Untangled Blog
The concept for the Untangled Blog came about in an unexpected manner. One day I accidentally knocked over my necklace holder, and as a result, two of my necklaces became tangled together. It was a slow, tedious process to separate them. As I worked through the process, it occurred to me how these necklaces represented our lives.
When untangled, the necklaces were each a thing of beauty to be worn and displayed. However, in their tangled condition, their beauty was obscured among a myriad of twists and knots. If left in that state, they would be unable to be worn, unable to serve their intended purpose.
So it is with our lives when we get tangled up in our emotions and our circumstances. We can get all twisted and knotted up inside, unable to display our beauty to others. We can feel useless and become ineffective, unable to function the way we were intended. We can lose our purpose.
We aren’t meant to live this way, and the good news is that we don’t have to. We have a choice in the matter. I invite you to join me on this journey to examine how we can rise up out of the muck and mire of our daily circumstances to live a life filled with joy and purpose … a life Untangled.
-
Hope Springs (Part 1) – All That Is Yet to Come
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I [God] am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV) In early 2018, my family relocated. As we began settling into our new home, I purchased a small chalkboard to add to our home décor, upon which I had planned to write Bible verses on an ongoing basis. At the time, a friend happened to share the above Bible verse with me from the book of Isaiah. It had been a trying few years for my family,…
-
More Than We Imagine
In my walk with God over the years, I’ve found myself in places I never would have imagined, some of which I had never previously given any consideration. The most recent of which has transpired in the past several months, wherein I’ve found myself co-leading worship songs at church on Sunday mornings. Unimagined, unanticipated, and unexpected for a few reasons.
-
When There Are No Words
As we were processing a tragedy that had unfolded in our local community, a friend said that I should write about it. But what can you say when there are no words. No words that can take away the pain and heartache. No words that can undo the devastation. No words that can make the path forward any easier to navigate.
-
Look Up
Peace. You hear that word a lot this time of year. And it’s something many of us long for all through the year. Peace – in our homes, our communities, our country, our world. It’s something we seek that often seems out of reach. And sometimes the harder we search for it, the farther away it seems.
-
Love Lives On
This time of year is a bit difficult for the Morrison family. Eleven years ago, my husband’s grandfather lost his battle with cancer and passed away on Thanksgiving Day. Just two days prior to that, one of my husband’s first cousins on the Morrison side passed away due to health complications. Two deaths in the family within two days … that was a hard Thanksgiving week. And the same week one year later wasn’t any easier, as we said goodbye to my father-in-law, Harold. Harold had been diagnosed with cancer a little over a year prior, and he passed away on the one-year anniversary of the death of my husband’s…
-
Going Home
They say you can’t go home again. I beg to differ. My family and I moved back to my husband’s and my hometown earlier this year, for the first time since the 1990s. Having lived away for so long and establishing ourselves elsewhere, it wasn’t a decision we made lightly. We gave it careful and prayerful consideration, and once we were certain it was what God was leading us to do, we took a step of faith into the unknown.
-
Let Freedom Ring
It’s been almost a year since my last blog post. This may come as no surprise to those who follow my blog, as my posting frequency may vary from weeks to months or more. I’m probably the most irregular blogger in existence … not exactly how you go about developing a following. But those who follow my blog know that I’m fine with that – I’ve accepted that there is no particular frequency that I need to adhere to; I write as God directs and as I am able, which can vary greatly due to circumstances that I’m faced with in my daily life. (Refer to prior my blog posts…
-
Consider It All Joy
On a particularly difficult morning, I opened the cabinet door to retrieve a coffee mug, and the mug staring back at me read, “Consider it all joy.” I sighed as I thought, “Joy is the last thing I feel right now.” I selected the mug anyway and began to fill it with coffee. With a full mug in hand, I headed toward my work-from-home office.
-
A Matter of Choice
A few years ago, I found myself a repeated bird’s-eye target. The first occasion happened while my family and I were attending a baseball game. It was a hot and humid summer’s eve, and I had a cold drink in hand to quench my thirst. As I paused between sips, my beverage suddenly splashed, and I looked down to discover that my cup had become a makeshift port-a-potty for a bird flying above. “Yuck, new drink please!”
-
Beauty from Ashes
Something unexpected happened after one of my earlier blog posts this year. I received a text from my daughter, Lexi, that said, “Good stuff! Glad you found time to start writing again. I think that one is the best one you’ve done, at least for me to relate to.” As I read Lexi’s text, my heart melted, and my eyes welled up with tears. You see, it’s not just because Lexi is my daughter that her words meant so much, it’s because of what Lexi has been through, what we have been through together, the last few years.
