Scriptures were just words on a page and my prayers failed to lift.

I've seen spring come to the orchard every year as far back as I can remember and I've never grown tired of it. Oh, the wonder of it! The outrageous beauty! God didn't have to give us cherry blossoms you know. He didn't have to make apple trees and peach trees burst into flower and fragrance. But God just loves to splurge. He gives us all this magnificence and then, if that isn't enough, He provides fruit from such extravagance.

Besides re-arming myself with joy, I need to know the holes in my defenses, the places where I'm vulnerable and where the enemy has successfully attacked me before.

Depression, I've learned, is sometimes caused by anger that we keep locked up inside.

Joy explodes throughout the book of Psalms like fireworks, and is the most potent anti-missile defense system there is.

Scriptures were just words on a page and my prayers failed to lift.

Smooth seas don't produce skillful sailors.