Fact: Having a five-year-old requires me to know my faith. It’s a wonderful, challenging, intimidating task to explain why I believe what I believe and live my life the way I do. One thing I find equally refreshing and terrifying about children is their unabashed willingness to ask “why.” When it comes to God, prayer, […]
Making Me New
I first heard the song “Beautiful Things” by Gungor several years ago and immediately fell in love with it. (In case you want to give it a listen, here you go!) I was drawn to the song because of its unique sound and, well, “beautiful” lyrics. It’s what I would consider a pretty song. When […]
Confessions of a Shame-a-holic
I’ve let shame make too many decisions for me in my life. For example, I have always been notorious for not sending out thank you cards. When it actually happens, I’m always late in getting it done. Most of the time, I listen to Shame say, “It’s too late now. You’ll only embarrass yourself more […]
Coming Out of Slavery: “And God Knew”
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. ~Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7 I’m thankful for the fact that when I don’t have words to say, the Bible says it all for […]
A Look Back on March
I started my “Because of Grace List” in January to be intentional about reflecting over the month’s accomplishments because I tend to believe the lie that all I do is run around in circles and get nothing done. I’m convinced 3 months into the year that I do spend some time doing just that, but […]
What I Learned from Listening to Whining
Mondays happen to all of us once a week. Profound, huh? Here’s another deep thought. Some Mondays are great, and others are Monday-type Mondays. Around here, today was a Monday-type Monday. You know the kind. Everyone had to get up far earlier than they wanted to. All of those little things that seemed attainable when […]
The Guaranteed Way to Change Someone’s Life
My daughter turns one this coming week, and in preparation, she’s been practicing her walking skills quite a bit. While she definitely has a sense of adventure and determination that is all her own, one of her biggest inspirations to accomplish milestones is her big brother. He encourages her multiple times every day, “Come on […]
Inspiration for Reaching Goals
Have you set any goals for yourself this year? I have several, and I thought I’d pass along some of the thoughts that have been inspiring me to keep pushing through to accomplish them. Do you know who really inspires me? Exceptionally average people. I’m most challenged and motivated when I see someone who the […]
A Reflection on What I Learned about Identity
Last December, I chose one word as my theme for the coming year. Identify Of course, the vision I had for that word going into the year turned out different than how it looks in reflection. Going into the year, I had a neat little outline of how I was going to make it meaningful. […]
When I Broke my Picture of Grace
I broke the first piece of art I’ve ever been proud of within a week of bringing it home. I went to spend time with some of my friends at one of those cute pottery painting places last month, and walked away from our session really excited about the outcome of my little masterpiece. It […]