Life can be hard on a woman’s tender heart. Regardless of our job-by-day, at heart, we’re the nurturers, creators, home-makers; painfully aware of the bossy, hustle-culture demanding we do more, do it faster, and do it perfectly. I have a tenacious work ethic. I’m very task oriented so being productive and checking things off my…
What do you say when you talk to yourself? Are your thoughts and words to you, about you, kind and lovely? I hope so but if your thoughts are anything like mine; they’re not always kind or lovely. Over the past few years, I’ve started paying attention to what I say when I talk to…
I’m not a fan of spiders but I’ve always been intrigued by their webs. (That is until I run headlong through one, at which point I’m flailing and freaking out as I’m certain that a horror-movie-sized-spider has latched onto me and will bite me with poisonous fangs and I’ll die a slow painful death.) Anyway.…
“If we build faulty narratives on questionable assumptions they’ll undermine our results.” -Michael Hyatt In other words: You’re telling yourself a story about a person or circumstance and you’re convinced, based on what you think you know or what someone has told you, that “your story” is a fact. We all do this. Our nature…
I didn’t go to the DMV that Monday morning expecting to have one of life’s existential questions answered but here I am writing about it. I was there to get my expired driver’s license renewed (oops!) and the nice man behind the window was surprisingly chatty. He asked me how my day was going—“Great so…
Years ago my sweet little boy was running after a basketball in our church gymnasium and as young children are prone to do, he was so focused on retrieving the ball that he didn’t see the wall in front of him. Yes, he ran head-first into the wall and had a knot on his forehead…
My Lord God,I have no idea where I am going.I do not see the road ahead of me.I cannot know for certain where it will end.nor do I really know myself,and the fact that I think I am following your willdoes not mean that I am actually doing so.But I believe that the desire to please…
Sanctify the Ordinary Today I will sanctify the ordinary. I will seek to find true spiritual meaning in the common things of life. I don’t want to be blasé. I don’t want to be one of the overstimulated whose nerves are jaded and tastes corrupted. I don’t want to replace the natural with the artificial,…
If your life is anything like mine, you need to pray throughout the day but you might feel like you don’t have the time, the place, or the words. This post offers 6 simple ways you CAN pray throughout your day! In my experience, Christians often feel guilty about their prayer life. We don’t think…
I have lived all of my life in the southeastern United States. In the South, we’re known for slow talking—we drag and drawl words into more consonants than their spelling dictates. And I’m old enough to remember a time when we lived slowly, too. Life was more leisurely and less frantic. But times have changed…
Happiness is a choice. I believe happiness is a choice. Nothing will make me happy unless I choose to be happy. Another person can’t make me happy. A certain weight or dress size can’t make me happy. Money, popularity, education, and experiences can’t make me happy. Happy people are happy because they decide to be.…
When life is hard, I often feel too distracted, tired, lazy, and unspiritual to seek God. I’d prefer to grab a snack, turn on the TV, and mindlessly scroll on my phone. There’s nothing wrong with those things unless we allow them to crowd out our time with God (which I often do). Seeking God…
Moses didn’t get to live in or even step foot into the Promised Land. God let him see it from a distance and then he died. I’ve struggled with that story all my life. It just seems so unfair. If you ask me he should have enjoyed a few years of retirement in the Promised…
It’s 1981 and I’m sitting on a church bus headed to an evangelism conference when a girl and her boyfriend sit down in front of me. I don’t know them very well but I notice the button on her sweater that says, “PBP GINF WMY”. My thoughts drift as I try to figure out what…
My faith is weak. There. I said it. The truth is out. You heard it straight from me. Here’s the thing: My faith hasn’t always been weak. I guess you could say “I’m in a season . . .” I know what it feels like to believe that God can do anything and to have…
What’s your story? I’ve wanted to ask that question so many times to family, friends, and even strangers. What I mean by that question is: We all have a story and I love when I get the chance to talk with someone one-on-one and hear a bit of their story. These are my favorite kinds…
At 11:30 pm on December 31, 2021, Eric and I were home alone watching something on Netflix. I couldn’t hold my eyes open or my head up. “I’m going to bed I announced. 2022 will be here tomorrow whether I’m awake to ring it in or not.” I should’ve done some calisthenics or drank some…
I grew up getting preached to by a lot of men and women who called themselves “speaking for God”. But their preaching wasn’t always the whole truth. Often it was their version of the truth. I’m going to give them an “A” for effort and persistence. I think they meant well. I’m not throwing any…
I remember that time my mother was dying and some people were being selfish and petty and I slipped outside unnoticed to the back porch to cry. A few minutes passed and Daddy found me. “What’s the matter with you?” I felt like a snotty second-grader hurt by a playground bully retelling my story and…
Sometimes I’m your biggest cheerleader and sometimes I’m jealous of you. Sometimes I only want to please God and sometimes I only want to please people. Sometimes I’m a hard worker and sometimes I’m lazy. Sometimes I’m a person of great faith and sometimes I’m consumed by fear and all the “what ifs”. Sometimes I…