Do you ever see pictures of yourself and think “Well, poop.”? Ben and I both have mirrors over our dressers and of course over the sink in the bathroom, but the woman I see in family photos recently looks more like a “before” picture than an “after”. It’s easy to forget and think it’s not…
Tag: Jesus
Self-what?
I am beating myself up this morning because I caved and got a strawberry milkshake at Chick-Fila last night. That little voice is saying, kind of loudly, “Who are you to write about self-control?” Shut it, Devil. We are all works in progress. Just because we have not mastered something does not mean we haven’t…
Gentleness
I long to be gentle. As long as I’m still cleared for quick comebacks. And dad jokes. Once I ended a joke about the unsteady composition of a rocking chair with “cane just wasn’t able.” I know. It wasn’t funny then, either. I’m here all night! Tip your waiters and waitresses! Back to being gentle….
Gotta Have Faith-fulness
Would you have married your husband (or wife) if you knew they would be unfaithful? Would you have promised to love and honor and devote the rest of your life to a person who disrespected and hurt you with continuous infidelity? Hosea was a prophet; a man of God who lived about eight hundred years…
Are You Good?
What image comes to mind when you think of the word “good”? Is it a delicious meal and great conversation with the people you love? Is it taking in a beautiful sunrise with that first cup of coffee in your hand? Is it that dream vacation, or watching your little one sleep so peacefully in…
Kind (ish)
Do you ever have a “well, duh!” moment? I just did as I mentally scrolled through the different fruits of the Spirit. It occurred to me halfway through writing on the nine virtues that all are attributes of God himself, and the Holy Spirit enables us to become more like Christ and less like ourselves…
Wait for It…
This is how I explain the concept of patience to a six year old: “Patience is waiting with a good attitude.” Works for adults, too. Patience is the fourth fruit of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23. I know we often think of patience as not losing it in day…
Peace and How To Find It
Do you know where anxiety comes from? FAKE NEWS. Turn on any news channel, and see if you aren’t ordering Life Straws from Amazon five minutes later. This world has a lot of terrible things going on and there’s no shortage of people who want to tell you all about it. Much of it is…
Joy in the Time of Kamala
First of all, before you ask for my address so you know where to send the hate mail, I only wrote Kamala because it sounds similar to “cholera”. Just tell yourself it means “current times”. Joy is a term we often hear during big celebrations in life: a wedding, the birth of a child, finding…
Love and Other Four Letter Words
If you surveyed one million people and asked them to define “love”, you’d probably get thousands of different answers. Love is a hard concept to pin down. It can be romantic or familial (but not both, people). It can suggest fluttery butterflies or a deep bond of friendship. It could be the contentedness of a…
Living Well 