Forgiving Offenses

October 3, 2025October 2, 2025 RefreshHerLeave a comment

As surely as the leaves fall from the trees in autumn, offenses will also fall around us. We look down at our feet, and the hurts are scattered everywhere. They come from those that are closest to us – our husband, our children, our parents, our dearest friends with whom we have shared confidences and our very hearts. It’s stinging. It’s bitter. It’s what life is full of, and the reason we need a Savior. He makes sense of it all. He puts our hearts back together and reminds us of the same grace and love that forgave us of our offenses.

The question now is – How do I forgive this?! We have had the unimaginable said to us, done to us or thrown at us, and we have no idea how to go on. We must run to

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Packing for the Journey of Marriage, Part 2

October 1, 2025September 30, 2025 RefreshHerLeave a comment

This is the second in a three part series on marriage. Part one is here. You can listen to this post on Refresh Her podcast.

Marriage is a journey that is intended by God to last a lifetime. There are responsibilities that we are to “pack away” to make our relationships God-honoring, fulfilling to our husband, and to create a home life that is a blessing to one another. Let’s pick up with our list and check to see if our luggage is packed sufficiently.

This list isn’t filled with the essentials, like Bible study and prayer. I’m assuming that, like your outfits you would pack for a trip, these are already “on the list.” They’re non-negotiables. Be in God’s Word. Stay in fellowship with the Lord through a regular, desperate prayer time.

Let’s turn around and add some things we often forget, like …

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Peanut butter pie · Pie · Uncategorized

Delicious Frozen Peanut Butter Pie Recipe for Any Gathering

September 29, 2025September 29, 2025 RefreshHer2 Comments

How thankful I am to be a part of my church – Boones Creek Bible Church. It’s a church filled with believers who love the Lord, His Word and have a burden for the lost. It’s not perfect, of course, and that is also true of the members (this one included!). But it’s the Gospel that keeps us united and has kept the doors open for all these years.

Yesterday we had the blessing of celebrating the church’s 69th anniversary – all of His grace. It was a sweet joy to hear the testimony of Jerry Partin, the son of the man who had a huge part in starting the church. He happens to be Willie Partin’s father. If you’ve attended camp at all at The Wilds, you know Willie. He was also in our service yesterday. He preached the message. Hebrews 12 was his text – It was a powerful reminder to keep our eyes on Christ and persevere. Oh, how easy it is for me to get my eyes on people and become disappointed, or to look at my struggles and get “weary and discouraged in my soul!” It’s only by looking at our Savior and knowing that He is greater and better that I can press on! I pray that truth encourages you, too!

We had a church dinner afterwards, of course, and it was delicious, and a sweet time of fellowship. I took a few dishes, two of which are favorites.

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Family life · Infant Death · ministry

Finding Joy in Memories: D&D Ministries’ Weekend Trip

September 26, 2025September 25, 2025 RefreshHer2 Comments

Last weekend D&D Ministries headed to Indiana and Illinois. I was scheduled to speak at Camp Assurance in Danville, IL and then Dale preached and I taught the ladies’ Sunday school class in a church in New Richmond, OH.

I was excited to be going through Indiana – our “old stomping grounds.” We lived there for fourteen years – those were the years we raised our girls, and had some of the most difficult seasons of our lives. There were hard ministry issues, the death of our second daughter, a meager salary, and long work hours for Dale.

But as the Lord often does, He turned those difficulties into some of the most precious blessings, and also loaded us with many joys that outnumbered our sorrows. Of course we couldn’t see and recognize all those good things at the time. Those kind of perspectives sometimes take years to see. As we drove through the cities where we lived and served, the memories flooded my heart. But there were a couple other events that truly brought the emotions.

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Marriage

Packing for the Journey of Marriage

September 24, 2025September 24, 2025 RefreshHerLeave a comment

You can listen to this post here on Refresh Her podcast. (There appears to have been some kind of strange glitch in the upload today, and I’ve tried to repost the episode. If it has my voice doubled over the introduction, just fast forward about 25 seconds and the rest should be clear. So strange!)

There’s nothing like packing for a trip, only to arrive at your destination to find that you left something important behind. When you got married, you had “packed your luggage” – not just for your honeymoon. You had filled your fiancé’s life with what you both felt would get you through this journey of marriage. What brought you together? Something had to have been “packed and ready ”between you and your mate. What was it? What attracted you to your spouse? What kind of fun did you have in those early days? Have you revisited those memories lately?

In Genesis 24, we get a little picture of the beginning of Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage. There were many attributes packed into Rebekah’s character that Isaac could admire. Their story has some great lessons for our marriages and reminders of the things we need to be sure to bring along all the years we are married.

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