’m aware of His presence being with me. But depend on Him? That looks a bit different to me. How do I depend on Him when I’m an “I’ll do it by myself kind of girl”? Perhaps this is why God laid this word upon my heart. I too often try to jump in and do things by myself, not waiting on an answer from Him. Take my writing for instance. I have always loved digging into the word, comparing scriptures, looking through commentaries, and seriously seeking God’s guidance on the things I would write about. Then life got busy, chaotic, and crazy, as life has a tendency to do. While I was praying about my writing journey, I wasn’t waiting on His answer. Taking a shortcut, I stopped digging into the word, comparing scripture, and reading commentaries. I took on the “I can do it by myself” attitude”. That’s when God stepped in and absolutely put a stop to it. Talk about writer’s block! I would try to write something, anything and I would come up blank. Nothing was coming to mind, not even for my daily journal. So I started thinking perhaps this was not a gift that God had given me, but something I just enjoyed doing. (Satan is really good at placing doubts in our hearts trying to steal, kill and destroy. John 10:10.) I started praying about it, asking God to guide me and help me to find the words, HIS words to write. This is when the word “depend” came to mind. Seeking God, asking for His guidance is easy for me to do. Waiting on or depending upon His answer is where I have failed. Maybe you’re thinking my writing seems like a small thing to be praying about. But praying over the small things helps us to recognize our dependence on Him. How can I possibly depend on Him for the bigger, heavier issues if I don’t start with the small things? This brings to mind the word “deepen”. Depending on our Lord will deepen our trust in Him with every detail of our lives realizing without Him we can do nothing. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NIV). So this independent, hard headed woman is learning a new skill…….…dependence! I know I will still struggle with this, giving into dependence will not come easy for me. However, I pray I deepen my dependence on Him as I let go of myself and give more of myself to Him. My desire to write is nothing more than to share all He has done for me throughout my life. I believe this is something He has called me to do because of the numerous mistakes I have made from not depending on Him. He has carried me through many crises: spousal abuse, divorce, and single parenting, to name a few. I have learned, and am still learning, so much and just hope my experiences, words and faith can help someone else learn to trust, follow and depend on Him too. I appreciate each one of you. If there is a particular subject you would like for me to write on please drop a comment or DM me and I will “depend” on God to give me the words you need to hear. “Pray continually”. (1 Thessalonians 5:1 NIV.)