Author | Speaker | Encourager

Sherri'sBlog

The Three Amigos

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Freedom - sxc.hu - 1438184_98376336Do you want to know who God is to me? How he found me in the darkest places and brought such freedom to my life?

Good. I thought you might.

I’m thirsty for knowledge and for freedom. I suck up podcasts like a starving person. I could easily be a conference junkie, traveling anywhere and spending whatever it cost to attain nuggets of truth to further me on this journey deeper into God’s heart, where shackles and chains are broken off like tiny bits of confetti.

It’s been a difficult and painful journey. I’ve struggled with loneliness and depression, anger and anxiety.

Much of my life I’ve been scared of Him. Scared of not meeting His expectations, scared of failing, of incurring His disapproval and disappointment. Read More…

The Path To Freedom

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Tiger - An Argument stockpholioWhat battle are you fighting?

With yourself? Are you beating yourself up over your bad choices, your forgetfulness, your lack of measuring up?

Or with others? Their stupidity, insensitivity and thoughtlessness or just because they lack kindness toward us?

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The Great Exchange

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ShameShame steals.

It’s insidious. Slimy. It relentlessly seeks any cracks in our core being. Hunting for the fault lines. Nourishing the lies that we aren’t good enough. That our failures define us.

It finds those fears and erodes, pushing and wedging itself in deeper and deeper. Feeding the erroneous belief that our happiness is unequivocally linked to our successes. And we must, must hide the flaws. The lack we perceive within ourselves.

Shame has an enemy. And His name is Love.

Love is full of acceptance. Grace. Hope. Laughter.

When we know who we are—–when our identity is solidly and unshakably defined by how Jesus sees us—-we begin to see ourselves through His lens . . . and we see the good. We are good.

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For the Love of Money and Cows

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bball shoes[stockpholio.com]-3342936369_4God owns the cows on a thousand hills. So we don’t need to worry about money, right? It’s just occasionally we’d like to see more hoof prints on our bank account, no?

So, we in the Sand clan live basketball. Live it and breathe it. Because of this, there are many, many pairs of basketball shoes in the garage from yesteryear that we step over to get into the house.

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You Are My Beloved

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DCF 1.0A dear friend told me about a wonderful man named Mark Virkler. He’s gifted in teaching people how to hear God’s voice more clearly. His web site Communion With God Ministries is packed full of resources. I found him on iTunes and listened to his six podcasts titled: How to Hear God’s Voice.

The first podcast covers the basics and the next five are great bonus material. He also has a great book and video series titled Prayers that Heal the Heart (I just threw that in for free).

From his teachings, I learned how to journal with God and my time and my ability to hear God more clearly deepened significantly. So with that said, I wanted to share something God gave me for YOU, his precious, precious child.

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Free eBook – Leave it to Chance

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LeaveMy publisher, David C Cook, is offering the eBook version of Leave it to Chance for FREE. The promotion starts today and ends tomorrow, Feb. 25th.

Here’s the link to all the retailers who are carry the title.

About the Book

Single mom of three, Sierra Montgomery is desperate to find a new job to keep from having to move back home and be smothered to death by her mother’s good intentions and overbearing love. So when Sierra inherits Chance, a quirky old gelding she doesn’t have a clue what to do with, she thinks her best bet may be to sell the horse to cover another month’s rent—a decision that devastates her children.

Enter Ross Morgan, a handsome landscaper who just happens to have an empty barn and fenced pasture… perfect for an old horse to live out his days as the pet of three wounded kids. Ross develops a soft spot for eldest child Braden…and he just might have one for Braden’s mother. But what he doesn’t have is time for distractions—he’s got a landscaping business to run and nursery plants to tend.

But Sierra has a secret. She’s terrified of horses and—thanks to her past—wary of attractive men. Yet seeing the way her angry son idolizes Ross and adores that old horse forces Sierra to confront her fears. Will she remain distrustful and self-reliant, or will she seek help from God and those who love her?

A Little More . . .

So if you have friends or family who love a good read, feel free to pass the information along.

And check back in and let me know what you think.

Blessings!

Pride and Injustice in Parenting and Life

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256 Blindfold_hatPride and Injustice: The two ditches I often fall into. Unfortunately, pride wears blinders. I know this because I see it in other people. Their flaws are readily apparent. Mine? Not so much.

Though my daughter’s hurt becomes a mirror of my verbal tone and words if I will only look.  It’s easier to point a finger and want the world to adjust, than to peer closely at the impact I am making. If I followed the rumblings that reverberate from the relational hiccups in my life, I could learn a great deal.

When the kids were very young and I was surviving on little sleep and even less patience, every difficulty was clouded by my peering through a faulty lens of perfectionism and fear. Was I parenting well? Were my children being scarred by my outbursts of frustration? Read More…

Getting Rid of the Blame Monster

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angry womanI hate being a cranky mom. From there I transform into a blame monster.

It started one morning on the drive to school when my fifteen year-old turned to me and asked if I would bring him his basketball shoes before practice. I assumed he’d forgotten his shoes at home, but no, they were sitting in the back seat. I know, right?!

Yes, I asked the obvious . . . why would I deliver them when you have them with you? Well, that would be because he forgot his locker combination (which he apparently has not used all year) and he didn’t want to haul the shoes around all day.

I very kindly said no. I was still in a good mood at this point. Until he gave me the head shake of disgust.

But I pinched my lips together and utilized all the self-control I could muster to tell him to have a good day as he climbed out of the car, while still retaining most of my good mood.

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We Have an Unseen Enemy

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Western Green MambaThe Serpent.

For humanity, that’s where it started.

The word says the serpent was more crafty that any beast of the field (Gen. 3:1). That hasn’t changed. We still have the same adversary who schemes and crafts plans against us (Eph. 6:11). The junk he plants into our lives isn’t random, but rather, purposeful. Destructive.

When a general is at war, he sets up a round table with his smartest tacticians who cook up plots and schemes to take down his enemy. We are satan’s enemy.

Strategically orchestrated plans have been formed against us. Some of you may feel the hair lifting on the back of your neck as fear whispers to leave this blog. Sometimes it’s easier to ignore what we don’t understand.

We are in an unseen battle. Whether we see it or not doesn’t make it any less real.

What satan doesn’t want you to know is he’s already been defeated. At the cross. By Jesus, our big brother and hero. We also have a manual for war and life called the Bible. But if you don’t know the Author it won’t be much more than words on a page. He’s the key to everything. And He’s extremely generous with His love and affection which empower the weapons and tools He’s given us to defeat the enemy and help free our brothers and sisters-in-arms.

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Zapped No More!

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Fear Not.

It’s both a command and an invitation. (Isaiah 41:10)

Have you ever felt you were living near a giant bug zapper? You know, like from the movie, It’s a Bug’s Life? My kids used to watch it when they were little…endlessly. My favorite scene is when the camera snaps to a scene with a flying insect drifting straight for an electrified bug zapper.

His horrified friend is shouting, “Don’t look at the light, Harry!” In languid tones, a deeply mesmerized Harry replies, “But it’s so beautif-” Bzzzzpt!

And Harry becomes a crispy critter.

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