-
Top 12 Books from 2019
Welcome to the 2019 round-up of my favorite books. People occasionally ask me for book recommendations, and I love to give them. So each month I include the books I’ve completed in my monthly newsletter. If you want a more exhaustive list throughout the year, with a little bit of commentary, be sure to sign up to receive those emails.…
-
A Lesson from the Ant on Spiritual Diligence
Every week after the church service, a sweet Nigerian lady in our congregation hands six dum-dum lollipops to my children. I tuck them away for later so no one gets sticky on the walk to Sunday school, but evidenced by the groupings of ants I keep finding around our house, I guess I’ve neglected to pass out the dum-dums. Ants…
-
When Comparison Derails You From Doing Your Own Good Work (a Message for Writers who Use Instagram)
I recently received a question about boundaries on Instagram from a fellow writer. She asked what boundaries I had in place in order to keep myself from comparing with others and falling into despair. I answered her briefly through a direct message, but it’s a topic I’ve wrestled with for the past eighteen months, one I think is a struggle…
-
On Being a Mom in the Midst of Grief
It was a typical Friday at the end of summer. I wrangled the kids around the table, poured cereal and milk into bowls, wiped the kitchen counter, and sprayed the crack in the floor where the ants were coming in. I threw the laundry in the dryer, a load I accidentally left in the washing machine overnight. The three year…
-
What I Learned, Spring 2019
“The practice of reflection is not one to keep us living in the past or wallowing in mistakes. Instead, it’s a way to pause on purpose and listen to our life so that we can move forward with a little more confidence, a little more clarity, and a lot more intention.” — Emily P. Freeman, Episode 84: A Beginner’s Guide…
-
Let them feast on His goodness
She sits in her highchair grabbing little bits of cheese and shoving blueberries in her mouth faster than she can chew. She dangles her sippy cup over the edge of the tray, looks at me out of the corner of her eye, and then decides to hand it back instead of dropping it on the floor. At thirteen months, she’s…
-
One Thing to Pray for Your Children
We can't control the decisions our children make, but we can pray that they will learn to hate their sin. How? By showing them the glory of God.
-
How to Worship When You’re in the Dark
The following is a slight adaptation of a lesson I recently gave to our Women’s Bible Study on Psalm 88. We don’t typically introduce ourselves by sharing the darkest, most difficult pieces of our stories. So when we confront a lament in the Bible, written by a man we only know by the name Heman, we might be taken aback.…
-
Pressing on during Advent: Our rhythms have a purpose
My Advent reading yesterday morning took me back to road trips in the mid-1980’s when we would make the twelve hour drive in my dad’s beat up green Ford Granada with the peeling orange roof, to my grandparents’ house in Florida. There was no air conditioning and a leather interior, so our legs would stick to the seats, our hair…
-
When You Feel Like You’re Carrying the Weight of the World
Little cries from the closet next to my bed have become a bit of an alarm clock, although it’s not yet fully morning. For some reason this sixth baby has decided to chart her own little course and refuses to consistently sleep through the night. Last Friday, it happened at 3:45, and after feeding her, I settled…
