Posts by Laura Puiras (Page 6)

A couple months ago I wrote an article called “Shifting the Weight” for Love is Moving, a ministry of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) that publishes articles digitally as well as in print three times a year. I’ve written for them a few times before but hadn’t written an article in quite some time. I had been talking with a friend back in March about some of my experiences going to the gym and about some of the deeper…

I’ve had some really awesome conversations this week and many of them have been around the theme of surrender… Whether or not the conversations began there or were expected to land there… Surrender was the destination all along. Interestingly, all of the conversations were with women who are sensing a major task ahead of them. The tasks vary and I was speaking with authors and speakers, a politician and entrepreneur… regardless of what they are working towards there are many…

This week our devos have all been flowing out of the message Donna preached on Sunday and today’s is no different! There were so many parts that challenged me, encouraged my heart and strengthened my spirit as she taught us.  One of the parts that struck me the most and has been helpful for me even throughout this past week was this one: “Don’t put the shovel down because of offence. Don’t put the shovel down because we hit a…

Today’s devo is a bit like a part two of my previous gardening revelations… Last time I wrote about the grapevines growing in my backyard and briefly mentioned another vine/plant I had noticed called the Morning Glory. Not only is the Morning Glory another vine, it is also technically a weed! Fortunately for us, the morning glories in our yard are all growing up along the fence and bring beauty to the gardenscape… rather than overtaking other plants or squashing…

We recently had our back patio and walkway/stairs of the house redone so I’ve been living the luxury of a No-Weeding-Needed Reality!! As temporary as it may be, it has allowed me to focus more on some of the other plants we have in our backyard. Lately, I’ve been especially captivated by our vines… As I was lifting up/rearranging some of the grapevine branches the other day, I realized that many of the little off-shoots had been growing around my…

Children are naturally curious and have all sorts of questions! The people they’re seeking answers from, aunties and uncles, parents and grandparents alike, will likely range in creativity and capacity for responding to all of those “But why?!” questions. If I’m being perfectly honest, it is super tempting to shrug off challenging or unexpected questions from our KidzHarbour children… especially when they’re interrupting the flow of a lesson! It can be hard to see the value in listening to a…

One of the passages we memorized as a Pastoral Team is probably quite familiar to many of you: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand…

I was struck this week by the importance of going to God with more than questions… Asking questions and generally choosing curiosity over certainty is something I really value and think is an important shift for Christians to make. Especially those of us who have been Christians for many years! Our tendency can often be to rehearse certainty and to remind ourselves of what we know to be true. Which can be really great and faith-building in a lot of…

Growing up, we always had pancakes on Saturdays. But not just any pancakes – Finnish pancakes! Instead of being thick and fluffy, like Canadian ones, Finnish pancakes are more like crepes. They’re much larger and thinner and even more delicious… in my opinion at least. All of this was my dad’s doing. He would mix the batter and fry up our pancake feast for us and even as we got older and started to try making them ourselves, it was…

This morning I woke up from the strangest dream… I was visiting my good friends Kelsi and Caleb Fullmer (who are actually a family I follow on Instagram and have never, ever met in real life). I had been eating white cheddar popcorn while Kelsi gave me a tour of their home. Her and I were laughing in the kitchen when Caleb came home and the very first thing he said was, “Why is there popcorn on the stairs??” For…

About ten years ago, a good friend of mine gave me one of those daily flip calendars that had a memory verse for each day. I won’t lie, in the moment I thought it was a little cheesy and wasn’t thrilled by the gift because, “I’m not that kind of person”… turns out I actually kind of am. It’s like an all-year-round Advent calendar… with less chocolate. But also with more reminders of who God is and who I am…

There are lots of different patterns or cycles in the life of a believer and this Easter I was especially drawn to the movement from Hosanna to Hallelujah. On Palm Sunday the people cried out “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” quoting Psalm 118:25-26. With the revolution of Judah Maccabee fresh in their minds, the Jewish people were likely expecting Jesus to ride into…