God's good. He can just pull a life out of a pit, can't He?
I ask women to check the feelings they have about themselves before they do something. If you're doing it out of a sense of desperation and need, don't do it.
To possess dignity is to be worthy of respect. Worthy of high esteem. Absorb this: you are worthy of respect.
Any of us in the public eye must remember: Never, ever believe your own press, and pray to develop a hypersensitive gag reflex regarding your own importance.
I try as hard as I know how to keep my reader relating on a broad level so I don't lead her someplace where she thinks that's the only thing that could cause insecurity.
I didn't have a fireworks moment for my salvation. I had a falling in love with Jesus in Sunday school when I was a very young child.
My very addictive personality and all sorts of strongholds are a thing of the past for me. Yet at the root of every single one of those issues was insecurity, something I had battled since childhood.
I want women to love Jesus! That is what I would give every single thing I have for, every earthly good I've got. That is the greatest desire of my heart.
We've got to know the Word of God. That is our absolute stability. That is our offensive weapon against the kingdom of darkness.
The upside of a downward spiral into despair and defeat in young adulthood is that pretty early on, I was forced to face not only the foolish things I had done but also the stark realization that there was likely no end to what I was capable of doing.
As God took me through the journey that became the Bible study 'Breaking Free', He taught me to look for a common denominator among the things that triggered my destructive habits.
I've seen a lot of miracles, and I have experienced a lot of things with Jesus, but nothing I have ever experienced in my corporate community life with other believers can compare with just me and Him in my kitchen early in the morning before the sun comes up.
My home and my upbringing and just the problems in my family within my extended family were such that it truly was a mix of the good, bad, and the ugly.
When you do fiction, it is your imagination you have put out there.
I believe that children are, by nature, very forgiving. I don't think children expect their parents to be perfect. I think they demand that their parents be real.
What I thought as a young adult is you act like you have it together whether or not you do because that is what church people do. That is not what God has called us to do.
I am convinced now that virtually every destructive behavior and addiction I battled off and on for years was rooted in my (well-earned) insecurity.
I don't know what kind of courage it took thousands of years ago, but I know how courageous women need to be today.
I have to have a daily, vibrant relationship with Jesus in order to survive that process toward healing.
Sometimes you have to shove all the surface stuff to the side in order to see what's underneath.
