I had to remind myself of a few things this morning: Even a run-walk is better than no run. You don’t need the right workout clothes to work out. Your kids are not the boss of your feelings. God loves you because of who you are not what you do. The forties are the love story of life in the middle — in the middle of kids, faith, doubt, marriage, ...
The backseat giggles warmed my heart. While my husband climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with Compassion International, I savored extra days with our two sponsored children. Hilda (six) and Goodluck (five) shared a seat and provided entertainment as we bounced along the roads in Tanzania. Following visits to their modest homes and a lunch of chicken and ...
There’s this question I’ve been chewing on. I can’t get it out of my mind. It goes like this: What if the display of God’s power in our lives is directly related to acknowledging our need for Him? I’ve seen the evidence play out more times than I can count. For almost a decade I’ve watched a friend desperately try to grow her family. Every ...
I don’t need an excuse to celebrate. I will come up with any reason to load the kids into the car and go get ice cream. I have no problem declaring that a random Tuesday is movie night with popcorn and candy. I love living outside the lines of normal, regular, and ordinary. I want to raise my kids to see the world in wonder. I want them to climb ...
Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed ...
I walk down the hallway and stop at number 206. The two and six curve inward, the zero stands firm in the center. Two hundred and six. This number signifies a bit of who I am now. I slide the large golden key from my hand into the lock and twist it, bumping my hip against the door when it opens. I walk in and stare, silently, at this one-bedroom ...
A few years ago, my heart took to skipping beats. The lub-dub lub-dub that pounds faithfully hour after hour developed a new rhythm. Like a jump start, a thick thud would land in my chest, making me cough like someone had thumped their fist against my sternum. I had tests done a few years ago when it first started happening. Blood work, EKGs and ...
Our family built a raised bed garden this spring. We talked about the idea of it for months prior, teeter-tottering between dreams and hesitations. In my daydreams, I imagined how it would serve as both a guide and needed distraction to some of the challenges we’ve been facing as a family. But the truth that’s haunted this dream of a garden is ...
I don’t want us to miss out on the one-on-one potential we set in motion each time we open our door to someone. When we shatter the image of needing a model home and a model life and replace it with an everyday invitation that begins by simply being the person you already are, walls of comparison begin to fall. By welcoming our guests with ...
God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great is your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. Lamentations 3:22 (MSG) It was late, close to midnight. I was laying vocals on a project when the producer stepped out to take ...
