Author: Barbara

My passion is to encourage women wherever they are on their life journey. In everything I write and in every opportunity to speak, my goal is to offer hope. May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NIV

Looking Up

~ Barbara ~ 2 Comments

We were grammar school kids walking home from school, chattering about those things young girls find important when, thwonk! Regina walked straight into a telephone pole, headfirst. When the stun wore off we asked, none too gently, “What in the world were you doing?” Regina often tripped and, apparently, on this day she was literally applying her mother’s advice to watch where she was going. While concentrating on her feet, careful of every step, Regina neglected to look up at the bigger picture.

We walk through life a lot like Regina. When tripped up by difficulties, we try harder and concentrate on every step and misstep. Though we avoid a rock and step over the cracks, we lose sight of where we’re headed and crash along the way. Nursing a headache, we turn even more introspective and increasingly focus on our worries and woes, which are many and varied.

Rising like telephone poles that block our path, we are hit with a scary diagnosis, rebellious child, or job insecurity. Troubles clamor for our attention and drain our energy. The search for a way out of our difficulties or a path around them exhausts us.

When the stun subsides, fear contends for our attention and presses in. Worries abound and we fixate on the what ifs. What if I can’t make my next payment? What if I never marry or have children? What if I don’t get this job? What if I do get this job? What if the rumors are true? Preoccupation with worry makes hope elusive at best. How can hope survive when our attention zeroes in on our problems? Could a change of focus renew our hope? Yes, it can, when we apply the “H” of hope:

Hold your Eyes Higher.

*From I Was Broken, Too, Four Paths to Restore Hope, by Barbara Higby, page 19-20.

Ascension Day: Moving Up

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

Have you done your Ascension Day shopping? Bought a new outfit? Purchased gifts or planned a special dinner? Me either. But when I grasped the door handle of a restaurant in Lancaster last week I stilled, surprised and pleased to see the day being honored.

 In all my many years, I can’t recall seeing a sign announcing Ascension Day, let alone closing a business to celebrate it. I do remember going to church as a child but, sadly, today it is seldom mentioned, let alone honored.

We celebrate Christmas and Easter for their life-changing significance but, Ascension Day? We let it slip by even though it points to the most profound, life-changing event we will ever experience.

On that day in history, Jesus’ ascension fulfilled prophesy, but it  also pointed to the future. Those watching Jesus ascend heard these words of promise in Acts 1:

“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven,
will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

The Messiah was born. The Messiah was crucified. The Messiah will come back—the same way He left, on the clouds. Ascension Day commemorates Jesus’ return to His Father and His rightful place on His throne, but it is more than that it. Ascension Day celebrates the promise, the assurance, the certainty of His return. It points to our ascension, when we will join Him in the sky and He will bring us home.

The Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God…
We who are still alive… will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Then we will be with the Lord forever. 

So encourage each other with these words.
I Thessalonians 4:16-18 NLT

Happy Ascension Day!

Graduation: Moving Up

~ Barbara ~ 4 Comments

We just returned from Tennessee for our grandson’s high school graduation. I was surprisingly stirred on several levels.

Graduation, from a school (or a feat of any kind), speaks of leaving the past and moving forward to something more, something better. The satisfaction of accomplishment collides with expectation and hope. I find it all quite emotional, beginning with the processional.

“Pomp and Circumstance” always moves me, and I must not be alone because it’s been played at graduations since 1905. The music is celebratory and triumphant. Like every grandparent in the arena, my eyes sought only one graduate in the processional.

The students’ addresses in Tennessee, 2025, echoed other graduation speeches I’ve heard, sprinkled with teen emotion. When they speak of the challenges they’ve survived, the lows and hard times, I kind of cringe. They have no idea! I don’t downplay the angst of the teen years, but I’m well aware that the hardships they’ll likely face as adults will be far heavier. But I digress, back to the second-best part of the graduation—the tassels!

I love the move of the tassel from the right to the left. I can’t even describe why. I just know it touches me. And then the tossing of the hats—the pure, uninhibited joy of it!

When I reflected on the ceremony and the emotion of it, I thought about the graduation in my future.

  • I thought about triumphant music accompanying Christ’s return.
  • I savored the realization that I was leaving behind all hardship and pain.
  • I imagined moving a metaphorical tassel to indicate absolute separation from my old life and entrance to my new life.
  • I saw hosts of “graduates” throwing down their crowns before the Lord of Lords.

The celebration of any graduation—high school, college, or beyond—is a mild foretaste of the joy that awaits us. (Even as I wrote this post, I couldn’t help smiling.)

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise… to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
I Thessalonians 4:16-18

Image by Gillian Callison from Pixabay

Sunshine & Growth

~ Barbara ~ 1 Comment

Is it just me, or does the sun shine brighter in the spring? Does the sky seem bluer and the clouds puffier, or do we just see things differently?

Science tells us that sunlight stimulates serotonin, provides vitamin D, and regulates our natural sleep-wake cycle. Simply put, it affects our mood for the better. Sunshine makes us happier and more productive.

This makes me wonder, how can I increase sunlight in my spiritual self? I finished my reading of Romans this morning and Paul gave me some pointers.

  • Be alert. “Watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way… Keep away from them” (16:17). 

I will watch for thoughts and instigators that cast shadows on my love for others.

  • “Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil” (16:19).

I will exercise discernment in what I absorb, eager to see, read, and watch what is good and resist glorification of evil—that which brings light, not darkness.

  • Be strong. God “is able to establish you” through faith in Him (16:25).

Establish is such a strong word! I don’t want to be washed away by storms—I want to be deep-rooted in faith, established, and growing in the light of God’s Word.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. 
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.” John 8:12