by Merita | Jul 18, 2024 | God of Our Ultimates
Choose Your Fear - Guest Blog by JeriAnne Berry The world today is a fearful place. Our amygdala is in overdrive. It clangs a warning. On the news, we see destruction. Our own problems and traumas increase our fear. We hear the alarm. Do we take flight or stay and...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Jun 22, 2021 | Childhood Abuse and Trauma, Forgiving, Healer, Points of Light, Relationships, Restoration from Abuse
The woman sits in the front pew, expectant and eager. Her grandchild will be baptized. It’s a time of celebration, but church hadn’t always been so joyful. Most of her early pew-sitting and hymn-singing was nothing but an inner struggle from a lifetime of...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Sep 12, 2018 | Divinity, Failings, Gentle, God of Our Ultimates, Points of Light, Salvation, Shining on God's Character, Success, Victor
Scraps of tune weave into my waking. What is that song? I reach for my phone and press Search on my app. I must need the music. Why else would the Spirit impress it on this coming-out-of-a-dream moment? Yes, it is Him. I’ve experienced enough dream-related moments to...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Sep 7, 2016 | Fatherly, God of Our Ultimates, Identity, Points of Light, Shining on God's Character
WooOUUUwooo! Dad’s cow horn, found at some tacky souvenir shop somewhere along a tourist trap, blasted down the hall past my bedroom door. I scrunched my pillow over my ears. Dad had decided this was the best way to wake his family. It was time for breakfast. Time...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Aug 16, 2016 | God of Our Ultimates, Points of Light, Survival
Having survived life in an Ozark cabin, the Bible, in its preponderance of size and weight, now adorned a coffee table inside a house surrounded by Arkansas cotton. “Sharecroppers. That’s who my grandparents were,” my soon-to-be husband explained the first time we...
by Merita Atherly Engen | Jul 14, 2016 | Giver, God of Our Ultimates, Grief, Points of Light, Relationships, Shining on God's Character, Survival
“They need help unloading a trailer of food.” The coordinator at the flood response crisis center handed me, my husband, and a local friend a work order. “It’s a church, or what used to be.” She shook her head of gray hair as she turned to the next group of...
