Soul Keeping Archives - True and Faithful

God’s ONE Answer When We Fear New Situations

04.17.2018 By Lisa Appelo 24 Comments

Are you facing something today that is scary new?

Maybe it’s a great step forward, something you’ve dreamed about and looked forward to but it’s still all new territory. Some days you think God picked the wrong girl and you feel fear trying to hold you back.

Or maybe it’s a step you never wanted. You didn’t see this one coming and it’s rife with unexpected unknowns and unwanted change. Fear is real because you can’t see how to navigate this and what in the world lies beyond it.

Maybe you’re parenting at a whole new stage and begging God for wisdom in this season. Just when you thought you had your footing and a steady rhythm, you’re a student all over again. Fear is taunting that you don’t have what it takes to do this and you’re gonna fail you *and* your kids.

I’ve been all three of these places and I’ll tell you what won’t work: trying to dig deep and muster up the guts to do the hard thing.

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Keeping Our First Love Flourishing

04.13.2018 By Lisa Appelo 11 Comments

Years ago, a girl gave her heart to a boy.

He’d first been a best friend. There’d been laughter and stories swapped on long youth trips, open school bus windows blowing in hot air and legs sticking against vinyl seats.

There’d been summer Sunday fellowships after church with games and swimming and school year lunches when the whole gang squeezed into the birthday booth at Burger King.

When the oldest in their circle got a license and family car, there were weekly day trips to find waves and she’d gone for the sun.

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What If We Lived Like We’re Dying

02.02.2018 By Lisa Appelo 18 Comments

If someone told you today that you were dying, what would really matter?

What would you change about your life? What would you stop doing and what would you do more of?

That’s what a pediatrician in Cape Town, South Africa asked his patients — terminally ill children. What did they enjoy and what gave life meaning?

Then he tweeted the top 10 answers and his feed exploded.

The answers were stunning in their simplicity.

What do kids who are dying say gives life real meaning?

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When You’d Rather Dodge the Storm

11.09.2017 By Lisa Appelo 16 Comments

when you'd rather dodge the storm

I woke in the inky darkness to the wind’s furious whipping outside my window. The power had finally gone out after flickered warnings through the evening and the house was now eerily still compared to the howling outside. At each powerful gust, I braced for limbs that cracked and crashed to the ground outside.

I stepped around my kids scattered on mattresses around the living room. How could they sleep so peacefully through this storm? It had been like a holiday for them – days off school, postponed homework and a pantry of hurricane snacks.

For a week, we’d been tracking the biggest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. We’d waited in long lines to stock up on gasoline and water. We’d studied the projected path, prepping to stay while weighing whether to evacuate.

“O, Lord! I don’t want this storm,” I had prayed, hoping it would take a sharp turn to the east and spin off into the ocean.

Despite my prayers, the storm was now here.

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Pressing Pause & a Free Personal Retreat Notebook

08.24.2017 By Lisa Appelo 15 Comments

Does it feel like just as we were settling into summer someone hit the fast forward button? I mean, I’m enjoying all the back-to-school photos but I still have a mostly untouched summer to-do list.

Summer 2017 was one for the books for our family in so many ways. Two graduations, a wedding and our first grandbaby all before mid-June. We sandwiched in four birthdays, VBS, science camp, summer jobs, two church camps, surgery and radiation for my mom (who is doing so well) and, most recently, launched another one to college.

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