Trust

When Motherhood Comes in Weakness

I’m not much of a mom these days. At least, that’s what I’m tempted to feel like when I see all the other moms dashing here and there, taking their kids to sports practice and volunteering in their classroom, hosting big birthday parties and planning fun vacations. My son has a mom who spends much of her time in bed, in a recliner, and in doctors’ offices.

There are moments when I grieve who I can’t be for my 11-year-old, when I mourn the ways my terminal cancer diagnosis has laid heavy burdens on my son’s young shoulders.

Loss

When All You Want for Christmas is a Baby

Rachelle Rea Cobb 6 Minute Read

Ever since we got married, I dreamed of Christmas with children. I love Christmas. Always have. Partly because my parents always labored to protect us from materialism by focusing less on the presents beneath the tree and more on stuffing the season with traditions like trimming the tree together, making a gingerbread house, and watching…

Trust

Be Alert: In Painful Seasons, Your Heart Might Whisper Lies

Guest Author 8 Minute Read

I was having a horrible day — not “normal” horrible, not like everything-is-going-wrong kind of day (although those are bad enough). I was exhausted. My brain hurt. I couldn’t think straight, could barely think at all. I wasn’t suicidal, but the darkness of depression loomed over me like a cloud I couldn’t shake.

Singleness

Your Loneliness Has A Purpose

Guest Author 7 Minute Read

by Natalie AK Scott I sat in my chair on a cold winter morning, and as the black of night turned to the dark blue of dawn, I wrote in my journal: “I think what I’m feeling is a deep loneliness.” It wasn’t that I’d never felt it before, but it was the first time…

Singleness

Not What I Was Hoping For

Guest Author 5 Minute Read

It was almost Christmas, I was five years old, and my class at school was preparing for the Nativity play. Our teacher, Mrs. Davies, allocated the parts while we waited with anticipation, all the girls hoping to be chosen to play Mary, or at least one of the angels. When my name was called, it…

What does God say when my heart is hard?

Elisabeth Adams 3 Minute Read

It was just like God — days into my school year in Jerusalem, when I finally had a little time to feel a twinge of homesickness — to prompt my friend Jan to call. Jan is definitely walking in a tradition as old as Job: “the dark night of the soul.” As long as I’ve known…

Motherhood

When Motherhood is Dark

Jeannie Pederson 5 Minute Read

For the third time in twenty minutes, I crept into the bedroom where my tiny son was napping. I stared at him, dark lashes against soft cheeks, little rosebud lips, petite fingers curled into a fist. Was he breathing? Of course he was… but I touched his back just to make sure. Then I touched…

Book Lists

when fear and anxiety produce tunnel vision

Emily C. Gardner 5 Minute Read

I like to imagine myself in a Jane Austen novel–engaging in witty banter with a handsome member of the landed gentry, whirling around a ballroom into the wee hours of the morning and taking trips to Bath. But if I’m honest, I find myself identifying less with an Austen heroine and more with one of…

Music

Songs We Put On Repeat In Hard Times

Gretchen Louise 10 Minute Read

I couldn’t read because light hurt my eyes. Screen time was out of the question. I couldn’t even sit up. I could only lay there thinking of all the things I needed to be doing. But every minute I kept still was another that helped keep my baby growing safely inside me. I knew eventually…

Loss

how to look at loss when fear strangles

Rachelle Rea Cobb 5 Minute Read

At noon on a hot July Friday, my husband, Devin, and I both had routine appointments scheduled with our dentist. After my appointment was concluded, I stood up from the dental chair with cleaned teeth and a clean bill of health. The dental assistant led me to the chair where Devin was still mid-appointment. Our…

Prayer

Do You Pray for Him?

Elisabeth Allen 7 Minute Read

I wonder what God would do if the young women of this generation got down on their knees and prayed that faith in Jesus would be the “one thing” that defines their future husbands – and thus the young men of this generation?!

I don’t know how old I was when I prayed for him first – all I can remember is praying for him “all my life”. I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve covered in my prayers in the hope that, if you don’t already pray for him, you’re inspired to pray for “him who is to be your husband”.

Praying for our future husbands is a wonderful way to follow the example of the woman in Proverbs 31:12 and do our future husbands “good and not evil all the days of our lives.” But how do we do that in reality? How do we make it practical? It can be daunting! We don’t know the guy’s name, his age, his family, church, education and work situation – we don’t even know if he’s a Christian yet! Here are some ideas …

Prayer

How to Trust God Even If He Says “No”

Katrina Slabaugh 5 Minute Read

Oil glistened on her forehead as the elders prayed. Their requests rose to Heaven along with those of hundreds of saints, begging God to heal her physical body. For my precious, beloved Aunt Dee-Dee was dying. Spreading from her uterus, cancer viciously conquered her body. After months of treatment, her doctors discovered the cancer had…