The holidays are often the most difficult and loneliest times for many, and it's during these times hope is a much-needed commodity. Finding our focus beyond the celebration and gifts is key, and today, I'm happy to have Deb Wolf share how realizing the one true gift we have been given makes all the difference when it comes to braving a lonely heart. It was our 10th Christmas as a couple, our 7th married, our 4th as parents, and our 1st on our own. We'd spent every Christmas with one of our families for years. But this year we couldn't travel and neither could our parents or sibs. It was our first year to spend Christmas alone. We celebrated with our church family both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We enjoyed opening presents and dined on yummy foods. All was good. But as Continue Reading
A Call to Love Brave
The sound of sea waters meeting the shore, birds chirping in harmony, wind hushing a peaceful tone, and two people looking in each other’s eyes, silently searching for the right words. I would not forget that day – a moment of deep and truthful conversation that we never had since the day he said he wanted to pursue a relationship with me. There at my favorite beach in our little town, he told me there was something dark about him that I needed to know. This man is the man of my dreams. He’s a church leader I respect, the only Christian guy I have admired from afar, the person I prayed for since I can remember. With a blessing from our leaders, we started our courtship journey – part of that to be honest and open with each other. As he spoke, he brought me to a dark room in his Continue Reading
For Those Who Must Brave the Prodigal Child
I felt the danger and it was taking its toll. As parents, we lived in a constant state of fear over each phone call, each curfew, each ring of the doorbell. It wasn’t just stressful for us, it was also having an impact on our other two children. It’s one thing when someone threatens your family but it becomes so much worse when that threat comes FROM your family. What are you supposed to do when your own child becomes your “enemy”? He had no idea how he put us all at risk, every single day. As he made foolish, dangerous decisions, he posed a threat to himself and others, which meant he brought that threat home to us. With each risk he took, our hearts were made more and more vulnerable. We feared what his future held and what our’s held because we loved him. We wondered if our Continue Reading
Finding Forever Through the “I Do”
Sometimes forever seems like yesterday. It’s been 30 years since he gave me the first piece of the puzzle that would change our entire life. One white cardboard piece followed by 6 additional. And with each assembled piece on that cold and snowy Valentine’s evening, the anticipation and gravity of what these 7 perfect pieces represented came together. The bands of a ring delicately drawn with the diamond as the last inserted piece. As I completed the puzzle, his most important question flew nervously from his lips. He took my breath away that night. He was asking me to agree to forever. To forever with him. In that moment of "yes" and "I do", we were incapable of understanding what forever really meant. Two imperfect, unknowingly broken people trying to create the perfect life Continue Reading