I’ve got a four letter word that often tries to mess with my life: fear. Recently, I was thinking about how fear tries to halt me and stunt me from walking in obedience and (in a non-millennial catch phrase way) from living my best life. You see, my best life is one that trades that four letter word for the five … Read More
If It Weren’t for Billy Graham, I Wouldn’t Be Alive
I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for Billy Graham. You read that right. I really wouldn’t. Do you ever wonder who it was in your life that was the crux of it all that led to your existence? Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe YOU are the one that will be the prompt to someone else’s opening … Read More
…And You’re A Person
“You’re really hard on yourself,” she said to me from her office chair. “I know. My husband tells me the same thing,” I say. We talk about it a little further. I carry some sort of ritualistic gotta prove my worth thing that no one else on earth has asked me to carry. We don’t speak those words, but I … Read More
Word of the Year 2017: Fulfilling
Seldom do I make big public sweeping goal announcements for things such as weight loss, a dream job, a project, a specific hope, etc. I’ve learned from experience that I tend to fall off of wagons like that. Instead, I prefer to make my announcements after they’ve come to fruition, an act of tending, trusting, and yielding such things before … Read More
#WinningAtLife
What does winning at life look like, really? In a culture of hashtags, most of us are familiar with #winning or #winningatlife . Sometimes these little community builders are used in jest or sarcasm and others, they are used as an honest cheer for small and great victories alike. I’ve used both. Plugging in the crockpot AND turning it on? … Read More
God Really Does Set The Lonely In Families
I know about being lonely. Life’s loneliness can feel so overwhelming, can’t it, my friend? I know what it’s like to be without a dad this side of Heaven. I know what it’s like as a young woman to feel the burden trying to assume the role of the “man of the house” when there was no man left in … Read More
The Struggle Is Real
Do you struggle? Well, if you have breath, we both know the answer to that question. Of course you do. I do, too. Everyone does. They didn’t come up with #thestruggleisreal for no reason. Life is full of friction that constitutes a daily struggle to do things… to do the right things…in the amount of time we’ve been given each … Read More
The Value of A Tribe
Nashville. We called this area home for 3.5 years and as quick as we blew into town, we soared out when my husband was offered a full time job as a professor back in Virginia where we came from. I left kicking and screaming because I wasn’t done. There were so many wonderful people and places we were deeply connected … Read More
This Stuff is Real
I’m not a theologian. But I am a Christ-follower. Long before I chose Him 29 years ago, Jesus chose me. I was 4 when I decided to follow Jesus. It wasn’t a complicated decision. I hadn’t been into drugs or come from an abusive home or anything like that. My storyline of following Jesus had a pretty steady baseline until … Read More
When God Doesn’t Stop The Storm
Storms. That’s been the common theme of most news cycles the last week. For many of us, we’ve been on the edge of our seats, petrified for our loved ones, their homes, and our fellow mankind in general. Our pastor and his wife thought they were in St.Martin just to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Turns out, they were there to … Read More