Christina Speaks

Let’s discuss the elephant in the room. All right, let’s keep it real. It was a tsunami trying to disguise itself as a political debate. Last night my husband decided to watch it. He usually does. I never do. Those things stress me out! I sat on the couch a little too long and the “show” began. My youngest daughter looked at me, noticing I was visibly uncomfortable, and said, “Mom you can do it! Sit and watch it with us.” Okay, I’ll sit with my family for a little bit, I thought. It started immediately. The bickering, the insults, the kind of behavior that is almost unbearable to watch. It’s like when you’re at a store and your kids start acting up, embarrassing you in front of everyone, and you threaten to throat punch them if they don’t stop! That’s how it felt. It took about seven minutes before I got up and left the room. I went upstairs to do some work. Then, I heard my husband and daughter laughing hysterically. I didn’t want to miss out, so I went to HULU, and began to watch aga...

It’s been a while since I have spoken on the racial climate of our country. I’ve been watching and listening. I’m trying to organize my thoughts concerning so much of what’s going on. One thing I know is that we are not communicating well. People are angry. People are frustrated. People are confused. It is important to remember that anger is a secondary emotion. Generally, it’s physical or emotional pain that brings it on.   Have you ever been in pain? I think we all have. Have you ever been hurt by someone? Betrayed? Not believed? How did you respond? Did you ever react by punching or hitting something, or throwing something across the room? Screaming at or about it? Did that reaction help you? Did you stop to think about it before you reacted? Most of us don’t.   The way we act out of pain very often results in an action where we end up hurting ourselves.   Sometimes that pain is misunderstood as hate. Usually, when a person is hurt, they have a strong desire for that h...

In the climate of our world today, so many of us feel like we need to stand up and fight for God. It is true we should stand up for what is right, and help others when they are wronged, but God doesn’t call us to fight.  We are engaged in spiritual warfare. It’s all around us. However, the strongest weapons I can think of in this war are prayer and love. There are many of us getting into social media wars, and losing friends, or simply losing our testimony over what we believe to be “fighting for God.” “Fighting for what’s right.” God doesn’t need you to fight for Him. What He commands each of us to do above all, is LOVE. Stop and think for a minute about the last time you fought over your opinions concerning politics, or religion, or just your opinion on anything. Did you get angry? Did you use the name of God to fuel your anger, believing it was righteous anger, and that someone and their opinions needed to be dealt with? Do people know you as someone who loves God, doing your be...

Last night at the end of my Facebook Live video, I had to hold back tears. I’m sure no one knew it, but I felt a great deal of emotion as I expressed my love for each one watching. I am looking around at our world right now, and I am grieved. Many of us are so caught up in our own lives and what we want for ourselves, that we are misplacing the value God has placed on the lives of all He has created, putting more value on things that have no relevance to eternity. Let’s remember, this place we live in is temporary. Why are we so attached? Why do we put masks and political parties and skin color above what truly matters? I’m not saying we should ever let others trample us, but c’mon, this has gotten out of hand. I’m having a hard time seeing the love, and it pains me. Can you even imagine how it makes God feel? We are allowing our biases, our rights, and our refusal to practice empathy, replace love and compassion for our fellow humans. Those things aren’t just for “hippies,” it’s the w...

Humans fail us every single day, whether they intend to or not. That’s why it can be so hard to give everything we are to our Creator. Our hearts and minds have a difficult time not assigning human values and characteristics to God. When feeling bad about yourself and maybe even some of your failures, you can be sure God is still trying to draw you into His arms with an unfailing love. He is a loving Father. There are still natural consequences to our sin, but no matter how many times we leave Him, God will continue to bring us back into His fold over and over again. Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). Though we know there are always consequences, it gets difficult to continue without the “reward” of seeing someone who has harmed us, or a loved one, get what we think they deserve. It’s difficult to remember that God loves the person who did you wrong just as much as He loves you. Because He loves them, He will handle their consequences in the way only an all knowing...

As I work to live out my calling, the evil one continues to whisper in my ear. “Who do you think you are?” “You’re not good enough or smart enough for anyone else to listen to.” “No one is going to help you.” All of the feelings of doubt flood my heart, but I continue to armor up and fight for the truth about who God created me to be. I know that I am nobody. I don’t think that I am special. However, I know that my God is everything, and He lives in me! That is enough. That is what makes me who I am. That is what qualifies me. I am living for the world to see Jesus. I am not perfect, and I’m sure there are and will be times that what I do or say may not represent Him, but my strong desire is to lead others to a place of peace, hope, and unspeakable joy! I know I am not the only one who struggles with standing confident in who God has called me to be. I have seen posts and had conversations with friends who struggle with this same kind of self-doubt. We hear the voices of the enemy, of ...

There are some things that are difficult to get past. We get stuck. We wallow. We justify where we are because of what happened to us. Maybe we even explain (or shout) to God, that because of what He did, or let happen, we can no longer trust Him. Have you ever been in that place? When my son Isaiah’s life changed on September 8, 2015, it would have been easy for him to look at his circumstances and decided he was done. It would have been easy to “curse God and die.” (Job 2:9) I myself wondered if all of the hopes and dreams I had for him would die along with his inability to do all he could do before. When Isaiah woke up after having emergency brain surgery, he could not talk, walk, eat, go to the bathroom, or anything he could do days before. Over the next several weeks he was able to gain some of what he lost, but it was all different. He was different. It has been 5 years now, and Isaiah refuses to allow his circumstances to define who he is. He is aware that he is different now, b...