Abandonment- Is It Even Real?

Will God abandon us during our tough times??

Heck no He won't! Quite the opposite actually! Check out these verses as proof:

Psalm 9:10
"Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never abandoned anyone who searches for you."

Psalm 27:10
"Even if my father and mother abandon me, The Lord will hold me close."

1st John 14:16
"And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you."

2nd Corinthians 4:9
"We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going."

I know sometimes in my life, especially on those "down days", I have to remind myself that God is with me. I thought these verses would be helpful to so many of you who experience those same frustrating days at times.

To All You Real Women Out There

Welcome to my newest creation! Well, it's actually not all that new. And it's really not even a new idea for the topic. In fact, what I have to talk about is actually really really old! And by today's standards it can even be considered boring. Don't freak: its the Bible! And God, and Jesus, and all that goes with it!

Actually, to be honest, this is not a boring topic at all. It's amazing, wild, crazy, heroic, tragic, full of romance and love stories. You name it and the Bible has it! And I am here to let you in on a little secret on how to never get bored with the Bible again!

So here is a little bit about my background. I grew up in church. I had an awesome mom who never let an opportunity go by to get me and my siblings to church. Oh and I also grew up in a small town; in the South! If you are an American, you probably know what that means: Sunday school on Sunday mornings, Sunday morning church service, Sunday night church service, and don't forget Wednesday night services too. Oh, and when you get to be old enough to be in youth group, you can add in another day as well. So I don't remember a time in my childhood where I didn't already know about God and all the churchy things. You know, the "Sunday school answers".

This isn't a bad thing! By all means understand that I have an incredible mom that loves her children so much that she wanted the very best for them from the beginning and she knew where to find it: Church! Church kept me out of a lot of trouble. I got into a lot of trouble there too. But let's be real: how many of us that grew up in church can quote the story of Noah and the arc? What about Adam and Eve? And don't forget Moses and those Ten Commandments that we all have memorized now thanks for flannel boards! 

So if we know all of these stories, then why do we now as adults find ourselves zoning out during a church service or Bible study group? I'll tell you why: we were never taught to read the Bible for ourselves! I challenged myself at the end of last year to read the Bible from cover to cover as though I had never even heard of the Bible before. I wanted more out of my "walk with God" and to be truly satisfied and happy in my life. 

So I did it; I started the process of really reading the Bible. And what I read blew my mind!!! It was like I was constantly being shocked over and over by the details of what I was reading. The pure fierceness of God in the old testament just blew me away! I couldn't wait to get up the next morning and continue reading to see what was going to happen next! 

This is where it is my turn to share with you, real women, what I have rediscovered. Or perhaps I should say discovered since most of these things were seen by me for the first time with my own eyes. Join me! You'll love the realness that is in the Bible. The rawness that is what we call life. This is for real women; women who want to live real without apology.