WELCOME TO THE BLOG
A new journey
Two weeks ago today I was getting prepped for an unexpected surgery and after some prayer, I’ve decided it’s okay to share more.
My future self does thank me and other updates
I’d love for you to take a moment to watch this video that includes some important updates and a prayer request! See you in September!
I Can’t Save My Children
The pressure to try to save my children is off. I can’t. There’s nothing I can do to make them believe. But what I can do is faithfully speak the truth—and live it out before them. I can answer God’s call to train up children in the way they should go (Prov. 22:6). I can wait patiently for Him to work…
Is the World against You?
There are times when I’ve felt like nothing was going quite right. Relationships seemed hard and strained. Sickness wrecked my body and plans. And my mind had to fight hard to remember God’s goodness. In that fight to remember God’s goodness, I’d rehearse Paul’s rhetorical question in Romans 8: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). A rhetorical question is a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect. It makes a point, rather than seeking an answer…
Who can you encourage today?
I don’t have many regrets in life. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I do believe the Lord has used them to refine me, teach me, and make me more like His Son…
My Future Self Will Thank Me
This post continues my first draft series where I write the various things on my heart and mind without editing due to time and then I press publish. Did I tell you I have a hiatal hernia? I don’t write or talk about it much but if you’re around me, you’ll quickly see and hear the effects of it. I cough a lot and must restrict what I eat. A hiatal hernia occurs when the upper part of your stomach bulges through the large muscle separating your abdomen and chest (diaphragm). I know, lovely. I was diagnosed with it after receiving a procedure to determine why I had so much pain in my abdomen. And although I haven’t been officially diagnosed, I do believe that I also have celiac disease. I have all the signs and the one time I went completely gluten free I experienced a significant improvement in my quality of life.
Your Children Can’t Bear the Burden of Being Your Identity
There isn’t much I find more delight in than caring for my children. They are a joy to be with. I could listen to my daughter’s belly laugh and my sons deep, yet still child-like, voice chatter all day long. I have had four miscarriages and I do wonder if that loss has helped me to see just what a gift from God my children are to me. But even still, when I think about this wonderful responsibility and the joy of being a mother it’s not what defines me. I don’t define myself as a mom first and I don’t believe it would be good or helpful to my children if I sought to find my identity in them either.
Exciting Announcement: New Commentator at World Radio
I’m excited to share the news that I have joined World Radio (sister platform of World Magazine) as a commentator and my first one aired today! Commentators focus on a variety of different topics and issues. My plan is to focus on Christian discipleship, family and children, race and ethnicity, and issues and topics important to women. My goal in both my writing and speaking is to identify where the gospel applies to the area and what the implications of the gospel are to that topic. That will not change and is celebrated at World, which is one of the reasons I’m so honored to be a part…
Fighting Our Forgetfulness
Each day, each hour is a worthy fight to remember our greatest love in the world. One way for you and me to fight our temptation to wander toward lesser things is to remember the love and pursuit of God. Read more of my thoughts on this at Desiring God…
Can You Celebrate Your Whiteness?
Recently, I was asked a peculiar but sincere question during an open-mic Q&A. The young white man asked: Can I celebrate my whiteness or my white culture? I quickly discerned both inquiry and pain. Later I would learn that the man is a single-dad, raising two young boys who he wants to equip and disciple well. He has also been trying to gain understanding about racial reconciliation and in many ways has found himself perplexed and maybe even weighed down by the realities of our history. I didn’t know all of that when I answered but I also sense this same wrestling with other people as they begin their own journey into ethic diversity, biblical theology, and historical sins…
First Draft: Only by Prayer
I’ve always been intrigued by the scene in Mark 9: 14-29. The disciples tried to cast out an unclean spirit and failed to do so. The father pleads with Jesus to help his son. Jesus asked him a question and the father answered, “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus, replied, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” Without hesitation the father said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” and it was granted to him. I’ve quoted that line many times: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! But it isn’t that line that intrigues me most. At the end of their time there, the disciples pulled Jesus aside and asked him why they couldn’t cast it out. Jesus replied, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Loving God and Others with Our Minds
We know how to act, and there are things we likely wouldn’t do just for fear of what others might think. But our minds are another story. No one sees what we’re thinking — at least, that’s the lie we tell ourselves. We can have vengeful, angry thoughts; we can lust; we can be anxious; we can judge others — all within the confines of our mind. We don’t have to say a word or make a move to sin.We know how to act, and there are things we likely wouldn’t do just for fear of what others might think. But our minds are another story. No one sees what we’re thinking — at least, that’s the lie we tell ourselves. We can have vengeful, angry thoughts; we can lust; we can be anxious; we can judge others — all within the confines of our mind. We don’t have to say a word or make a move to sin. I share more at the Proverbs 31 Ministries…
First Draft: A Blogging Series
Over the past few weeks, prolific blogger and author, Tim Challies, has posted a series of tweets and an article lamenting the changes he is seeing in the blogosphere. In short, writers are simply abandoning blogs, at least blogs that are personally owned. I believe he is right and as I’ve thought about it in regards to my own site, I know why I have not posted as frequently and it is simple, time…
Loving God and Others with Our Minds
We can find ourselves busy doing good things, many good and wonderful things, and before we know it we are flat on our faces exhausted. Maybe for you it’s serving in every ministry in your local church, bringing meals to every woman who gives birth, or picking up the phone instead of paying attention to that deadline. The Lord graciously used my Bible study with him to show me that I had my priorities mixed up and forgot to nurture my own love for Jesus. My Bible reading had become a task to do for others. But in doing that He also revealed my fear of what others would think if I simply said no. I saw how my over-commitment was affecting everything…
Is Diversity Important for the Church?
In the last 50 years, the term diversity has taken on many meanings. In the early 1960s, diversity most likely would have referred to the need for desegregation. By the ’70s and ’80s it would’ve been associated with affirmative action. Now diversity is often regarded as inclusivity in a myriad of ways…
No Longer Slaves
My mind struggles to understand slavery. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to wake up chained—metaphorically or literally—and owned by another human being. When my mind goes there, when I allow myself to try to put my feet in a slave’s shoes, I all but fall down in sorrow…
Lessons from a failed business and trying in the New Year
In 2007, I started an online fitness business. I produced a Christian CD for group fitness instructors and personal trainers to use with their clients. That venture was the start of my entrepreneurship—unless you count the time, at 12 years old, when I sold baked goods to my neighbors and surrounding businesses. I have always been a bit adventurous and seem to constantly have big ideas (still do!). In 2008, I managed the group fitness instructors and program for a local fitness chain. I did the basic work of a manager but saw more potential and began to implement programs, fundraisers, and marketing strategies. A few years passed and I realized that I had been putting a lot of time and energy into another company and it dawned on me, I can do this on my own… So I did…
#Blessed
Last week I shared on my various social media sites, a brief takeaway from a conversation I had with my mother. This takeaway has struck a nerve, understandably so. In our social media world, the use of the term “blessed” has been turned into a proclamation of all the good things that we have from vacations to cars to a new home…
Pictures of Hope and Reconciliation: A Giveaway!
The world is broken… Because of Genesis 3, we aren’t surprised by the brokenness, depravity, pain, and sorrow around us. Even creation is groaning, awaiting the day when it will be freed and all things will be made new. And perhaps one of the greatest effects of the fall is the hostility present in so many of our relationships and institutions. We need not look much further than our social media feeds to see this divide. And it could be easy to say it’s out there and not in here—in the church. Our division is pervasive. But Genesis 3 didn’t have the last word; Jesus defeated sin and death through the cross and resurrection. And although we wait for his return in a world filled with hate and despair, there are many glimpses of beauty, joy, reconciliation, and love all around…
Never “Arrive”
As I’ve highlighted on the blog, I’m currently teaching a Bible study on Ephesians at my local church. It has been such a joy but last week might have been one of the sweetest. Instead of doing a devotional, I wanted to share with you one thing one woman shared with all of us during that time…
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