Story
Three Hidden Lies of Comparison Teens Face
“Instead of comparing my circumstances with those of others, I need to turn to You and listen as You instruct me, ‘You follow Me!’” – Jesus Listens,June 24th Think of your life like a measuring cup—the glass kind with the lines on the side. Inside that cup are all of the things that make your teen girl unique. Her personality, her cute smile, the way she tells a story, her ability to outsmart you in chess, or impress you on the tennis court. Maybe there was a time when she gave you a toothless grin every time you told her she was the prettiest, cleverest, and most amazing little girl in all the world. But if she’s like most teens, there was a point when her eyes fluttered open to comparison. Her sunny giggle faded, and her carefree grin fell as she began putting her measuring cup next to s...
Embracing Courage
“I can find courage through remembering who You are— pondering Your awesome Power and Glory, delighting in Your unfailing Love. I rejoice in knowing I’m on an adventurous journey with You and my ultimate destination is heaven!” – Jesus Listens,August 18th Are you ready to embrace a more confident and courageous life? Is it time for you to set aside your doubts, reservations, and hesitations, and step into a more courageous faith? Then let today be the day you begin implementing seven practical steps that can set you on a brand-new course, one that is directed and empowered by our Heavenly Father. For most of my life, I considered myself to be strong and courageous. I believed that courage centered solely around the ability to face challenges and conflicts with personal strength and stern d...
Last Picked Has Its Perks
“When I prize You above all else, delighting in You as my First Love, I’m protected from feeling fragmented. You are the One who completes me, and You’re training me to bring my thoughts back to You whenever they wander from Your Presence. Thank You for Your patient work in me, Lord.” – Jesus Listens,March 12th Have you ever been picked last? Or not picked at all? Maybe classmates didn’t choose you for their dodgeball team, or you were never asked to the prom, or you sat out the songs for couples at the roller rink. After two decades of living sober and following Jesus, I’ve learned great news: we can surrender every hurt and offense to Almighty God. Although this type of submission can be difficult, it produces supernatural results. Years ago, I was a small-market news anchor in Duluth, M...
When You Serve Them, You Serve God
“Because of Your amazing sacrifice for me, I want to serve You with every fiber of my being. I know that my service is woefully inadequate. Nonetheless, when I yield myself to Your will, You bless me with Joy.”– Jesus Listens, July 4th And the King shall answer and say unto them, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” Matthew 25:40 (KJV). I grew up reading the King James Version of the Bible, which, although a gift to the world for four hundred years, was not very helpful for a child trying to comprehend the storyline, and even worse when developing your own nascent vocabulary. Speaking Elizabethan English to your peers in elementary school is a quick pathway to being shunned like Esther Prynes, if only for y...
Weaving a Web of Faith
“Through reading Your Word, I’ve seen that waiting, trusting, and hoping are intricately connected— like golden strands woven together to form a strong chain. I think of trusting as the central strand because this attitude is taught so frequently throughout the Bible. Waiting and hoping embellish the central strand and strengthen the chain that connects me to You.” – Jesus Listens, April 15th When my younger son was four, his preschool teacher spent the month of October on a spider unit. They went on walks looking for webs, made spider art, and generally delighted in all things spider. I do not delight in anything spider. One October afternoon, he began to climb into his backseat chair while offering an unending flow of words about webs: “There are different kinds of spider’s webs, not jus...
The Art of Unplugging
“Whenever I’m feeling inadequate or overwhelmed, I love being able to lean on You, Lord. You remind me that I am more than adequate when I rely on You to strengthen me.” – Jesus Listens,June 25th Over the last three years, I’ve steadily built a discipline of powering down my devices and embracing what I like to call “the art of unplugging.” What began as a simple nudge to turn off my phone during one of my quiet times has morphed into a daily discipline of turning away from the digital noise and pressing into the moment right in front of me. If you’re feeling burnt out by the digital hamster wheel and craving more presence in your daily life, I pray these tips for unplugging will meet you right where you are today. START SMALL It’s easy to take on an all-or-nothing mentality when unpluggin...
Ignoring God’s Warning Signs
“I long to encounter You in the midst of my circumstances. So I’ll look for signs of Your Presence as I walk along the path of Life. A grateful attitude opens both my heart and my eyes— enabling me to see You in myriad tiny details as well as in the big picture of my life. I need to slow down and take time to notice all Your blessings—thanking You for them and enjoying Your many gifts.” – Jesus Listens, November 24th Fourteen years ago, I suffered heat stroke in sight of the finish line of a community race I’d been training to win. It was eighty degrees, with high humidity, and I’d trained for months in unusually cool-for-summer seventy degree mornings. I had my time goals for each mile—my “splits,” as they’re called in the running world—written on my hand. My brain locked onto those times...
The 5 Benefits of Voicing Gratitude
“Lord, instead of experiencing only a short- lived burst of gratitude, I want to learn to remain in an attitude of thankful Joy— letting my gratefulness spill over into the future.” – Jesus Listens, February 29th Years ago, when I was faced with the most difficult time in my life, the last thing I wanted to do was express gratitude. For what? I thought. I have nothing to be thankful for! Nothing. My life is falling apart. My marriage is falling apart. I have no peace. I’m miserable! Those were my dominant thoughts. I desperately needed a turnaround. One day, I heard a minister say, “Stop looking at everything you’ve lost in your life and start looking at everything you have left. And start thanking God for it.” It was late one evening when I walked into my kitchen and with tears pour...
The Tomorrow Trap
“Teach me how to live more fully in the present— refusing to worry about tomorrow. I really do want to live present tense in Your Presence, making You the main pursuit of my life. This is quite a struggle for me because planning and worrying come so naturally to me. Please help me resist the temptation to worry.”– Jesus Listens, October 12th I usually fall into the “trap” late at night. The sudden rush of worry about tomorrow’s meeting. The unnerving sense that my goals and dreams for the future aren’t going to work out. The terrifying sensation that I am not where I should be, and am running out of time. I call it the tomorrow trap. That snare that comes out of nowhere, tripping you up and keeping you stuck by flooding your mind with worry about things that aren’t even happening yet...
Surrendering Our Desires
by Jamie Ivey “The truth is, You are the Center— and everything revolves around You. So I need to make my plans tentatively, seeking Your Face and Your will in all that I do. This is actually a win- win situation. If things go according to my plans, I can thank You and rejoice. When my desires are thwarted, I can stay in communication with You and subordinate my will to Yours—trusting that Your way is perfect.”– Jesus Listens, June 6th There was a time in my life when I desperately wanted God to give me the desires of my heart, and I was almost certain He would because I had followed Him into an uncertain place like He had asked me to. Right timing In 2011, I was a stay-at-home mom to my four kids with no job change on the horizon when suddenly I found myself in a brand-new career as...
The First Step of Forgiveness: Wanting to Learn How
“Help me to trust You enough to accept the full forgiveness that You offer me continually. This glorious gift cost You Your Life, and it is mine for all eternity! I’m grateful that forgiveness is at the very core of Your abiding Presence.” – Jesus Listens, June 3rd That relationship. Yeah, that one. When you began the relationship, you didn’t sign up for heartache or headaches, did you? Oh sure, you know conflict is part of life. Everyone knows. What you didn’t know was how deeply the spouse, child, friend, coworker, or church would wound you. But here you are. The conflict happened. Or is happening. The hurt is real. So is the anger. And the confusion. Enter the need for forgiveness. Years ago, my husband worked for a thriving church. However, when the senior pastor retired, f...
You Are a Tree (Not a Machine)
by Joy Clarkson “Lord, I want to flourish in Your Presence—like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. As the sunlight of Your Presence shines upon me, it nourishes me so I can produce fruit in Your Kingdom.”– Jesus Listens, October 31st Machine like productivity You think that you have never described yourself as a machine, or thought, I am a computer. But think of how we describe ourselves processing something like a hard drive whirring away, or how we tell a friend that we need to update each other about life events, like new software. We adjust to new circumstances like a car whose tires need to be rotated; people push our buttons; we need to power down so we can recharge. When we don’t understand something, we might say it does not compute. When someone has been influenced to ...
