I was confronted not long ago by a fellow Believer. She questioned my actions in a situation and then gave me Scripture references to back up her words. She wasn’t mean, or spiteful in any way, but of course it still hurt. This wasn’t the first time this has happened. In fact, over the course of my life as a Christian there have been multiple times when I have been confronted. It’s a good thing, one of the best parts of being in community, ... Read More about How to Respond to Correction from Other Believers
Natasha Metzler
Natasha lives with her husband and two children on a farm in Northern New York.
To the Mom Who is Trying So Hard to Just Get it Right
I read too much. Don’t misunderstand—reading is powerful and beautiful and a gift that I am so thankful for, I don’t even have words to explain it. But I still read too much at times. I know this because two years ago, I was reading everything I could get my hands on about parenting. We had a struggling adopted child, and I was researching and reading parenting theories left and right. I was 100% willing to change everything about my ... Read More about To the Mom Who is Trying So Hard to Just Get it Right
How to Be An Introverted Mother with an Extroverted Daughter
After many years of infertility, my husband and I finally brought home a daughter. She was eight years old, adorable, precious, and…extroverted. A few months went by without any issues because, hello! I had a daughter. Of course she can talk to me nonstop, of course she can be attached to my side 24-7, of course she can be touching me and needing me constantly. It was my husband who started saying things first. I wanted to shrug off the ... Read More about How to Be An Introverted Mother with an Extroverted Daughter
“I kept busy.” (A Guy’s Thoughts on Prolonged Singleness)
A few days after my husband proposed to me, we walked his farm and talked about the future. At one point we stood together, looking across the backfield, and he said quietly, “I had pretty much decided that I would never get to share this with anyone. I can’t wait to come home to you here.” Amos was thirty-three when we married. He had built a farm, a business, and a reputation of integrity in our community. He had a good life, but as ... Read More about “I kept busy.” (A Guy’s Thoughts on Prolonged Singleness)
The God Who Breathes Life into Dry Bones
It was somewhere around my third anniversary that reality hit hard enough to make me gasp for breath. I really couldn’t have babies. Not without a miracle. I had so many dreams that involved motherhood and they all crumbled around me. I found myself standing there with dying dreams and agony ripping my heart to shreds. I spent a whole season of my life shoveling dirt over dead dreams. And I learned something new in that season: God does ... Read More about The God Who Breathes Life into Dry Bones
Found Treasure: A Love Story in Books and Memories
The year I turned twelve years old we moved into the upstairs of my grandparent's house in Northern New York. Until this point my family had been living in far off Homer, Alaska where my father taught at a Bible School. Our interactions with my mom's parents included a handful of visits, many phone calls, and handwritten letters that flew back and forth. But this year things were different. We were going to live with my grandparents for a ... Read More about Found Treasure: A Love Story in Books and Memories
Writing God’s Presence Into Our Family History
There is clipboard in my desk that is heavy with papers. Pages and pages of copied handwritten notes. The handwriting is my beautiful 91 year old grandmother’s, but the story those pages tell isn’t really hers. It’s the story of my grandpa, how he met Jesus in the barnyard one day and his life was transformed from someone who knew about God to a man who intimately knew the Father. The notes aren’t really in chronological order, and ... Read More about Writing God’s Presence Into Our Family History
for the one who feels empty and weak
Our son came home on a rainy November day. Instead of a hospital room, we gathered him to us from an airport waiting area. We knelt and talked to him by the luggage carousel and bonded over dinner at Cracker Barrel. My heart cracked with the glory of the Lord’s redemption in my life. While my body was barren, my life wasn’t barren at all, and this child coming home was the settling of another layer of God’s incredible grace into me. This ... Read More about for the one who feels empty and weak
Do You Know Who You Really Are?
I don’t remember every word they said; I just remember the way I felt. I was a young teen. I’m not even sure how old. Maybe fifteen? We were at a church function, perhaps just a Sunday service. I was alone in the bathroom and when I stepped out I heard two voices talking. For a long time I thought it was just because I heard my name that I stopped, but of course that wouldn’t make sense. If I just heard my name, I would have continued around ... Read More about Do You Know Who You Really Are?
Wounded by “Christians”
There are so many stories. They pile up and run over and leave aching sorrow behind. And sometimes I think the hurt that grieves God the most is that which is inflicted by believers. We speak so rashly, words slashing and leaving bloodied hearts behind. We're broken human beings, but unfortunately, some of us forget that truth and try to pretend like we're whole. And all those ragged edges are wounding those around us. As Christians, we need to ... Read More about Wounded by “Christians”
Priceless: why every woman possesses intrinsic worth
"...there are more humans enslaved today than there ever have been in the history of the world." (Joel Smallbone) I look at my eleven-year-old daughter, and I realize that except for the Lord’s incredible mercy in her life, she could be one of them. The country she was born in has one of the highest child slavery rates in the world and, unfortunately, our country doesn’t have much better statistics. Part of the problem is a lack of ... Read More about Priceless: why every woman possesses intrinsic worth
How to Persevere When Things Get Hard
Right before Christmas my husband was injured. We were just upstairs in the barn, cleaning up a few building scraps from when we built the house last year. It wasn’t hard work, nor was it particularly dangerous work. When my husband took a deep breath and told me his finger had just been cut off, I looked around bewildered, trying to grasp what in the world he was talking about. Later that night, sitting in the ER, waiting for the doctor ... Read More about How to Persevere When Things Get Hard
