With a pounding heart, my shaking hand filled out the application for the When A Woman Finds Her Voice book launch team a few months back. I had been blogging only a month and all my insecurities rising to the surface reminded me of that as I explained my desire to participate. Will I be […]
Warriors, knights, and soldiers—I see it in them all. A bravery to fight wars, battle madmen, and go to the front lines for freedom. Lives are sacrificed, families are broken, and countries are devastated. I’ve never seen myself as someone ready to face and endure danger or pain. Honestly I’ve tried to avoid pain in […]
What would you do if Jesus was walking in your neighborhood preaching the gospel? Would you run toward him for healing or would you cower in a corner because you were ashamed? For a season I would have turned away from him, fleeing from the Son of God who would easily see what lined my […]
An inner rawness (a barbaric unfeelingness) can tempt an unhealed heart, callousing our compassion until it runs cold. I read Jo Ann’s words this week and I couldn’t help but see myself. The way her thoughts described mine was unnerving. As she spoke about her numbness toward the events on 9/11, I thought of the […]
Have you ever faced a trial that seemed too monumental to understand? The hurt, rejection, pain, suffering and denial feel so real that your only option is to shut it all out. You turn on autopilot and move through life determined to never open that space in your heart again for fear it will consume […]
Lord, you know where my heart is this season. The healing you’ve done in me is tremendous and yet I still ache for what once was. My mind escapes to those childhood Christmases when my family was together. Those times when my Dad took us to pick out that real Christmas tree. When I would get […]
The devastating pain didn’t come from a distant place. Someone made a decision that was out of your control and you suffered more than you ever thought possible. Maybe your husband had an affair and left your marriage. Maybe you lost a friendship over hurtful words and confused feelings. It’s difficult, right? To face tragedy […]
I turned our van on this past Saturday morning and Christmas music blared through the speakers. I couldn’t believe it. “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!” yelled my six-year-old daughter. My sons ranted along with her and as Jingle Bells played I felt an uneasiness well up inside me. Does that ever happen to you? You’re […]
“I’m grateful my husband was an alcoholic. It’s taught us both about how to appreciate the normal things in life. ” I listened to the woman beside me speak at a local Al-anon meeting. How in the world can a woman be thankful for her husband’s addiction? I had just walked one of the most difficult […]
Sometimes thoughts get jumbled in my mind and I say things that mean just the opposite of what I’m thinking. Does this ever happen to you? I’ll be doing a normal task and out of nowhere a thought or word spoken triggers a memory from long ago and all I can focus on is the […]