The Blog
of grace & gumption
I was talking to a friend recently when she confessed, “I’m having a hard time praying these days. To be honest, I’m a little mad at God right now.” I knew exactly how she felt. I’ve definitely been there. Sometimes my emotions are so raw and deep I’d rather throw a...
The carpet is stained. The odometer is just shy of 115,000 miles, and on any given day you'll find at least seven candy wrappers, four coloring pages and two broken toys on the floorboard. But despite all that, sometimes my minivan is the best church I get all week....
It’s no secret that stress comes wrapped in a variety of packages - financial setbacks, medical issues, impending deadlines, lingering grief. When the storms roll in and the valley grows deep, every emotion you experience is felt to an exponential degree. Things that...
Luke 13 tells the miraculous story of a hunchbacked woman who encountered Jesus and finally stood tall after eighteen crippling years. On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years....
I clutched my purse tightly in front of me, just like the tour guide said. I walked quickly, intentionally, up the sidewalk towards the bus, being careful not to make eye contact with anyone. Still, I could feel the eyes of a dozen men glaring into my profile from...
The very fact that I’m able to write this article today is a miracle, and I’m not even exaggerating. Let me back up. Twenty-four hours ago, after three solid weeks of working around the clock, Jason and I felt like my new website was just about “there.” Yes, there...
This week I was given the amazing opportunity to trust the Lord more deeply - I lost my job! For almost four years I was able to partner with some amazing women and use my gifts of writing and speaking through Priority Ministries. It was a dream come true and I...
It felt like I had waited forever to have my turn in the Bride’s Room at church. At last, after years of mediocre first dates, awkward “define-the-relationship” conversations and many lonely Friday nights, I was finally sitting in the Bride’s Room feeling like a...
When I was young, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I decorated my room with posters of space shuttles, collected books about space travel and exploration, studied the lives of female astronauts, and visited NASA as often as I could. But in time, my interest in...
The first thing I do whenever I feel the Lord prompting me to tackle another big writing assignment is go to my shelves and grab some inspiration from others who "get me." When God called me to start writing Woven (the Bible study I'm working on now), I knew I would...
Following God’s path is wonderful. It is absolutely the best decision you could ever make. But there’s something you should know. When you follow God, he sometimes asks you to do scary things. Big things. Crazy things. Things that are definitely out of your comfort...
Some say it was Ernest Hemingway who first wrote the famous six-word novel: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Whether it was the famous American author or not, the allure to compact an entire story into just six words has sweeping appeal. It’s sparked contests, books,...