Last year around Christmas, Mark and I braved a local shopping area for some gifts on our list. We braced ourselves for crowds and lines, loud songs playing over store speakers, irritable drivers fighting to get the last parking spot. When we walked through our door an hour later, I took a deep breath and thought, “Peace at last.” In our ...
Loving other people can feel like stepping across a field of land mines sometimes. Perhaps this is truest of all online. Politics. Social issues. The latest offense at school or work or the fast-food drive-through. It’s all there. Angry words, sharp-pointed opinions, the shrapnel of bitterness and envy. Why do we do this to each other? I’ve come ...
God remains the strength of my heart. Psalm 73:26 (NLT) I sit in a darkened auditorium with my mom on one side of me and my daughter on the other. The three of us have come to hear Priscilla Shirer as part of her Fervent tour. She talks about who we are as women and all God created us to be. She also shares that we have a very real enemy who ...
Last week, our family had “Gerth Day,” a made-up holiday celebrating when our daughter legally changed her last name to ours. That might sound strange but nothing about our story was what we had expected. Lovelle came into our lives when she was twenty, after Mark and I had gone through almost a decade of infertility. I’d stared at pregnancy ...
Confession: I’m not a graceful runner. Even the word "run" might be a bit misleading. I move faster than when I’m walking, but the average poodle and/or enthusiastic toddler would have a good shot at outpacing me. However, when I start out on a run, I feel like an Olympian. I stand up straight and bend my elbows at just the right place. There’s ...
My in-laws bought a beautiful SUV with pristine paint and not a dent in sight. They came to visit us for the weekend, and my mother-in-law needed to run an errand. She offered to let me drive. I promptly backed the aforementioned SUV directly into a trailer parked behind it. I cried. My mother-in-law might have too. In the moment after the ...
Our lives can feel so loud. The ring of the phone and ding of social media notifications, outspoken newscasters and oven timers, horns honking and music blaring, the demands that seem to come from every corner. In the middle of it all, how can we know and hear God’s voice today? I’m sitting at a table full of women one evening, and we’re talking ...
Lord, Thank You for the gift of HOPE You gave us on Easter morning. Because of You we know That no problem is too difficult And even death does not have power over us. Thank You for the gift of JOY You gave us when You were resurrected. Because of You we know That no matter how challenging life may be, In the end we will rejoice ...
I’m sitting on the couch, laptop in front of me, typing so fast it sounds like a machine gun when my husband wanders into the room. He says something to me and I reply with a vague “Hmm,” which is my way of signaling, “I’m busy and being productive. Please come back later.” But he persists in his efforts to communicate with me, and I, such a kind ...
I almost burned down the house where I lived in college. This isn’t a figure of speech. Nor is it a clever expression of angst. This is a literal firemen-on-the-lawn fact. Throughout college I had an ongoing love affair with candles — specifically those that smelled like baked goods. One day I decided to light a candle while I worked. I couldn’t ...
