Looking back Sometimes I miss the past. Running around outside, playing with the other neighborhood kids. Softball tournaments. Marching band competitions. Youth group. Common ground. College life, living with my friends and no “real adults.” The inside jokes among friends that stayed up until the wee hours of the morning together. The thrill of the boy I liked looking in my direction. The first time he also showed interest in me, asked me out on a date, held my hand. The first kiss. A party with all our friends to celebrate the most significant words I’ve ever promised in public.
Have you ever felt like a change was coming, but you don’t know what or when? Like you’re just waiting for the next step? Our Family’s Recent Change Almost a month ago, our family moved an hour north to live in the community where my husband became a pastor back in March. This was an answer to many prayers and a long period of trusting that God was directing us somewhere, and waiting for His timing. Looking back, we started feeling a change was coming more than 5 years ago. As time went on, we felt less and less settled
I’ve been working on praying. I’ve always felt comfortable going to God with requests, but as I shared in a previous post, lately I’ve been trying to be more consistent and deliberate as I pray . Lately I’ve been trying to view them as daily one-on-ones rather than reactions to whatever circumstances I find myself in. This was a topic we covered Ephesians 3:14-21 at church on May 15 . In this sermon, Pastor Matt suggested hiding from those you live with to hang out with God and pray (watch at 32:29–34:58 ). Some of you might be thinking, I
Have you ever felt like you’re in a season of waiting? Like you were in a holding pattern before a big change? That was me last fall, when I started doing Priscilla Shirer’s Elijah study with some women at my church. I felt like God was preparing our family for something , like a big change was just around the corner. Like he was preparing us to leave this church family we’d been part of for more than 10 years. Then, during week two, we started studying examples of God’s preparation during separation, and I felt like it was exactly
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
Life is busy. Especially as a mom–whether you work, stay at home, homeschool. No matter how you spend your days, it’s busy. Being busy in itself isn’t bad. But the way we approach it can twist it into something harmful for our families and our souls. I recently finished reading a really helpful quick read: Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung . In it, DeYoung pointed out three dangers of being busy. Danger 1: Being Busy Can Ruin Our Joy God wants us to be joyful, no matter what else is going on in our lives. James 1:2-3 Count it all
Discipline. It’s probably one of the most controversial parenting topics out there. There are so many schools of thought about how to discipline your children, and I feel like culturally I’m told to discipline my kids less and less. But I know I need to discipline them because I love them : My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. Personally, I find disciplining my kids one of the hardest parts of parenting . It’s so easy
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
God’s been talking to me about prayer recently. Everywhere I turn, there’s another reminder that I need to set aside time in my day to talk to Him. Pray Without Ceasing 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 is one of my favorite Bible passages: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. I like it because it tells us what God’s will is: rejoice, pray, give thanks–no matter what’s going on. And yet, the prayer piece of that has always eluded me. I just haven’t figured out how to
When things work out just perfectly, how do you view the circumstance? Is it coincidence? Fate? Destiny? I see it as evidence of God weaving everything together in His master plan. That’s what he did for David. Here was a guy coming up in the world. He’d defeated Goliath. He had a place in the king’s court, fortune, a wife, a trusted friend. He was respected. But then King Saul got worried about him. He decided David was a threat, and in an instant David lost it all: his position, prosperity, partner, peer, pride, and more. He ran for the