Devotions of a High Heeled Warrior

Why is fasting so hard?  I've never liked dieting.  I'm too in love with bread and dessert to stick with a diet for long.  When intermittent fasting became a thing, I did not jump on that band wagon.  My husband mentioned that I am not very nice when I'm hangry.  So when I started hearing a lot of friends talk about fasting, I was challenged.  I've had several friends who have mentioned that God has challenged them to fast (giving up something and replacing it with prayer) for answers to prayers.  As they've done this, they have begun to report back amazing ways God answered their prayers almost instantly.  My daughters are friends with a couple in ministry.  They fasted and prayed for God to provide a bus for the ministry.  Within a very short time period, they were given a very nice bus.  If things happen when we fast, why do we struggle to do it?  I think when Jesus fasted for forty days and nights, the Bible showed som...

Prom spelled out in pepperoni on a pizza...Post-It Proms on car windshields...Yoda one I want to go to prom with in a Yoda costume... If you haven't seen any of these on social media, let me be the first to tell you it is prom season.  As a result of this time of year, I got the opportunity to buy prom dresses for my identical twin girls.  Even though they are identical, they are as different in personality as hot is from cold.  Megan likes to be prepared, so she found her dress a year ago. We were looking around a flea market when Megan fell in love with this princess dress.   It was amazing, but not in a good way.  It was hot pink/orange/metallic something covered in a rainbow tulle and coated with about 3 pounds of fabric rosettes, crystal beads, and large butterfly-shaped sequins.  To her amazement, and my horror, a little elderly man saw her adoration and wanted to give her the prom dress of her dreams.  He paid for the whole thing.  As ...

If you've watched television, you've seen the commercials for tax season.  I can tell you that you will not find me in dollar sign footsy pajamas singing about 1099's like the commercials.  If anything, I dread tax season, and I was a tax preparer at one point in my life!  Why do I dread it?   Because it takes a lot of work.  As a result of itemizing, I have to total receipts and categorize bills.  This sounds easy, right?  It's not if all of your receipts are crammed into a shoe box, the center console of your car, and the junk drawers in your house.  I have to time to gather them, sort them, and total them before I can take them to our tax preparer.  Sometimes we get a tax return.  Sometimes we owe money.  I never know the outcome; however, I do this because it is a requirement of our government.   Let's take this to a spiritual outlook.  I work in my church which I attend.  Yes, I'm a pastor's wife so it's expe...

I f you live in America, you are probably aware that today is Super Bowl Sunday.  Millions of people will gather together to eat massive quantities of junk food, scream at a team they've not watched all year, and critique commercials.  I am not a huge football person, but I love to watch the commercials.  When people ask which team I am cheering for, I have a system.  If it's a team close to where I live, I cheer for them.  If they both are from far away, I look for the team with a player who has a good story.  Peyton Manning was a favorite.  If I haven't heard any moving stories about players, I cheer for the team with my favorite color jersey or best mascot.  If that fails, I cheer for whomever the majority at the party I attend are cheering.  Once you hear my system, you quickly realize I'm not a faithful football fan.  What makes a faithful football fan? 1. A faithful football fan shows up no matter the weather.  A little ra...

Today, I had to do one of the chores I hate the most.  I had to pooper scoop my lawn.   One of the drawbacks of having a very large dog is that there are smelly landmines all over my yard.  It's not so bad during the day, but at night, it is a battlefield.  One wrong step in the dark and you're cleaning your shoes for 30 minutes with a toothbrush.  We have even assigned this job as punishment for our children if they refuse to do the jobs we have given them around the house.  Picture my son with a bandana wrapped around his nose whining about the smell and how life is unfair as he picks up doggy presents around my yard.   Because I despise this duty (sorry for the pun) so much, my husband was thoughtful enough to buy me a pooper scooper for Christmas.  You heard me right.  For Christmas, my husband bought me a tool to pick up doggy poop.  How romantic!  Believe it or not, I actually like this gift.  Why?  Because it gi...

If anyone hasn't already noticed, it's cold and flu season.  With the crazy weather of late, it may be 25 degrees one day and 60 degrees the next day.  Even if you've never suffered from congestion before, you probably have experienced it a time or two this year.  Because I work with preschool-aged children, I have a good indicator when congestion season has arrived- mucus!   If you have ever worked with young children or parent young children, then you need no further explanation, but for those who don't, I'll elaborate.  You may hear the echo of a phlegmy sneeze or see it coming.  You dive for the tissue to no avail.  Twin bungee chords of mucus dangle down the child's face.  Or there is the other type- the perpetual river of green snot running under the child's nose and onto the upper lip.  I'm not sure why the children with mucus issues are almost always the ones that want spontaneous hugs they initiate.   This is how you know I'm...

One of my New Year's goals was to clean out my closet.  I have a drawer designated for workout wear, a drawer for my work scrubs, and a space for my church/professional wear.  If I could get away with wearing yoga pants and sweat shirts everywhere, I would be a happy woman.  However, I've learned that how you dress influences how people respond to you.   I would never appear at an important conference in which I'm presenting while wearing yoga pants.  I've learned not wear my nice church clothes when working with the small children on my caseload.  I attempted to wear a long, pretty skirt once.  After I fended off a little guy who kept trying to crawl under my skirt, I learned quickly that scrubs were much more functional when working with spaghetti sauce/maple syrup coated little fingers.  When I'm attending church, this gets a little more complicated.  Churches have become a more casual atmosphere, but there are still the traditionalist ...