For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace – John 1:16
When I was in college, I helped chaperone a youth trip to a Christian conference.
During a night of worship, one of the girls on the trip burst into tears. I walked with her outside of the room so that we could talk and, as she began telling me some of the heavy things she was struggling with, I asked, “Lord, what do I say?”
I remember the response vividly.
Silence.
Continue reading “Learning How to Speak Life”
“I just don’t think it’s fair.”
I was complaining to my husband. Again. The frustration of the day poured out of me as I recounted the story. I had played by the rules, poured my heart and soul into the project, and worked my tail off. And then someone else got the credit.
Have you ever been in a similar situation? Knowing that you deserved the praise and reward for your hard work but instead watching someone else receive it?
Continue reading “The Gospel Is Not Fair”
You know who might not be the best candidate for spreading the Good News? Someone who is perpetually expecting bad news. I’ve been there. I prefer to call myself a realist, but the truth is that I am often cynical, expecting the worst from people and situations. I let my past hurts and disappointments color the way I see the things around me.
Most recently, as I prepared for the end of my maternity leave, I found myself stressing out over all of the unknowns and coming to the worst possible conclusions: We aren’t going to be able to find a good daycare. He’s not going to take his bottle. There’s no way we are going to pay off all of these medical bills.
A few days ago, while I was in the middle of one of my pessimistic breakdowns, God revealed something to me:
Pessimism is viewing the world through our own scars instead of His scars.
Continue reading “The Pessimistic Christian”
Today, as I was putting away a folded pile of laundry, I realized that of all the rooms in our house, our bedroom is usually the messiest. Logically, I suppose it makes sense. We want people to feel welcome in our home, so we spend most of our time cleaning the rooms they are going to see.
But how often is our marriage that way?
Continue reading “The Messy Places”
Life with a toddler is always interesting. It’s the age where children are learning to express their thoughts and emotions, but don’t always understand how to reason through them. It’s the age where the wrong sippy cup can lead to a meltdown and every simple yes or no decision can take half an hour.
Last week my two-year-old told me she was starving, so I laid out a spread of her favorite foods: turkey, apples, cheese, sweet potatoes, peas, and blueberries. Naturally, the “starving” toddler took three blueberries and one piece of cheese and decided that was all she wanted. Not ten minutes later, she looked up and said, “Mommy, I’m still hungry.”
Continue reading “Filling Your Spiritual Hunger With the Fullness of God”
In this day and time, we have control over so many aspects of our identity: we choose what status updates we want to make online, we select (and edit) the photos we want to share with the world, and we actively construct the persona we want to portray on our social media platforms. But we have to keep in mind that while we can create our own highlight reels, we don’t get to write our own obituaries. Ultimately, we can’t control the way other people remember us.
Continue reading “You Can’t Control Your Legacy”
Dear God,
You say that all I have to do is call to you and you will tell me things I do not know, so tell me this: Where are you?
Continue reading “Dear God: Where Are You?”
