This is a quick update for my personal community, but this one time you are welcome to read on...

Throughout my years of ministry I've had one agenda and this is it:

I want to teach you to pray in such a way that you experience God's presence and His power in your life daily.

And, I want to do that same thing for your church.

To do this, I'm relaunching my leighannmccoy.com website SOON... (like hours and minutes not days and months soon). When the website is up and running you will be the first to know! 

I'm also podcasting this month on a subject that is not discussed enough. I'm going to address the crisis of faith in our young adult children who are declaring their freedom from the bondage of their Christian upbringing as they "deconstruct their faith."

This is a subject that is raw for me. If you've got kids you'd like to give a piece of your mind for Christmas, you can let me do it for you by simply sharing the podcast with them. We will send you an email each week when...

Don't think for one minute that prayer has been banned from our schools. The great thing about prayer is that you can do it anywhere at anytime without anyone knowing it! 

So when the government decided to take prayer out of our public schools, they simply couldn't do it! If we were privy to God's ears I've no doubt we'd hear countless prayers wafting heavenward from teachers, students, administrators, custodial staff, lunchroom personnel, volunteers and even bus drivers! 

And aren't we glad God made prayer to work in such a powerful and undercover way? I want to share with you 3 amazing prayer ministries that impact our kids academic worlds. These ministries make our job easy, for they not only encourage students and parents to pray but they also provide the resources! 

1. Moms in Prayer, International

This past week I had the privilege of interviewing Sally Burke who is president of Moms in Prayer, International. WHAT A DELIGHT! I can't wait for you to get to...

1. You will understand God better.
2. You will learn how to hear the voice of God.
3. You will understand how God wants you to think.
4. You will understand how God wants you to behave.
5. You will become familiar with God's way of interacting with us.
6. You will be encouraged.
7. Your hope will be anchored in Truth.
8. You will know the Truth--and the Truth will set you free.
9. You will gain new strength.
10. You will be equipped to serve God.
11. You will gain wisdom and discernment.
12. You will understand God's mysteries.
13. You will be clothed with peace.
14. You will be able to defeat the devil.
15. You will know who you are.
16. You will know Whose you are.
17. Your burdens will be lifted.
18. Your hindrances will be overcome.
19. You will know the promises you can claim when you need them.
20. You will enjoy your relationship with God.

Set your intention to read through the Bible this year.

Here are some great reading plans to guide you.

Chronological Reading Plan

Classic Reading Plan

The Bible Recap (with accompanying podcast with...

We're almost there. 

We've made our lists, checked them twice.

Put that elf on many a shelf.

And now we're counting down the last few days before

Christmas.

As Christian parents and grandparents, it's not only our duty but also our sheer delight to pour our faith into our children while they are young.

The world will give us some resistance, but in our homes we are kings and queens and we get to choose how we spend our time together.

Here are a few creative ways you can invite Jesus to be the center of attention at your celebration.

1. Read the Christmas Story. Before anyone pulls a bow off of anything read the Christmas story. For fun dress up the children and let them act the story out as you read it from the Bible. Luke 2.

2.  Let Santa leave a devotion to do together. If you are okay with the fun of Santa, put him in a place of worship so that your children understand that even Santa knows Christmas is all about Jesus. 

Show your children this picture.

And...

I remember being terrified of Santa! 

To make matters worse, there was a PINK PIG we "got" (had) to ride before the ritual was complete.

It was downright scary.

And, thus I was baptized into our family's traditions complete with Atlanta's pink Christmas princess.

After I survived Santa trauma I could sit back and relax until the big day. And if you'd really like to know the truth, EVERYTHING about Christmas day was magical.

I could hardly sleep the night before.

All of our family's disagreements, all our arguments, any grievance we had with each other seemed to disappear on this one special, marvelous explosion of gift wrap and ribbon.

It wasn't until way later in my life that Christmas delivered its own kind of pain.

The magic evaporated like the frost on our fence post the year Tom called to tell me that Melissa's baby had died.

He stayed home that year to preach the Christmas Day sermon (because Christmas fell on Sunday). And just after we'd celebrated Santa's faithful...

Questions to consider this Christmas...

Did you know that it was estimated that Americans would spend over 1 trillion dollars at Christmas in 2019? 

If Christmas spending this year relates to the decorating that started in mid October, there's no telling how much we're liable to spend this year as we seek to soothe the pain of  the pandemic.

All of this explosion of materialism at Christmas warrants a serious consideration of a question that's been raised...

Is your wealth a blessing or a curse?

With the outbreak of rioting this year, we heard voices of the culture shouting to the wealthy. 

They seemed to say that if you're white, straight, married, and healthy; and you make a certain amount of money you should be ashamed of yourself, sit down, and be quiet. 

The irony of it is that some of the people shouting are the sons and daughters of white, straight, married and healthy people who make a certain amount of money!

(Some of that money most likely helps to pay...

 In December 2019, these were the top 5 questions searched on google regarding Christmas...

1. How many days until Christmas?
2. When is Christmas?
3. What do I want for Christmas?
4. How to draw a Christmas tree?
5. What does Noel mean?

Seriously?! 

I guess that if you knew the answer to #2 then you could find the answer to #1, but for #3 it's certainly handy that we have google to ask! 

With answers to all our questions literally at our fingertips, our lives have changed radically from what they were before the internet.

I read something interesting in Alisa Childer's Another Gospel?,

"the internet literally changed the world. All of a sudden, loads of information flooded our homes through the little glowing screen known as the personal computer. Skeptical claims and secular theories--which, in generations past, Christians lived entire lifetimes without hearing--were abruptly challenging our comfortable beliefs and confronting our deeply ingrained spiritual, sociological...

 Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we completely miss Thanksgiving.

Christmas receives so much more attention. And it’s no wonder where the retailers are concerned. Besides selling us food—Thanksgiving isn’t a big money-making holiday. Christmas focuses on what we don’t have (Santa’s lists) and shopping becomes the way we (in America) do Christmas.

Thanksgiving centers on celebrating what we do have therefore it doesn’t demand quite as much money exchanging hands.

Therefore the gods of the American culture;

materialism,

narcissism,

greed and envy...

don’t benefit nearly so much from the celebration of Thanksgiving so they try to get it over with quickly.

Their latest tactic is to swallow up the night in “Black Friday.”

Perhaps our pandemic will somewhat stifle the mad rush to the mall to get your panties from Aerie just past midnight! 

  Not only does the retail world want you to by-pass...

Tom and I went with friends to the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago where I took this picture. When I look at it today, it doesn't seem real. 

Truth be told, when I took this picture it didn't seem real either! I was there and I was seeing it, but it was surreal.

f you've ever stood on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and bathed in the view, you know what I'm talking about! 

We were meandering along the south rim trail and saw a young woman casually walking toward the edge, she was talking with someone on her cell phone. As she approached her first real good look at the gaping landscape of the Grand Canyon, her eyes filled with tears and I heard her say, "I gotta go...I'll call you back in a bit. This is--this is--" And she just hung up because she didn't have words for what she was seeing.

Have you ever been there?

Perhaps not on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, but where words simply aren't enough to describe what you're experiencing? 

A few weeks ago as we hiked in...

Prayer of Confession—The Omnipresent God

  Oh Lord, forgive us for forgetting. 

Forgive us for allowing the circumstances that surround us to overwhelm Your constant and consistent presence with us. 

Forgive us for focusing our emotional energy and attention on the smoke screens the Deceiver puts in our path to keep us from living the truth of Your presence. 

Forgive us for behaving as if You are waiting on something from us in order to grace us with your presence. 

What can we possibly do that could add to what You have already done? 

Forgive us for failing to walk humbly with You when you are walking consistently with us. 

Forgive us, LORD for acting as if you’ve left us when You are dwelling in our midst every minute of every day. 

Forgive us for crying out so desperately for you when we are already sustained by You. 

Forgive us for being so self-absorbed...