Teen years can be grueling. We’ve heard it in sermons and podcasts. Read it in books and even spoken it to each other, yet we still don’t believe in the middle of the mess. Our mess. Our teens’ mess. God will make something beautiful. Because if we’re real honest, it’s always easier to believe someone […]
Some Honest Truth About Parenting Teens Read More »
My husband murmured a few days ago, “It’s been a rough year. I’m ready for 2018 to be over.” It’s true it’s been one crazy year filled with heartache, brokenness, and weariness, but not hopelessness. Not once did I feel hopeless. The truth is we aren’t hopeless when we fully understand why Jesus came, died,
What Christmas Came to Destroy Read More »
Several years ago, I served on our church prayer team. Every Sunday I had the privilege of praying for and alongside women for physical and emotional healing or about marriage restoration, job loss, family strife, prodigal sons and daughters, barrenness, and plain discouragement. One Sunday, an amazing thing happened. A woman came to the altar
You’re Not Only Wanted, You’re Needed Read More »
Every morning I drive pass cotton fields on the way to dropping the kids off at school. God speaks clearly through these fields. It’s funny how seasons change. It uses to be the beach, and now it’s a cotton field. The road slightly bends and curves around, like a curtain drawing back God relieves the
For When Life Hits Hard Read More »
“To accept the dark nights is to accept being human…It is to accept being who I am. This is holiness.” Maria Edwards On this journey of life, there are unexpected bends in the road, and sometimes mountains we never thought we have to overcome, and it’s scary and downright overwhelming. You feel alone; you feel
If you lean in close, you can hear it, the wrestling of restless women wanting more than religion. They want to know a real God who meets their real needs right in the middle of their real lives. Some are wounded from the church and wondering if they’ll ever go back. Some are conflicted and
Where Real Life Meets Our Real God Read More »
“Hold space for them.” These words dropped in my spirit last February after teaching at the women’s drug rehab for the first time. I had accepted an invitation to teach a Bible study once a week and had been begging the Lord to reveal wisdom on what to share with them. Leading up to the
Braving the Hurt of Your Neighbor Read More »
One Saturday, eight years ago, I sat in our screened in porch of our three- bedroom ranch, questioning my faith, for the first time. “Is this whole Christian thing working for me?” I was thirty-one years old. I had been a Christian since I was a teenager, and I believed the Bible, but was it
When Grace Walks In: A Personal Testimony Read More »
“I think we should do a calendar together. I’ll paint a watercolor for each month, and you could write a few lines of inspiration to go along with the painting.” I’m seated alone, about a year after my sister uttered these thoughts on one of our phone dates, working on that very calendar. A dream
Cultivating Your Dreams When It Seems There’s No Time Read More »
Welcome to my Summer Blog Swap. Over the next four weeks, I am inviting four of my writing friends to this space to share their hearts and perspective. It’s a fun way to introduce some of my favorite writers to all of you. This week I’d like you to meet Carol Graft. Carol loves to encourage and equip
Come to the Table {Summer Blog Swap} Read More »
