Sometimes I don’t feel qualified . The voice in my head says: You don’t have enough experience with kids to be a good mom. You don’t have the skills to be a supervisor at work. You’re not holy enough to be a pastor’s wife. You don’t belong. You’re weak. You’ll never measure up. But here’s the thing: God put me in the situations I’m in. I may not always have the qualifications on paper, but He’s going to give me what I need when we get there. This is something we see in Acts. Our Assignment as Witnesses In the
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I worry about how to raise my kids in this crazy world we live in. We try to shelter them as it seems age-appropriate to do so. We set boundaries for TV shows and movies they can watch or video games they can play. We’ll let the oldest one use the computer on a very limited basis, and monitor websites she goes to and talk about internet safety. But there’s only so much we can do. We’ll only be able to protect them to a point. They’ll hear and see things. They’ll experience
If you met someone new, how would you describe yourself? I might say I’m a mother of three, a working mom, a pastor’s wife, a blogger. Those are titles that describe my different roles and responsibilities, but do they really describe who I am? If I tried to describe my personality, I might say I’m a silly optimist who loves color-coded spreadsheets and likes to relax by escaping into the lives of my fictional friends on Netflix, Prime, and Disney Plus. Or if I pulled my past in, I might say I’m a California transplant living in the Pacific Northwest,
I love Christmas. When it gets to be about that time of year, I’m quick to switch the family over to my carefully-curated playlist that features all of my favorites. I love the memories, the time with family, the movies, all of it. But as much as I love Christmas, I’ve come to realize that Easter is more important. Although we needed Christmas to happen to get to Easter 33 years later, without Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, His birth doesn’t mean as much. Making Easter a bigger deal Last year my husband and I decided we wanted to make Easter
We’ve all lived in those seasons when life is difficult. We call them “survival mode” at my house–we’re just doing what we need to do to survive, putting one foot in front of the other. They may look different for each of us, with different circumstances and time periods, but there’s one thing they all have in common: they’re hard. How should we respond during those times? How do we keep from giving in to discouragement and giving up? I happened to come across biblical insight on this from two different places at the same time–just another example of God
Becoming a mom has helped me understand things about God better than anything else. The relationship between a child and parent parallels the relationship between us and God in all sorts of ways. For example: Just like a baby or toddler doesn’t have the capability to grasp concepts the way adults do, I don’t have the capacity to grasp so much of God and His creation. Because I love my kids, sometimes I let them struggle through things that are hard for them. I see the bigger context of what’s going on than my kids are able to see, just
A Different Perspective on a Bad Day Imagine this: you’re driving down the road and get a flat tire. This means you’re late to pick up your kids from their grandparents’ house, so they need to bring them to their friends’ house for dinner. By the time you get there, they’re jumping off the walls from the ice cream they had for dessert. You’re frustrated, tired, and ready to be done with the day. By the time you get them loaded in the car, drive home, and get them to bed, it’s an hour past bedtime and they collapse. It’s
Have you noticed the times when circumstances ended up being just perfect in your life? It’s easy to think, “Wow, what a good stroke of luck!” or “What an amazing coincidence!” But I don’t believe in coincidences or luck. Rather, when circumstances work out just perfectly, it’s an opportunity to see God at work. And as a parent, it’s also an opportunity to point out how God is masterfully coordinating all of life’s pieces. It’s a habit my mom and grandpa encouraged for as long as I can remember: pointing out situations and telling stories of when things happened just