Saying Yes to God | Laurie Coombs

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What Do We Do With Our Freedom?

Posted on: July 4th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

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Are you ready for a history lesson? Alrighty here we go. Stick with me. I promise, I’ve got a point coming! Heroes or Criminals? On July 4, 1776––two hundred thirty-eight years ago today––56 colonial men signed a document challenging Great Britain’s rule over the thirteen colonies. The Declaration of Independence declared these “United Colonies” to be free, independent states. But the war had not yet been won. In fact, it had just begun. Touted as heroes by many colonials, yet deemed criminals by the British crown, the signers “pledge[d] to each other [their] Lives, [their] Fortunes and [their] sacred Honor,” confidently assured of “the Protection of Divine Providence” (Declaration of Independence). Yet, with the signing of this document, each of them effectively signed their own death warrants as they opposed the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world. And for what? Freedom. As we all know, freedom was won. In…

{Anxiety and Depression} Losing Your Life to Save It

Posted on: June 25th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 12 Comments

Anxiety and Depression Losing You Life to Save It

I think my anxiety was brought on by the many years of heightened stress I experienced after my dad’s murder. It seemed the stress built up slowly over time until my body simply couldn’t take it any more, and I just sort of fell apart. But it wasn’t just the murder. I think it was a combination of many things––my type-A personality, my need for control, additional stress caused by a high-risk pregnancy, and the normal stresses of daily life––that contributed to my downfall. I was confused when the physical symptoms of anxiety finally came to a head. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me, and this was when the depression hit. All the medical tests ordered by several different doctors came back normal. In hindsight this was a good thing, but it didn’t feel like it at the time. Not finding a cause for my many troubling symptoms left…

Do We Need to Rid Ourselves of Our Weaknesses?

Posted on: June 18th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 5 Comments

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I’m a starter. When called to something, I jump on it and get the ball rolling. But I have to admit, I’m not very good at finishing. That’s not to say that I don’t finish, but for me, finishing what I start does not come without a fight. All I kept thinking during those last few weeks finishing my manuscript was, “I want to quit! I want to quit!! I want to quit!!!” I knew I wouldn’t let myself quit, but I wanted to. I wanted to give up the fight. I wanted to take the easy road. I wanted to sit myself down in front of the TV or read a book or do just about anything other than write––all things I hadn’t done for months. But I was determined to finish even though it took every bit of will I had and a strength that truly was not my own. A…

A Gideon Moment

Posted on: June 11th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 7 Comments

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I’m back! Thanks for hanging in there with me while I took some time off to finish my manuscript. Here’s a post about the last few months. I hope you enjoy! Have you ever had a Gideon moment with God? You know. The kind where He makes the very thing He’s called you to increasingly impossible? The kind where He just keeps putting more and more on your plate as a deadline approaches? The kind where time is taken away when you actually need more of it, not less? I have. In fact, this is precisely what’s been going on in my life over the last few months as I’ve worked to finish my manuscript. If you’re not familiar with the story of Gideon, let me fill you in a bit. Gideon was commissioned by God to lead Israel into battle against the Midianites, the Amalekites, and “all the people of the East.” Israel was armed…

Letters of Hope #3

Posted on: May 6th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 2 Comments

With permission, I’ve decided to anonymously share some of the correspondence I’ve had with readers about their struggles with anxiety and/or depression over the coming weeks. I think some of you may be able to relate with these individuals who are currently battling fear and darkness, and it is my hope that you find comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in this. And I also thought my responses may be of some use to you as well. To those readers who aren’t struggling in this area, I’d like to encourage you to hang in there with me for a few more weeks! I’ll be back writing as I had before long. Thank you for patiently waiting this topic out! I am sitting at work, at my desk, in tears over your article on depression/anxiety. I’ve been experiencing this for some time now and I just started going to a…

Letters of Hope #1

Posted on: April 23rd, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 5 Comments

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With permission, I’ve decided to anonymously share some of the correspondence I’ve had with readers about their struggles with anxiety and/or depression over the coming weeks. I think some of you may be able to relate with these individuals who are currently battling fear and darkness, and it is my hope that you find comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in this. And I also thought my responses may be of some use to you as well. To those readers who aren’t struggling in this area, I’d like to encourage you to hang in there with me for a few more weeks! I’ll be back writing as I had before long. Thank you for patiently waiting this topic out! Dear Laurie, I am 40 and I have struggled my whole life with anxiety, phobias, etc. I have been “coasting” using meds etc for 15+years. I haven’t driven on the…

More Practical Thoughts on Anxiety and Depression

Posted on: March 26th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 3 Comments

This is an extremely rough post. It’s an unedited response I wrote to someone this morning, and felt the Spirit tell me to share it here. I, quite frankly, don’t have time this morning to go through and refine my prose, so I won’t because after all, that’s not what it’s all about. Email after email is pouring into my inbox. There are so many of you struggling right now, and I just don’t have the heart to hold this back for the sake of making it read better. Some of you need this now. Some of you are hanging on to your lifeline by a thread. So here it is. It’s not pretty, but here it is. On another note, my daughters are off for spring break for two weeks beginning next week, so I’ll be taking some time off with them. BUT, I will be posting scriptures that…

Overcoming Anxiety and Depression {Part 1}

Posted on: March 26th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 15 Comments

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I think last week’s post, When Anxiety and Depression Threaten to Pull You Under, struck a cord. It seems the darkness I had experienced has been experienced––or is currently being experienced––by many. Over the last week, many people have contacted me asking for help, and with each email that I received, I realized just how important it is that I speak out with complete transparency about what I went through and how I got out of it. I originally decided to write these posts on anxiety and depression in response to correspondence I received from a man I sat next to on an airplane a few weeks back. It was one of those encounters that you know God ordained, but you’re not quite sure why you’re telling a complete stranger your entire life’s story until later. Now, I’m accustom to telling strangers about the crazy story of how God redeemed…

Trusting God to Fill in the Gap

Posted on: February 25th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

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“If we could just get this stuff right,” I said to my husband, “our lives would be amazing.” I had just finished listening to Pastor Andy Stanley’s Breathing Room sermon series, which addresses the importance of the way we spend both our time and money and argues that life is simply better with breathing room. Relationships thrive when there’s breathing room. We experience greater joy and peace when there’s breathing room. And ultimately we have more opportunity to grow in our relationship with God when there’s breathing room. Now, I realize this message may seem like common sense. We know this stuff. It’s nothing new. But I question how many of us still live our lives to the limit. We live in a fast paced world––in a society that makes productivity and “success” top priority. As Americans, we’re called to work hard and achieve the fallacious “American Dream.” But I don’t believe this…

A Note About My Upcoming Book

Posted on: February 20th, 2014 by Laurie Coombs 1 Comment

book release, book contract, grace, faithfulness, God's faithfulness, trusting God, call, calling, following Jesus, obeying God, saying yes to God, trusting God, faith, grace,

I posted this blog on Tuesday but had some technical difficulty, so I’ve decided to share an edited version again today for those of you who missed my exciting news. I believe I have been entrusted with a powerful message to share with the world. A message that I have told only in part on my blog but will tell in its entirety in the book I am writing. It was just over two years ago that I felt God’s call to write a book about the mighty work He has accomplished in my life. And though I’d love to say that I immediately complied with God’s request to write this book, and that I immediately pursued my calling, I didn’t. For several months, I fought it. Like Jonah, I ran from God’s call. But one Sunday morning, as I stood in church singing my heart out to God during worship,…