How to Rest in a Stress-filled World

 by Barbara Latta

Berry College, located in northwest Georgia, has residents who are not students.

Two bald eagles built a home in a tall pine tree and return each year to raise their young. The college offers a live stream feed (viewhere) of the nest where viewers can watch the pair as they take care of their offspring. Eggs are usually laid around January-February and hatch in early spring.

Wind, rain, sleet, snow and storms do not deter the eagle from watching over the young. While the pair do share parenting responsibilities, the female sits on the nest for the longest duration.

The eggs are kept warm until they hatch and then the adults work tirelessly hunting food and bringing it back to the tree to feed the babies. The eaglets thrive under the watchful eyes and protection of the parent.

There are lots of enemies to baby birds. Yet they don’t flap their stubby wings and tell the parent they are worried about being taken care of.

All the babies do is rest and grow.

The chicks do not fret that the meal won’t come.

They do not worry about staying warm.

They are not afraid of predators because their parents are mighty warriors.

The fledglings dwell in the secret place of their parent’s wings.

The eagle chicks can teach us something about how to rest in a stress-filled world.

Why Do We Need to Praise God Even in Bad Times?

 by Barbara Latta

Malachi 3:6 image from Daniel Reche from Pixabay

Why does God tell us to praise Him continually? Why should we praise Him in bad times, too?

When we are suffering through experiences that are painful or depressing, the last thing we usually think about is praising God. Our minds are on our own situations, hurts, and despair.

God doesn’t tell us to praise Him in every circumstance to be mean. He is giving us the answer to our dilemma.

God doesn’t tell us to thank Him for bad situations, He says to praise Him in the middle of every circumstance. We circumvent the bad emotions and worry by focusing on Him. We aren’t to be thankful for being sick or for some tragedy. Those are the works of the devil. Jesus came to give us life (John 10:10). We thank Him that He is Lord over all of it. It shows we are trusting Him. 

Why should we only want to praise our heavenly Father when everything goes our way? Here are some reasons we should praise God at all times no matter what is happening in our lives.

3 Ways a Salty Life Adds Seasoning to an Unflavored World

 by Barbara Latta

Imagine sitting at a table in a fine restaurant. The gourmet food is carried to your table and placed in front of you. The steam wafts to your nose and the smell makes your mouth water. You reach for the salt shaker and turn the container to add the grains on your food. Nothing comes out.

You shake again. Still nothing. Then if you are like me, you take the top off and look inside to see what the problem is. The salt is in the shaker, but it is one big wad. Moisture has contaminated it and now it is no good.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men (Matthew 5:13).

If we lose our taste for God, we have no witness. We become like unflavored salt.

Why did Jesus compare believers to salt? We can find out by discovering some properties of this mineral. Here are 3 ways a salty life adds seasoning to an unflavored world:

3 Ways to be Ready for the End Times

 by Barbara Latta

Do we even need to guess that we are living in the end times the Bible tells us about?

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

These verses portray the headlines in our news media today. Never before have we seen the violence and attitudes displayed by people in the world as we have recently.

And to try to warn people about the second coming of Christ, some will just blow it off and say that they have heard that all their lives. While scoffers will always exist, the truth unfolds in the scriptures.

Don't let last year's disappointments derail 2021

 by Barbara Latta

Staggering setbacks and panic encapsulated 2020. Nothing like the chaos of the past twelve months has been experienced by most of us.

If we aren’t careful, we can carry anxiety from those experiences into our future.

To thrive, we don’t want to let last year’s disappointments derail 2021.

The key to avoiding this is to check our focus. In her book, Write His Answer, Marlene Bagnull issued a challenge. Get your eyes off yourself and onto someone else. In this case it was other writers who might need encouragement or help, but this idea can transfer to anyone in our lives.

She suggested choosing one of the four gospels to read and to list all the events that could have caused Jesus disappointment.

I chose the book of John and this is a shortened list of what I discovered: