Sharla Fritz

When You Feel Like You’re Straining Against the Wind

Sharla April 28, 2015

“He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.” Mark 6:48 Do you ever feel like you’re straining against the wind? This month, I’m reading through the Gospel of Mark and when I got to chapter six, I immediately identified with the disciples in the boat. Gale force winds of […]

How to Like Your Life

Sharla April 16, 2015

Prefer the given. I read this phrase in the book Grumble Hallelujah and it has stuck with me. I loved the sound of it. But I didn’t love the reality of it. If life gives me the equivalent of the snack size sack of M & Ms I complain that I don’t have the super-size bag. […]

How to Find Your Real Life

Sharla March 31, 2015

When you read the title, you may have thought, “What does she mean, my “real life”? How can I live anything but this one real life? Well, the title is inspired by the words of Colossians 3:1-3. This passage begins: “You have been raised to new life with Christ.” Wow. Read those words again. “You […]

When You Can’t Do It By Yourself

Sharla March 24, 2015

Every week people pass through my living room and take a turn sitting at my grand piano. I give them my undivided attention for thirty to sixty minutes while they play music by Mozart and Beethoven and Gershwin. I help them make sense of fingering and eighth notes and terms like sforzando. And I love […]

When Your Part Seems Small: Playing in the Symphony of Life

Sharla March 12, 2015

Every so often I persuade my husband to attend a concert of classical music with me A while ago we traveled into the city to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As soon as we found our seats, I knew something special was going to happen. On the stage, behind the chairs set up for the […]

What to Do When Life Disappoints

Sharla March 5, 2015

What do we do when life disappoints? Our natural reaction is to complain and grumble. We tell our sad story to anyone who will listen. This is what I tend to do. Especially about the fact that my grandchildren live far away. I make sure that all of my friends hear about my grandchildren […]

Side Effects of…Praising God

Sharla March 3, 2015

My husband has been diagnosed with lymphoma and has begun the road to recovery. Recently he had his first round of chemotherapy. The effects of the drugs were amazing. Just three short days after competing the infusion of drugs, we saw a major reduction in the visible tumors! We praise God for the healing that […]

How to Truly Love Yourself: The Four Degrees of Love

Sharla February 24, 2015

I tend to have a love/hate relationship with myself. Maybe you can relate. Perhaps you also find it hard to love yourself. On days things are going smoothly, we are pleased. But on days we mess up we might be disappointed with our performance and even despise who we are. Popular culture says some of […]

Finding Focus — in Lent

Sharla February 17, 2015

I’m on a quest to find more focus in my life. To zero in on the important and to ignore the rest. To help me in this quest I am going to observe the holy Lenten season. Lent is the period of forty days leading up to Easter (Sundays are not included in […]

10 Ways to Tell Your Husband “I Love You”

Sharla February 10, 2015

I have a problem. I love writing. But I’m not very good at writing meaningful words to the ones I love. What do I write besides, “I love you”? My husband is especially talented at this. I save all the cards that he gives me because even after decades of marriage, he is able to […]

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