(Picture from nami.org) May is National Mental Illness month, and I’ve been receiving lots of emails about the importance of raising awareness this month. I recently watched Silver Lining Playbook (lots of language and crude scenes, I’m not endorsing the movie), and was impressed by the way that they demonstrated someone with bipolar mania. When someone with bipolar disorder is manic, they have excessive energy…
There are days when I feel like our culture is dripping with arrogance. I hear students talk about how dumb their parents are as they puff themselves up. Many feel as if they know everything and adults are clueless (I’m sure I felt that way as a teenager, too). Even the television programs today depict adults as ignorant, and put children up on an all-knowing…
Several years ago, I stood aghast as I watched my friend’s house go up in flames. She had left her home with her family only thirty minutes earlier. Now I stood in front of the raging fire, staring at her infant in my arms. What would happen now? The book of James tells us that the tongue is like a small spark that starts a…
I’ve been teaching the book of James in my New Testament classes and several things have jumped out at me. I want to use the next few posts to highlight a few of these thoughts. The first is found in James 1:2, where we are told to consider it pure joy when we encounter various trials. Now I don’t know about you, but joy is…
It’s been a few weeks since my last entry, because I got married last weekend and so I took a hiatus from blogging. My new name is Natalie Ford, but I’ll continue to write as Natalie Flake so my website will stay the same. Our wedding day was perfect! The weather was absolutely gorgeous. We were so humbled by the number of guests who came…
When I was a little girl, getting a new Easter dress was a BIG deal! We had to have new shoes, new socks, and a matching hair bow. I remember learning that God made all things new and we wore new clothes to represent our new selves. As I’ve matured, I realize that the outer clothes have little if anything to do with the newness…