glorious goodness and grace
Living like a Christian defies odds.
Living more like Jesus is audacious and goes against the flow of the stream.
Your faith in the glorious goodness and grace of God-despite your feelings-will look like madness.
If faith is madness, so be it.
May it be the most glorious madness.
faithful Christmas
Something huge happens when we remove our wants from Christmas and start chasing our needs. Christmas begins to look very different, it feels different and vibrant, and an excitement emerges. Bleak taught us how to see beauty.
Elizabeth and Mary
There are times when the best decisions you will ever make will require you to walk some of the hardest journeys. That’s where we meet Mary….
leaning in
There’s nothing like a good before and after; but, for some reason, we rarely talk about all of the unspoken messiness in the middle. It could be because it’s not as glamorous, but the messy middle is where the nitty gritty beauty begins. That’s where I sat with home education this summer, the messy middle, hunting and yearning for beauty.
patience
My teen asked sarcastically if 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙚 was a four letter word. (I should add it was in response to an economics lesson & we were discussing market crashes.) Without skipping a beat, it rolled off my tongue that 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 was an eight letter word & God is teaching me that it’s needful to count to eight.
𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘬 & 𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭, 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳.
if I ever go down
If I ᴇᴠᴇʀ ɢᴏ ᴅᴏᴡɴ...may I have praise hands in the air, a song beating in my heart, and gratitude leaving my lips. Thankfulness ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀsᴛ I ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ offer. God has given 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆 in my valleys, built 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉 in my storms, 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 in my bow.
restore
I grew up with immense admiration for my great grandmother. Suzie was poised energy, accomplished and adored. When someone commented that they had never seen Suzie cry (even though I had secretly witnessed her shedding tears behind a partially closed door), I mimicked her battle plan as my battle cry. I pushed down hidden fears and tears for three decades.
when love lessons land
We all experience the pulls of craving belonging and purpose. This is about the day I met mine.
retrospection
We came to a pandemic.
As an enneagram six, I pondered all the worst case scenarios and plotted statistics into my autoimmune survival plan. I stocked up, sheltered in, ready for the long haul.
reimagine
By four years old, I knew in my heart that I wanted 3 things: I wanted to be a nurse, a mother, and a wife. I wanted them pretty much in that order-I was four years old, wisdom or experience clearly wasn’t available yet. At nine years old, my babysitter gave me my first journal-just a simple, small, dime store journal that I could hide my hopes and dreams, fears and horrors-safely held under lock and key. As space ran out…
friends that love
It’s been a heavy week. It couldn’t be polished pretty or wrapped in a bow. This week, I needed to kneel.
in everything, seek Him
Anyone else like to live in the safety zone? You know, those safe and predictable places with guaranteed answers? Yep, that’s me too.
For years, that’s exactly what I did as it seemed…
when moving forward feels hard
𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕔𝕒𝕟’𝕥 𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕣 𝕒 𝕡𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕖𝕕 𝕔𝕒𝕣-𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨.
That thought sorta struck me while teaching the oldest mancub to drive a few years ago. It made total sense then & 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺, but I had only conceptualized it as forward motion with the foot on the gas as being the only way for growth to occur.
how mama bear was born
𝑀𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦, wind chilling to the bone, a small babe held bundled and protected from weather as we gathered to bring him home.
This week, he is officially an adult-it all happened too fast.
name it holy
The words 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙮 have been germinating around in my head for a few years. I think it’s because there have been poignant moments in my life where only the supernatural can fully receive the credit. Moments that I was privileged to witness what happened. Experiences that can’t be explained otherwise.
This morning was one of those moments.