I sat on the couch with a heating pad in pain, the kind that didn't want to go away even with medication. A handful of moms with their preschoolers were coming to my home bright and early the next morning. My house didn't look inviting and I didn't feel good enough to host. Unlike me, I posted about my endometriosis and how I was missing out on ...
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13 NIV Trusting God When It Feels Unfair The only way we were able ...
We sat across from each other at a small table surrounded by glass displays of bakery treats lining bubblegum-pink walls. Everything in the cupcake bakery screamed too sweet and too bright. To me it felt like the place where the surface level world, dressed in their Sunday best with plastered on smiles, would go to fake fine. We were two souls ...
I sit at my computer desk with a hot cup of tea, ready to work on a to-do list a mile long. The house is quiet, but through an open window I hear a bird chirping, and in the distance I hear the school bell ring. We live a couple of blocks from my daughter’s school, so when I hear the bell I imagine my 12-year-old daughter walking to class with her ...
Let me tell you how a heart stops. It stops on a June afternoon so thick and sticky, you'd swear it's late August. You're driving the one short mile to the coffee shop in the rust-bucket beater with no air conditioning because the thought of walking makes your earlobes (the only part of you still dry) sweat. You drive because you can. You ...
We met when she still wore a thin gold band on her left ring finger. I sat next to her in the only seat available at the crowded table, not realizing from that point on, my life would be better because she was in it. As we sat in the restaurant surrounded by women who already knew one another, she told me her story. Her husband had broken the ...
By now you've probably heard that our (in)real life FRIENDED event is scheduled for October 14th both live in Nashville, TN and simulcast all around the world. But you might not know much about our speakers. Well, let us introduce you! Today we want you to meet the one and only, Annie F. Downs. Who makes you laugh quite like Annie Downs, ...
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) In my current season of life, it's often just me and my husband for dinner. Sometimes when I make a recipe that could feed an entire family, I'll divide it in half and pray about who could use a ...
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:7 NIV Finding Strength in My Struggles All throughout the Psalms, we see a man who struggled with fear of his enemies, the betrayal of his friends, and the selfish sin of his own heart. Yet King ...
It sounds like the dramatic voice-over narration of a movie to say that I can vividly remember the exact moment when my entire life shifted. Except that I can. It was just before 4:00 a.m. on Monday, May 14, 1990. I had fallen into another fitful night’s sleep in the hospital waiting room when suddenly the lights flashed on and an urgent ...
