Blog: resilience

A Peachy Life-by Heidi McLaughlin

Posted: September 11, 2022

Over the past few years my grandson Brandon and I, have started a wonderful and fruitful tradition of canning peaches. It’s hard work, we get very sweaty but it’s also fun and the results are so rewarding and meaningful.  This year I discovered a little more about the life of a peach. Firstly, the harsh winter froze many peach buds, making it a very limited peach harvest. Thus doubled the price of peaches. But thankfully I have a great relationship with the family that owns a fruit stand down the road from where I live and I was able to get quite a few pounds of this desired fruit. Here’s what I discovered. Here’s what I discovered: Some were not able to survive the long, cold and dark winter. The fruit that did survive the winter took a longer time to ripen. Even though we’re at the end of the…

Posted in: adversity, alone, bitterness, canning peaches, decisions, don't give up, endurance, graft into Jesus, grief, meaningful, pathway through wilderness, pray, resilience, seasons of darkness, seasons of life, something new, suffering, sweet fruit, troubles, trust Good

Read More



When Weariness Sets In-by Heidi McLaughlin

Posted: May 15, 2022

An article on weariness is what brought me to tears. Whoa…what brought on those tears? I don’t think I feel weary why did this impact me so profoundly? I realized this article hit a trigger and I recognized my spirit was weary. Anyone knowing me would quickly respond by: “Well Heidi, you have too much on your plate, you’re always on the move, no wonder weariness has set in.” But that’s not it. My personality and passions do propel me to add many wonderful things to my calendar, but this is not a physical weariness. But this is not a physical weariness. For two years we’ve hung on by our fingernails waiting for Covid to be over. And yes for the most part we’re back to normal but there is underlying and lingering angst and anger.  Too many of my friends are sick right now from Covid and stress.  Angry…

Posted in: anxiety, ask God, circumstances, Conflict, Covid-19, cry, disappointments, do the right thing, don't give up, Encouragement, focus, God's creation, Hearing God, hiking, listen, Making Wise Choices, Overcoming Struggles, re-evaluate, resilience, rest, tender soul care, weariness

Read More



Think You’ll Go Back To Normal?-by Heidi McLaughlin

Posted: May 10, 2020

Once we’ve experienced trauma or crisis, there is no going back to “normal.” When a brick wall falls down or a vase breaks, even though we repair it to make it look like new, it will never be the same. Hopefully in the near future we’ll be back in our stores, restaurants and churches and even though everything might look the same, we will perceive life differently. If we have a propensity to being fearful, we will become even more fearful. Because …”you never know what might happen next.” If we’ve hunkered down and trusted God for His daily emotional, physical and spiritual provisions, going forward we will learn to trust even more. We will perceive life differently. Hopefully we’ve become more resilient going through Covid-19. You see resilience is being able to go through difficulty such as misfortune or change, and become even stronger. We’ve all been thrust into an…

Posted in: Covid-19, crisis, decisions, Families, Fear, focus, happiness, hugs, Jesus, joy, new normal, resilience, resilient, thankful, trauma, trust Good, Uncategorized, unfortunate disaster

Read More



Play The Movie Forward-by HeidiMcLaughlin

Posted: March 22, 2020

Nature abhors a vacuum. The last two weeks have sucked the air out of many of us. Suddenly our calendars are empty, sports events gone, meeting with friends in a restaurant no more and all church activities stopped. Our entire rhythm is off kilter and it’s startling. So let’s be careful how we fill that unexpected and shocking vacuum, because an empty soul is a danger just waiting to happen An empty soul is danger just waiting to happen. Let’s play the movie forward by eight months. Were we a fearful hoarder or a helper and a beacon of hope? Did we see this time of isolation as a gift or were we angry that it disrupted our perfect plans?  What did we model to people around us, our children, grandchildren and friends? Were we like chicken little screaming that the sky is falling or did we point people to…

Posted in: be creative, chaos, Christ, Covid-19, crisis, Faith, God Who Is, intersection of faith, Making Wise Choices, resilience, trouble, vacuum

Read More