You never know when fear will come rushing into your heart. Maybe it hits as you open a bill you weren’t expecting, crushing you with the question of financial provision. Perhaps it’s the moment the doctor calls with those long-awaited test results. Maye it’s a knife that slices your heart with pain when your child…
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Turn Back Your Clocks and Invest in Spiritual Growth
I’ve long used January 1st as the day I’m going to get my life together. New diet? Clean slate starts on the first day of the new year. Exercise plan? I’ll begin on the first of the year. Keep the Tupperware cabinet from throwing plastic containers at me every time I open it? Organization will…
Awaken Your Hunger
I cook dinner for my family most nights. I don’t mind cooking, and often I even enjoy it. But I have a little problem in the kitchen and that problem is tasting while cooking. If you’re the resident chef in your household, you likely know what I mean. I don’t usually follow recipes when I…
God Is Our Guide on Paths We Did Not Choose
I was twenty-nine when the pain started. It was subtle. Just a little soreness in my low back that began waking me up at night. But as the weeks turned to months, the pain increased steadily, growing from a flicker to a blaze that burned all night. Unable to sleep, I walked the floors in…
God’s Word is Good For You
I spent most of my twenties not reading the Bible. I was a Christian, I believed in Jesus, and I was even a pastor’s wife for the second half of that decade, but I did not have any regular habits of Bible reading. Like many churched folks, I knew that I should read and study…
Working with Faithfulness When Our Bodies Are Weak
As a work-from-home mom, I flit from task to task all day long. Whether it’s washing laundry or writing, meal planning or preparing Bible study materials, scrubbing toilets or waiting in school pick-up lines, my days are never the same but always full. I’ve long thrived on a sense of accomplishment at the end of…
Don’t Want to Go to Church? Go Anyway.
I didn’t want to go to church that day. You probably don’t want to hear that from your pastor’s wife, but the truth is on that particular Sunday, I was in a bad mood. I hadn’t slept well, I had been discouraged all week about both work and some relationships. The morning had spun out…
Discipline, Delight, and Staying on the Path
My husband and I took our kids on a hike not too long ago, and before we hit the trail, we warned both of our sons to stay on the path at all times. The woods were filled with poison ivy, and one of my sons is quite the explorer. (Actually, he’s a “runner”—you know,…
When Scripture Gets Stale
If you’re following a Bible reading plan, you might be feeling a little weary these days. You’ve plowed through a lot of Old Testament history and law, and there’s a good chance you’re in some very strange Leviticus material. Many reading plans keep you in Psalms year round, but if poetry isn’t your strong suit,…
Anything Can Be an Idol
I have worshiped a bag of chips. I have also worshiped a bowl of yogurt with the right number of macros. I have worshiped an hour of uninterrupted sleep. I have worshiped a number on the scale. I have worshiped a number in my bank account. I have worshiped a pregnancy test, a tidy to-do…