Last year, my husband and I did a couples’ study of Romans 12 with Chip Ingram. In one of the DVD’s he told a story of a little girl who vacationed with her family at the beach. Around her neck, she wore cheap, plastic beads, which she treasured. There was an old fisherman who noticed her love for these beads. …
It was on Sunday, during the first session of a Bible study my husband facilitates on marriage, that it struck me—I am a nitpicker. The book we’re studying is Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. His premise is that God created marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy. Nitpicking is definitely not an attribute of holiness. And, …
Most people who know me see me as a disciplined person. I spend time in the Word each morning, work out every day, and aside from the occasional chocolate indulgence, eat healthy. I’m not making this claim to toot my own horn—believe me, some of these practices come from psychologically unhealthy motives. But I want to set the stage, so …
A couple weeks ago, I started Priscilla Shirer’s Gideon study with my ladies’ Bible study group. Although this character has only three short chapters in the book of Judges, he has so much to teach me! And Priscilla Shirer is a whiz at pointing out the commonalities between this meek, insecure Israelite and those of us walking the earth today. …
For a lot of us, sitting is an occupational hazard–and I do mean hazard. More and more research is coming out about the health risks of sitting for extended periods of time. When I was raising my kids, this wasn’t an issue. When I worked at my own housecleaning business, this wasn’t an issue. When I taught school… You get the point. …
I’m going to admit it straight up—if you’re a fan of Sarah Young’s devotional Jesus Calling this post may not be well received. My sweet aunt gave me a copy of this book more than two years ago, and until recently, I read it daily. There were times when some of the wording Mrs. Young used made me slightly uneasy, …
I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions–why wait until January 1st if changes need to be made? But I see the value in reassessing the past year and making goals for the upcoming one. Although, now that I think about it, I didn’t even do that until I married Chris. He’s a list guy. You know the type. Even …
Every Christmas season I step onto my soapbox as I get disgusted by how the world is quickly chipping away the meaning of Christmas. I used to wonder how anyone can celebrate Christmas, yet keep Christ out of it entirely. Sadly, our culture has devised a way. We’ve changed Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays and the Christmas tree to the …
Okay, it’s twelve minutes–or more precisely, four segments of twelve. I was honored to be interviewed on a local television show Author’s, Books & Beyond. The host of this program is fellow writer, Kathy Boyd-Fellure. It’s been a few weeks since it aired, and it’s taken me this long to get up the gumption to share a portion of it with …
The other day I was pondering the traditions of Christmas—such as Santa Claus and Christmas stockings. How did the birth of Jesus morph into these seemingly disconnected symbols? Of course, I knew Santa Claus was also known as St. Nicholas and he was canonized a saint (by whomever claims such authority) because of his generous acts. But there are many …
