Journal | Heartstone Journey

Every Young Woman’s Battle

As parents we all face that moment where we should have the conversation about sex with our kids. Remember if you’re not having the conversation with you’re kids, someone else is and the best place for a child to learn about sexuality is at home from those who care most about them. As a single dad, the conversation with my daughter was a bit more challenging. Where to begin that conversation was the tough part. Any single dad’s out there know what I’m talking about?

Struggling how to even approach the subject, someone recommended a book to me called, “Every Young Woman’s Battle: Guarding Your Mind, Heart, and Body in a Sex-Saturated World”. I read the book first and then gave a copy to my daughter to read when she started Junior High School. This article focuses on daughters, but there is a similar book for sons called, you guessed it, “Every Young Man’s Battle”.

Now, is this the silver bullet dad’s are looking for?

How I Collided With Destiny, In the Silence Of Life

Have you ever noticed how much noise there is around us?

Silence in the world we live in is a very rare commodity. There seems to always be someone or something competing for our time and our silence is invaded from every direction if we let it.

Why is this a concern for you and me? Because God does some some of His best and most powerful work in us, in the silence. Why is this difficult for us? Because we often choose to be at war with our silence and seem avoid it at all cost. Quick test: I bet that you take your smartphone/tablet into the bathroom with you — don’t you?

Somehow we have become conditioned to never unplug!

I was in a place in my life where I had lost my hope, my family, my house, many friends, my financial resources, and almost my job, and I kept crucifying myself with the regrets of my past and the fear of my future. Well, I had had enough and determined that it would be best for me to use some of my own strength, and I decided to go on a hike. I really needed to clear my thoughts and getting up on top of the mountains usually was a great remedy. What I didn’t realize is that God was smiling a bit because He had planned this. He had known about my circumstances from the very beginning.

Here is an excerpt from my book Heartstone where I had that collision with God in the silence.

Can We Really Trust Our Choices?

We soon discover that our journey in this world has so many competing demands distracting us from our true destination that we usually miss both the journey and the destination all together. Consumed with my empire building, I lost sight of what was important in life and sadly “arriving” became more important than “becoming.” Because I was so focused on what was next, I was never able to enjoy living in the moment. How much of the journey do we miss because we are so focused only on the destination? Our choices, our idols, and the stuff we covet have significant impact on us. What we fail to see is that God is more concerned with who we are becoming than with our empire building. Oddly enough, so are our wives and kids.

Power to choose; why does God allow this?

Looking Back At 2014

The new year has come and it feels like only yesterday that I was writing my 2013 year in review. Wow, where has the year gone? Since my last year in review a lot has happened on Heartstone Journey and in my own life. There is so much I could share, but here are some highlights:

The Shocking Truth Of Settling For Less Than God’s Best

Why is it that most of us become spiritually lazy as we accept and embrace a passive existence stumbling through the shadows of life looking for love and acceptance? Have you ever noticed that we actually go out of our way to stay off the rough roads of life? It seems that our primary objectives become securing a peaceful retreat from the world, thinking only about ourselves, and finding a hiding place from the turbulence of life. We all seem to find it so much easier to simply go along with the status quo, which over time actually leads to a life of heart-numbing mediocrity, and we settle for something less than God’s best.

Does God share with us in His word some thoughts about this? I think He does. Consider the story of Moses. God heard the cries of the oppressed Israelite slaves, and He enters history to deliver them from the tyranny of Pharaoh and the bondage of Egypt. After the captives have been set free from Egypt, God meets with them in the wilderness to make them His people. They enter into a covenant with God promising to love and to serve Him in response to His gracious acts of deliverance. God then promises them a land in which they could be His people.

God actually hangs out with these people wanting to connect with them in a loving relationship. Can you imagine that? That would be awesome! If that happened to us, we would be convinced! Convinced for life!

Wouldn’t we?

Well, let’s see what happens…

Every Young Woman’s Battle

How I Collided With Destiny, In the Silence Of Life

Can We Really Trust Our Choices?

Looking Back At 2014

The Shocking Truth Of Settling For Less Than God’s Best

Favorite Quotes

Cool Scripture

Never Out Of The Fight!

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