All relationships can be difficult at times, but they should not be destructive to our well-being. Learn the difference between a destructive pattern and a difficult season with this free resource, “Is This Normal? 15 Red Flags You May Be Missing in Your Relationships.”

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Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas with much love from my family to yours.

We pray that you experience the love of Jesus and a deep awareness of His presence in your life this year.

Rejoicing in Him!
The TerKeurst Family

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21 Comments
  1. Lana Kuritar

    Merry Christmas to your family! I really enjoy your emails and look forward to them everyday.I can’t tell you how many times I have received one of your emails and have been going through a different time. However, after reading it I felt that the email was meant for me to read. After reading the email it was like God was working with you to help me hear the answer that I needed. Thank you so much Lisa! I also enjoy reading your books and would like you to know that you are one of my favorite authors! I look forward to the new year and reading your new emails as well as your new books! Have a blessed day!

    Reply
  2. Samara Twigger (in England)

    Lysa, And a merry christmas from me and my family to you and your’s too! Thank you for all your encouragement and inspiration this year. I especially loved your “The Best Yes” book. It was life changing! My sister-in-law’s getting it from me for Christmas tomorrow. May God do great things n your life next year, and may you know Him close to you. With love from Samara Twigger (in England) xxxx

    Reply
  3. Lana Kuritar

    I meant difficult time in the previous post. Oops!

    Reply
  4. Gina

    A very Merry Christmas to you too. You have a beautiful family. Thank you for blessing me throughout the year! God Bless You sweet sister.

    Reply
  5. Jill Beran

    Merry Christmas Lysa!! I’m sitting here at my sticky farm table wishing we were at Christmas Eve services, but I’m home with my sick little guy who is sleeping. This is day 8 of sickness in our house…it’s been a looooonnnnngggg time. Anyway praying you and your family have a blessed Christmas season!! Blessings and Prayers from Iowa!

    Reply
  6. Kathryn Meyer

    Wishing you and your family a blessed Christmas!
    I love getting reading your reading your blogs and emails.
    Thank you for reaching out to women of all ages.

    Reply
  7. Cathy Womble

    Merry Christmas to you too. I have been meaning to write you for a couple months now and have finally gotten around to it. I wanted to tell you how you impacted my life. A few months ago I read an article about a 100 year old woman who had been making a dress every single day to send to Africa. She was planning to make her 1000th dress on her 101st birthday. I sew, and I have sent dresses to Africa and to the Dominican Republic a couple times in the past. When I read that article I thought, I CAN DO THAT! I was doing one of your studies, and we were challenged to say yes to God. I had been paying about what He wanted me to do. I wazn’t sure about the idea of doing 365 dresses. Was I stealing this woman’s idea? Was God really telling me to do this? At our next session of your study you told the story of how one of your sons had to walk around naked in order to wash his clothes when he lived in an orphanage in Africa because he only owned one outfit. I knew then that God really was talking to me. I wanted to thank you for helping me to know. I am working on the dresses and have arranged for them to go in a shipping container through a church in Woodstock, Georgia. Thank you again.

    Reply
  8. Jessica

    Hi Lysa!
    I just wanted to thank you for your transparency. I have struggled with some pretty traumatic things in my lifetime, and as a result still struggle with some interesting responses to perceived hurts from others (for lack of a better word). When I read what you write, and hear about how you embrace your imperfections it is very comforting. Sometimes I find it hard to share with others what I am going through, because I am afraid of what they will think. They have presented there lives in such a way that they look so happy, and so “perfect” that I think to myself at times, “they could never understand.” You have truly been a blessing in my life. I thank God for you and your courage, and for Proverbs31 and the women that you reach who are being blessed by the women of Proverbs31. I thank God that there are women who will get honest and be real and allow others to get honest and be real. I thank God for all the imperfections of this life, and how he can use them for good. I thank God for making a way for all of us to experience his love in spite of these imperfections. I pray for you, and for your family and for all the women of Proverbs31 and the women who visit your site. That Gods love will touch each and every heart that passes through your site. That he will bring you and your family peace and joy, and that he will provide opportunities for you share his Love with one another. In Jesus name!! Amen!!

    Reply
  9. Rita

    Lysa, I am writing a “spiritual journey” for myself and to someday share with my family. My book review of your book “The Best Yes” is my chapter 7 in my scripted journey. I wanted to share it with you so you’d know how big of a difference you are making!

    Chapter 7: The Best Yes
    I’ve been hearing little blips of wisdom from Lysa Terkeurst for the last year on K-Love radio. When K-Love promoted her book, “The Best Yes”, it caught my attention. I have been wondering for eight years if I made the right or wrong choice when I kept my teaching job, therefore, keeping Trevin in daycare and then Mayla in daycare. I think, subconsciously, I wanted to read the book, not just for help making good choices in God’s light now, but also to make a final determination regarding if I made the right or wrong choice by continuing to work. Here’s what I found:

    After reading chapter 4, specifically page 39, I had convinced myself that I made the right choice to continue to work after Trevin’s birth. I came to that conclusion after Terkeurst’s following quote: “Wisdom makes decisions that will still be good tomorrow.” I thought, “Well that’s it then. Of course. I needed to keep teaching so that my marriage, down the road, could be the best marriage possible since Chris was very clear he needed me to keep working. And I bet God has something in store for me that will be great in my 50’s that could only be possible if I kept working in my 20’s.” I went to bed feeling pretty good that night.

    That good feeling wore off though when I read just one chapter further the next day. You see in chapter five, Terkeurst talks about making decisions out of God’s love. She challenges the reader to consider her attitude when making the choice. When I kept working, it was out of love for Chris, but I was not teaching with a loving heart. I did not love the activity. I wanted nothing more than to stay home and take care of my family. I wasn’t the best version of myself those years, in teaching or mothering or in being a wife. After reading that chapter, I convinced myself I made the wrong choice, and the tears came.

    Thank goodness for chapter 7–“Analysis Paralysis” Terkeurst called it. I had read and heard 100 times or more that God has given us free will. But never before had I considered the following theory–there could be more than one right answer. There could be more than one answer that God is okay with. Terkeurst said a friend had told her the following, “He said so many people stress over knowing God’s will and what the right choice to make is. But sometimes God gives us two or more choices that would all please Him and be His will. We get to choose.” How powerful. I needed to hear that.

    In conclusion, I took away from that book, that God was going to use whatever I chose for good. Since I chose teaching, he has given me the ability to bless the students’ lives which I’ve taught with His love. I believe that if I would have chosen to stay at home, He would have used that choice for good also. My prayer is that my marriage can flourish from my choice, therefore, honoring God and providing a security to my children that they someday see as priceless. I love God, and I love my family.

    Lysa Terkeurst also left me with some powerful quotes that I will try to use in my future decision making:
    “Yes and no are the two most powerful words.”
    “Wisdom makes choices for today that will still be good tomorrow.”
    “When we make a choice, we ignite the consequences that can come along with it.”
    “Every yes answer comes with a list of expectations.”
    “Let this unexpected happening point to your strength, not your weakness. Maybe you’ve been entrusted with this. Not cursed with it.”
    “Some unexpected hurts require more than just healing. Paralyzed places that feel dead inside us need a full-on resurrection.”

    As great at Terkeurst’s quotes are, she had the humility in the end of the book to point it back to God. The truth is wisdom is at our fingertips. All we have to do is ask for it from God. “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:4-5).

    Thank you Lysa Terkeurst. I will continue to “follow you”:).

    Reply
  10. Elizabeth Z

    I know this is a long shot but I hope I get a reply.. a few days ago maybe a couple of weeks ago I heard you on the radio that you gave your husband a meaningful gift.. personalized promises I think for the year.. I would like to know if there is a site where I can find that.. I would love to do that for my husband.. it would help him so much I believe, his birthday is coming up in a few days that would be so perfect. Thanks. God Bless.

    Reply
  11. Sharon Salain

    Love your site

    Reply
  12. Maegan

    Hello, as I sit with my husband here in South Texas, we patiently await the new year to begin. This may be too personal, but I am asking for prayer recommendations and book recommendations to carry me daily. I admire your faith and love following you. Here is my reasoning why I am reaching out to you,
    and whoever else is reading this..
    On Friday, December 19 around noon, my son (8 months old then- he turned 9 months old on Christmas Eve) fell off the bed in his nursery. I was dressing him and turned for a split second to grab a pair of his jeans to put on him, when I turned, he was on the floor, on his back, crying. I quickly picked him up and carried him outside, while trying to console him, he rested his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes and his cry turned to a painful moan. I called my husband, who was on his way home from work- he works half days on Friday’s and was coming home to pick up our son so they can run errands and I could finish wrapping gifts and have some “alone” time to clean up before a weekend of Christmas festivities with his family. (Never will I ask for “alone” time again.)

    The ambulance took my son into the hospital, and they discovered that he had a blood clot that formed on his brain. They rushed us by ambulance to a Level 1 Trauma Hospital. That evening, Jesus Christ and the Neuro Surgeon saved my son’s life by removing the blood clot.

    My son was released on Monday, and is home with my mom, in our home. However, I have been removed from our home, because of the seriousness of his injury. They are believing it to be more than an accident. My husband and I prayed for this child, and we know God has huge plans for him. I cannot help but feel the guilt for turning my back for that second in time. I acknowledge I was home with him when it happened and I also look forward to the day I can hold him in my arms again. I am asking for strength, and patience. I am a very well educated mother, this is my first child and I do realize that I should not have set him down for a second, please be kind to me. I am reaching out in this way simply because I know the power of prayer and I admire your faith in God.

    Thank you for your time.

    Maegan

    Reply
  13. Devonne Ramer

    Thank you for all your inspirational messages. I am enjoying your book Unglued at the moment. Prayers and blessings sent your way always.
    In Christ, Devonne Ramer

    Reply
  14. Leslie Blackwell

    This is exactly what I needed to motivate me as I kick off the year with a goal of a healthier me. Unsettle me Lord!

    Reply
  15. Jennifer Lee

    I have been fighting being unsettled my whole life with mixed success. The prayer is not “glamorous,” but it’s right on target.
    I am in the middle of Best Yes. I started reading it with a friend, but didn’t really think that I had that problem…..I had NO idea how deeply these things were imbedded. Thank you so much!

    Reply
  16. Ruth Vandenassem

    Thanks Lysa, I have just recently started following you, your post today hits home as I struggle lately with compromise and complacency. i know there are serious changes I need to make, my weight being one of those struggles as well. thank you for inspiring me to truly work on those changes and just place it in Gods hands and know that he will help me in all things.
    Thanks again and God bless,

    Reply
  17. bonnie starnes

    I too have struggled with eating without discipline. But I am undisciplined in other ways. I have been convicted about slothfulness. My prayer is for deliverance and power to give this over to the Holy Spirit and walk in His ways.

    Reply
  18. Ramona Watson

    I was introduced to you when I got the book “The Best Yes”, I then liked your facebook page and I honestly feel like you have a secret view to my life and just about every post I read applies to me that day – kind of like when you are in church and there is a light shining down on you and the preacher is preaching to just you that day. 🙂 It has been amazing and so wonderfully helpful to me to not feel so alone. Your intro to “Made to Crave” caught my attention and once again, you were speaking to me. 🙂 I can’t wait to read it and once again feel normal because I am not the only one going through these issues. Thank you, Lysa for being so transparent and bringing us along on the journey God has lead you to. You have blessed my life and I thank you again for that. God Bless!

    Reply
  19. Amy

    I loved your book “Unglued” and cannot wait to start “The Best Yes.” I love this prayer – unsettle me. It’s perfect. I pray for this to be a year to learn to delight in where I am, the season that God has me in right now. Thank you for your encouragement and uplifting words!

    Reply
  20. Michelle Watson

    Hi Lysa…
    I don’t know how I’ve been unfamiliar with you but maybe it has something to do with being in Portland, Oregon, which is a bit far from your hub. I guess I’m late to the party! BUT…I have heard of your book “Made to Crave” yet realize that I’ve been missing out on a heart connection with a down-to-earth, authentic sister by not reading more of your writings! I too have struggled with an eating disorder years ago and yet, like you, I long to have Jesus be glorified while I seek balance and moderation. Thank you for sharing vulnerably. That’s where we as women are inspired most for sure. :o)

    And…one last thing. I’ve wanted to do a “But God” study in my Bible for years and finally did it this past year. I had some of my own verses but then Googled to find more. And up came your message title, “How Big Is Your But?” And I too am a speaker to women (and a recent author where I write to dads about how to intentionally dial in to their daughters) and actually am borrowing your title for the talk I’m giving later this month. I just want you to know that I’m giving you credit during the workshop and think it’s a brilliantly-anointed title! Thank you for loving the Word and inspiring women to passionately pursue God through the messiness of life! Bless you in 2015.

    Reply
  21. Charlotte

    Lord Unsettle me, really is a great prayer

    Reply
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