As we have recently wrapped up Our Words Matter, a 5-part mini-series about using our words wisely and avoiding careless words, I would like to take this opportunity to address a different type of carelessness in our speech and why it is important for us to be mindful to avoid it — the Christian cliché. 
 
One doesn’t have to be a believer for very long before becoming aware that the church and Christianity has its own unique language and phraseology. In fact, this isn’t only true of the church. Every culture, demographic, and society has their own collection of shorthands and sayings that distills their values and beliefs down to concise little phrases and sentences.

Often these statements can be helpful as they condense the truth into something that is simple and easy to remember. However, as believers we must exercise great care with our words.

Have you ever done a study on the attributes of God? If you have, you may have come across some big theological words like:
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• Omnipotence
• Omniscience
• Omnipresence
• Immutability
• Transcendence

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​Maybe those words scared you off a little from that study, or maybe they challenged you to dig deeper into the character of God.

I love words! I love to take a word apart, figure out what it means, and then incorporate it into my vocabulary. ​

​Let’s take one of these big words, omniscience, and do just that today!

In January of 2020, I set my mind to cleaning out every room, closet, cabinet, and drawer in our home that month.

Had I know what 2020 was going to bring us, I would have waited until March to do this! 

The kids are all gone now and we find ourselves to be empty nesters. There was a lot to sort through, get rid of, donate, and just generally reorganize.

​​Honestly, there were some of these spaces where I really didn't even know what was in them. 

I had tried to do this daunting task in the past but always failed. There was a big struggle with this one particular closet in our home, and I discovered that this closet was holding me back from accomplishing my goal of decluttering and cleaning out the other parts of the house.

Our guest blogger, Debbie, has been missing in action around here for almost a year now. 

Like many of us in 2020, she's been on an unexpected journey. But Debbie's journey was different than the journey most of us have been on over the past several months. Her journey included not only all that COVID brought to our world, her journey also included that dreaded "C" word--cancer.

We all know someone who has been on the cancer journey. Maybe, you've even traveled that road yourself. The greatest thing to know is that as Christian women, as women of God, we know that we do not travel that road alone! Not only do we not travel the road alone, but God also gives us unique opportunities to share the road with those who come behind us. Today, Debbie shares that road with us in the third of a 3-part series--4 Things I Learned From My Cancer Journey.

While passing each other at church, we exchange social niceties and generic smiles. During our workdays, we put on happy faces and interact professionally with both the kind and the difficult clients. When asked to serve, we obligingly give of our time, finances, and testimonies.
 
These scenarios make up a lot of our hours, days, and weeks. There’s nothing wrong with being tired after a long week and exchanging a smile and a “Fine, thank you,” with someone in the church hallway. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining a professional demeanor at work. There’s definitely nothing wrong with serving God with our available resources.

But sometimes, at the end of a long week, I find myself wondering if I’ve made any kind of a difference in my little circle of people.

Our guest blogger, Debbie, has been missing in action around here for almost a year now. 

Like many of us in 2020, she's been on an unexpected journey. But Debbie's journey was different than the journey most of us have been on over the past several months. Her journey included not only all that COVID brought to our world, her journey also included that dreaded "C" word--cancer.

We all know someone who has been on the cancer journey. Maybe, you've even traveled that road yourself. The greatest thing to know is that as Christian women, as women of God, we know that we do not travel that road alone! Not only do we not travel the road alone, but God also gives us unique opportunities to share the road with those who come behind us. Today, Debbie shares that road with us in the second of a 3-part series--Faith Over Fear.

Our oldest child will turn 24 in a couple of weeks, and our youngest turned 6 in January. To say that we have a huge age range in our family would be a big understatement.

I have been surprised to learn of how many families face this dynamic in our current culture.

Many people have asked questions about how we make it work, or what the challenges are that we face. These questions are often filled with a great deal of curiosity and wonder.

For us in Rossiterville, it is the norm and we can’t imagine our family any other way.

​We agree that the blessings far out way the challenges.

Let me share with you today a few of the blessings we have discovered along the way.