Beyond the Hope Chest: Preparing for Marriage (Or Not)
10 Minute Read There are ways to prepare for marriage that are essential for everyone, regardless of your life stage, and will serve you well even if you never marry.
10 Minute Read 10 Minute Read 
Giving Grace to My Parents
4 Minute Read My parents were not perfect parents. I am not a perfect parent. Every day that I parent, I am humbled as I face my own failures. Every day that I parent, I am more able to grant grace to my own parents for what I so often perceived as their failures. I was raised in…
Guilt vs. Grace
2 Minute Read Earlier this year I was struggling with guilt. I mean, really struggling. Nearly every day there was some sort of failure in my life, something I wished I’d done better, some area I didn’t measure up to my own standard. I got impatient with my toddler. I didn’t keep the toys picked up. I let…
The Chase: trusting God with your happily ever after
2 Minute Read When I was single, I read a lot of relationship books. Sometimes they were encouraging, but often I would start trying to “read” them into my own relationships. “Oh, that sounds similar to what that guy said to me last week! Maybe he likes me and this is the beginning of our love story!” Being…
Seven Ways I Keep My Kitchen Simple
3 Minute Read My kitchen is a busy place. I have two small children and a husband who works odd (and long) shifts, lots of ministry opportunities, and we love to share meals with friends despite our busyness. I need to stay flexible and not be tied to the kitchen in this season of life, so I currently…
Faith for Rocky Places
3 Minute Read I clung to the rock, fingers aching, legs trembling. Sweat trickled into my eyes and down my back. “I can’t do this.” “Yes, you can,” came the calm, reassuring voice of my husband. “Put your left foot a little higher; there’s a good foothold just past that ridge.” “I can’t reach that far. I can’t…
The Lens of the Struggle
3 Minute Read Have you ever felt like there was one huge, all-consuming “thing” in your life? That no matter what book you read, what sermon you heard, everything reminded you of the struggle? It’s like viewing the world through a different lens. Somehow every conversation comes around to your “pet” topic, and even artwork seems to have…
A Year Of Love
2 Minute Read 2014 was a wonderful year, but it was also a very hard one. Looking back to pinpoint my favorite moment, I see grace upon grace, beauty in the pain, and God’s unfailing love and faithfulness. Christmas of last year: we were all sick, my husband was working night shift over the holiday (so he slept…
Vessels of Service
4 Minute Read Body image. It’s something that nearly all women struggle with: globally, only four percent of women consider themselves beautiful. Why is this such a widespread issue? God declared all of his creation good in the beginning. Adam and Eve certainly didn’t have body image issues. Oh, wait. As soon as sin entered the world, so…
A Million Little Ways
3 Minute Read “I’m not an artist.” I’ve said that so many times. Usually I’m referring to my lack of drawing and painting abilities, and that statement does have some basis in fact. But if you pressed me – “What about writing? What about restoring furniture? Decorating? What about gardening?” I would either brush it off as “not…
Trees Tall As Mountains
3 Minute Read E-readers will never take the place of real books in my heart. A new book (preferably a very old “new” book) sends little tingles of excitement through me in a way that a Kindle cover just can’t. But in this season of life, I’m grateful for another, generally more accessible way to read. And once…
A Season of Simplicity
3 Minute Read If you could walk into my house during the Christmas season, there would be no feeling of rush and stress and hectic holidays. There would be a mess, of course, because life with a busy toddler is messy. But Christmas, to me, is meant to be a peaceful time. A time to reflect on Jesus…
The End.
The End.