Jenni Marie 3 Minute Read I looked at blue skies and knew the clouds were coming soon. I marveled at a shadow cast across my floor and wondered how long it would last. I saw an autumn scene and saw only gray, ignoring the greens and browns and reds of the trees. I saw the world half empty, the glass…
Caroline Rose Sanders 11 Minute Read I’m really good at keeping the commandments. You know the ones: you shall not murder, shall not covet, shall not misspell someone’s name, shall not miscommunicate, shall not go more than two days without washing your hair, shall not take a wrong turn, shall not eat junk food, shall not sleep in, shall not wear…
Hayley Novak 6 Minute Read If I could write a letter to myself ten years younger, I wouldn’t write wistfully: you have zero gray hair! you aren’t yet jaded by burnout! you have so much enthusiasm! I know now how much joy will come wrapped up in the painful lessons of life and I will almost pity the shallow happiness…
Rachelle Rea Cobb 5 Minute Read I read something in Scripture that surprised me this morning. That happens less often than I’d like to admit, because God’s Word should surprise me more often. Sometimes I think my surprise barometer is broken. Between the beckoning magazine rack, newspaper, social media feeds, I hear a lot of things each day that should probably surprise…
Callie Mitchell 6 Minute Read It’s a small world after all… I can’t remember the first time I heard that well-known song from Disney’s iconic ride. My earliest childhood memories are running up and down Main Street USA, in Disneyland. At the time, my father, Jerry Narron, was a catcher for the (then) California Angels. The team received free Disneyland…
Jeannie Pederson 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…
Christy Fitzwater 3 Minute Read My mother-in-law gave me a beautiful Dutch oven for Christmas. Because I had been watching consecutive episodes of Food Network shows, I felt expert in using such fine cooking equipment. Until I read the instructions. Cast iron is intimidating. You can’t put it in the dishwasher. Can’t let it air dry. Can’t allow it to…
Elisabeth Adams 4 Minute Read Where do you suppose shame comes from? I posed this question to a women’s Bible class recently, and one young woman replied, “From Adam and Eve.” From two leaf-clad sinners, trembling with shame in the bushes because they’d just distrusted the most loving Person in their life…and all for a bite of fruit. (Oh, tragedy:…
Chautona Havig 7 Minute Read My favorite emails are the ones from my readers. They usually start out like this: “I’ve never written a personal note to an author before, but I just had to tell you how much your books have meant to me. I just finished one and I’m still processing the lessons I’ve gleaned from it.” Inevitably,…
Jenni Marie 4 Minute Read My Mom has cancer. My friend lost her full-term baby. My cousin has a terminal illness. How many times have you faced your own similarly jarring realities and been forced to acknowledge the fallenness of this world? Everyone has a story of unfairness, an ache, an injustice; mine is just an example of the pain…
Rachelle Rea Cobb 3 Minute Read Math was never my favorite subject, but sometimes I seek symmetry in dates. I can remember the date I graduated high school (June 5th), the date I graduated college (May 3rd), and the date my debut novel released (June 15th). I wish friends and family members “Happy Birthday Eve” the day before their actual birthdays, and…
Caroline Rose Sanders 5 Minute Read It was another college party. I was the odd man out, the one who didn’t actually go to college at all, the one who didn’t know the songs playing from the iPod in the corner. I was the one sitting on the back of the couch, wondering what to do with my hands. I looked…
The End.
The End.