I am selling stuff on Facebook before we move.

My husband asked me to post his ladder.

I said “no one wants your ladder”

“I have big items like benches and couches and tables.”

I post the ladder and friends IT IS COMPLETE MAYHEM

Every man within 50 miles WANTS THIS LADDER! JUST GOT ANOTHER INQUIRY ON THE LADDER AS I TYPE.

Another man asked if he could call my husband’s phone (it’s past 10pm) to solidify his position with the ladder.

I simply wasn’t prepared for this. Only 2 people have asked if they could come get my vintage floor length mirror?

My greatest testimony of God’s faithfulness isn’t an answered prayer

It’s not an outward miracle or the changing of my circumstances

It’s the work God does within me

It’s the delicate, and gentle way God continues to transform my own character

Even without the answers God’s faithfulness, has been in the continued work of restoring me back to God & to myself

That’s the miracle

It defies my human nature

It defies answers

It’s the miracle of a relationship w/ God

& it has not been me, but God, who has been most faithful to that relationship

This morning I asked my daughter if she tells her brother she loves him

“He knows I love him..” she said

“You tell him when you are mad at him? You tell him when you want him out of your room. You should tell him you love him too” I told her

Don’t assume what ppl know

Say it She turns to her brother (who is 7, she is 8) and says “I love you.”

He smiles and says “I love you too”

20 minutes later they were fighting again,

But at least this time he knew

She loves him too

I have a student who’s a raging feminist

Says she’ll NEVER get married

She goes to a think tank in DC & meets a guy from Yale. Falls in love

He has a heart attack. Almost dies. & in the exhilaration of him being alive SHE gets down on one knee

& PROPOSES

BTW he said yes. Who raised GenZ? Gen X? Is that who we thank??

She looks at the entire class and says “YOU ARE NO MAN’S PROPERTY!”

& then says her husband is her greatest life PARTNER

Also, I’ve never felt better about my future than knowing this girl is in DC think tanks w/ her Yale husband

The reward for David slaying Goliath

Is wrestling w/ Saul

The reward for Daniel’s diet in Babylon

Is to later face a lions den

Every battle eventually leads to a bigger one

So more important than storing joy

Is living with the source of it The reality is that every answered prayer just leads you to praying another one

So what if instead of getting joy because God answers any singular request

We found joy in the unbelievable honor

Of being able to ask at all

Unfortunately one of the weapons Christians have used for manipulation is “I’ll pray for you”

Some ppl will use it to create a spiritual chasm where one is superior & the other is inferior & in need of divine intervention

Don’t use manipulatively

It’s spiritual abuse I have also had ppl be incredibly inappropriate & rude

And then they say “let’s pray” at the end

It’s toxic. & learn to be okay learning to say “no thank you” when someone tries to do this to you

YEARS ago I was w/ guys from Notre Dame & one’s an Olympic athlete who won’t stop telling us he’s an athlete

It’s so bad my friend demands he stop the car

She screams at him & it’s all very intense

Today I randomly type his name in & this bio pops up:

“World Class Athlete” When she made him stop the car he goes “no one has ever challenged me before”

& then looks at her like he has finally found a host strong enough to carry his athlete babies

& she goes, “No I literally hate you”

Update: My relationship advice to “Scott” (& you):

He says talking w/ “her” has slowed down

He feels like he isn’t good at “being interesting”

To which I said, “dating isn’t about you convincing her you are interesting?”

It’s about you making HER feel interesting! Most ppl aren’t wanting you to blow them away w/ how cool you are, so you can stop worrying about how to be cool

Communication is about making THEM feel cool & interesting

& anyone can do that!

Most ppl never have anyone ask them about themselves

so learn to nail the ask

I mentioned something someone had said to me & my husband said

“Then they don’t know you because that’s not true. I know who you are.”

& I’ve been sitting in it the last couple weeks..The intimacy of having someone truly know who you are..

For some reason, that’s enough.. There will always be loud voices who don’t get you. We can only do so much about them

My advice is to draw a small circle of ppl, who can look you in the eyes and say,

“I know who you are”

That one certain voice and drown out the uncertainty of many others

It’s a deception to think that racism & the unborn are political issues

You should be able to be a Republican & believe Black Lives Matter

You should be able to be a Democrat & against abortion

You are an individual capable of moral choices that extend past political labels I know we are super divided right now, but I also know how groupthink works, & sometimes I wonder if we were willing to step outside of the label of the group we feel we have to represent, & be willing to discuss issues as individuals, if we couldn’t find more common ground?

My church is whoever is willing to surrender their hearts/actions to the authority of God

My community is the broken, the doubting, the vulnerable..

My values are to pursue a life of nonviolence

I pray to be inviting to others & provide ALL ppl w/ freedom & dignity I want to be intentional about never resorting to strategies of coercion, fear, or manipulation

I believe that Jesus is my Savior & also my example

I don’t always get it right, but these are some of the practical ways my faith applies to my career, communication and choices

My mother: Please don’t talk about your brother’s dating life on Twitter

So, from this day forward, any references to my brother & his love life will go under the pseudonym “Scott”

2020 needs this love story

We are all rooting for you Scott.

Godspeed. Also me: But mom!!!! I am a storyteller! Love stories must be told!!

Mother: ...but?? This isn’t actually YOUR story???

Me:

Mom:

(Me opening the log in my drafts): *Dear Twitter, at 11:35pm I received a text from “Scott”. He seemed happy...*

I had a very strong feeling that I needed to give a student $40

I handed it to her & she started sobbing

I did not know this but she was 18 & living in a halfway house w/ a baby. She had just prayed for the first time in yrs for enough for diapers

An hr later I handed her $40 She said she hadn’t prayed in yrs because God had never seemed to answer before. She had asked a friend’s dad for money but he couldn’t help. Her friend, right before my class, suggested they pray for money for diapers

“I cannot believe this is happening right now” she cried

I’m on a senior thesis committee for a conservative white christian school

The girl (who is white) just started her thesis presentation on “the escalation of white nationalism since the 2016 election”

I dont know if the church is ready for generation Z y’all I could feel the tension through the zoom. 👏🏽And this girl did not care. She was like, “nope. My turn to teach today!”

My mentor tells me “stay humble, stay on your knees”

Beth is right. A Stumbling block to those of us who feel “right” may be our own “rightness”

I’m reminded of the parable in Luke 18 “‘I thank you, God that I am not like other people”

Stay humble friends. Stay on your knees

https://twitter.com/BethMooreLPM/status/1283765781860417536

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer

A woman at my PhD defense said “So are you saying racism is STILL so bad it impacts learning environments?”

I said: Well, I, a black student, straightened my hair before coming today. I knew even my natural hair would change how you, my educator, perceived me”

Silence A black Professor said “Yes racism impacts achievement. Next question..”

She goes, “I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s just related to poverty, but black ppl are so loud that we only focus on their story”

And that my friends, is how she answered her own original question

When my grandparents found out my mom was dating a black guy they put all her stuff on the sidewalk

She married him anyway

& in 2008 my grandparents PROUDLY voted for Obama

People grow & evolve. Give space for that

I feel very lucky to have grown up in an interracial family It was my grandfather who walked me down the aisle at my wedding because dad was marrying @SethMDay & I

My grandpa passed way 7 years ago, but he was the second best man I knew growing up. He carried a copy of my first book in his pants, & would pull it out for strangers.

Wednesday Night Bible Study. Can we talk for a second about how God is described in Scripture not just as a man, but ALSO as a woman? 👏🏽🙌🏽 God: “For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept myself still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.”Isaiah 42:14

Iraqis are God’s children.
Iranians are God’s children.
Africans are God’s children.
Latin Americans are God’s children.
North Koreans are God’s children.

“They will come from the east & the west, from the north & the south, & sit down in the kingdom of God.”
-Jesus & we WILL one day be held accountable for how we treat each and ALL of God’s Children.

Teacher, what is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord, this is the great and first commandment. & the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I had a student once who entered college with a 1.2 GPA.

She finished w/ honors, & a full ride scholarship to her next school.

She was the same person she was in high school, only difference was that in college, for the first time in her life,

she had a bed. Sometimes our circumstances override our abilities. & that’s why I believe we best serve all of us, when we decide as a country, to aid people in their circumstances.

THREAD: 1) I’m seeing a tweet go viral by a pastor who is explaining why he is no longer a Christian. Faith is a personal journey, so I hope he keeps navigating it, but I wanted to tell a story on #whyImaChristian. 2) there are many stories. But here is the first major time I realized that not only is God real, He speaks to us and uses us to speak to other people.