SPIRITUAL

Deposits. Withdrawals. I looked through my bills with a shocking reality. This month, several expenses come from what I consider fear-based charges. Car insurance. House rental insurance. Dental insurance. Vision insurance. Health insurance. We live in a culture where we can buy insurance for nearly anything. From art to pets to body parts. From computer…

144 times? 144 times. According to Charlotte Lieberman’s article, “Unplug and Recharge” in Real Simple magazine (https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/technology/unplug-and-recharge), Americans check their cellphones 144 times each day. As a flip phone user, I sometimes find it inconvenient to check my voicemail four times, much less 144 times per day. I don’t text, so that eliminates me from…

Do you ever feel like sometimes life resembles a chicken farm? You hunt. You peck. You feel pecked at by people, projects, pressures. Yet somehow you know you need to keep pecking, to persevere. I read a story from “God’s Little Devotional Book” which is written by a team of authors. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Y6NRFF3CL.SY385.jpg This author wrote:…

“Trust me. I’ll stop….” “No really. This time I’ll….” “I’ve learned my lesson. I mean it this time…” We all have something to fill in those blanks. Good ideas. Great plans. We gain clarity and fresh energy about doing what’s right until…. I read about the people from Joshua’s life who had a history of…

 “for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained” (2 Tim. 2:9). I was on prison chaplain duty when I saw an inmate coloring in a children’s coloring book. It’s rare that I see men coloring in a color book, and definitely…

Today, on the FROG Blog, I share a record number of responses to my voicemail challenges. Each week, I change my outgoing message to record something that invites callers to answer a question. I’ve asked questions like: “Who has been your favorite teacher and what makes that teacher stand out?” For Christmas, I asked, “What’s…

Today’s FROG Blog comes from my book Unthawed: Lessons from a Frozen Lily Pad. Unthawed was written with 13 other authors who stepped out of hibernation to expose a vulnerable situation from their lives. In 500 words or less, we courageously wrote what we discovered from uncomfortable, often daring decisions.   I recalled conversations from…

I listened to a radio show and the DJ asked listeners to vote for what they thought was the most searched word online.  What word do you think was most searched in 2023? Several radio listeners guessed restaurants, directions, hotels, and product reviews. Others guessed best vacation spots, beauty products and fashion trends. Were any…

My mission is to spread sunshine, one smile at a time. Woman’s World magazine will publish one of my stories related to this mission.  You can get the February 12, 2024 issue on sale February 2nd-8th. I recorded new 5-minute audio clips on “A Slice of PIE with Christina Mae.” These sound bites reflect something…

My author friend, Randy Carpenter asks, “What if our tears were color-coded?” He gives examples such as red tears may indicate anger, yellow tears could represent happiness, green for envy, and blue for sadness. Simple, but brilliant! I think about how tears represent much more than sadness. Frequently, my life coaching clients apologize for crying….