It's crazy how life is. Or, let’s be honest…how I am. It was one of the happiest times of my life as we welcomed our healthy newborn baby boy. There was so much to celebrate, yet something was missing… Oh, how precious were the days of building our family! Friends helped friends as they expanded their families – anticipating babies to be born, adjusting to new little ones. Sweet hugs and kisses, sleepless nights, temper tantrums, the whole package! Those times were exhausting but priceless! Bonding with friends was easy – for my husband and myself, as we had so much in common with those around us. Friends laughed and cried together, shared stories of exhaustion and exhilaration together. Those were the days that lifetime friends were made. By the time our second son was born, Continue Reading
We are Made to Brave Change – Made For Brave Sisterhood
The most daunting task in life is not working towards change. Instead, it is the ability to fully embrace the change God is continually doing in and through you. It seems to me that God loves making Himself known more in the "question marks" of our lives rather than in our "exclamation" moments. Such was the case for me as I found myself at a complete stranger's house in Missouri at a retreat a few years ago. Just prior to arriving at the retreat, I was in the hospital recovering from a stroke. Doctors believe it was stress induced as we were losing our home, I had recently given birth to our third child and nobody in our family had a steady source of income. Stress? What stress? I was working hard for change and instead, I found myself literally stressed-out. I was in my Continue Reading
Hope for the Weary Writer
Are you a writer? Then chances are you've experienced moments, days and even months of being just plain weary. "Weary" is the dilemma of every writer at some point. We pull words from deep places and pour them out, shaping and crafting sentences meant to bring hope and encouragement to our readers. Every moment spent living becomes an opportunity to write. A common thread to connect one soul to another. Because we want to make a difference... We strive to lighten another's burden with fresh insight. We long to sprinkle joy where there is sorrow. We yearn to offer strength to the heavy-hearted. We ache to show the way... to grace and mercy and hope. We live to plant seeds of encouragement. And along the journey, sometimes, we find ourselves weary and worn. Hope stretched Continue Reading
The Biggest Lie About A Surrendered Life
If you asked me five years ago, I naively would have told you that I didn’t struggle with control. I mean, seriously— as long as everything went exactly the way I hoped, I was totally flexible. It’s not that I wanted to control other people. Mostly, I wanted to control myself. If I ever had high expectations of anyone, it was of me. I wanted to present the self-assured, together version of my whole being. Which means I craved control over my face, my emotions, my body, my food, my words, my house, my schedule, my yard, my future. My preference was a tidy, predictable, safe life where no one got hurt, where my kids remained in one piece, where there was no pain for anyone ever again, amen. I said I trusted God but had reached the point where I realized I actually didn’t. As a Jesus Continue Reading