On the Hard Days

Yesterday one of our very best friends from Georgia passed away unexpectedly. Last night I hugged one of my dear friends whose daughter is leaving today for college and whose husband is battling cancer. The precious young lady who used to cut my hair will bury her mom today. When I wrote Tuesday's post about knowing God holds it all together, I had no idea what the rest of this week would bring. I had no idea I'd be overwhelmed by grief and aching for those who are facing the darkest kind of ... [Read More]

3 Ways to Stay Grounded in Your Marriage {even when it feels like a roller coaster!}

Twenty years ago, Scott and I spent our honeymoon in Orlando. We wandered through the stores on Main Street at Magic Kingdom where we bought a personalized ornament we still hang every year on our Christmas tree. I snapped a photo of Scott with Doc's DeLorean from Back to the Future while we were at Universal. And we stood in the long line more than once for the Tower of Terror at Disney's MGM (now Hollywood) Studios. Can I admit now, twenty years later, I never would have gotten on the ride ... [Read More]

When Hard Conversations Open the Door to Really Good Ones

Sometimes being the mom of a teenage girl is the coolest thing ever. Like when we plan a Netflix binge of One Tree Hill or when we spend a few hours shopping for shoes. But then there are the other 6.5 days of the week when it's just plain hard. The past few months have been full of all the hard stuff. And I need to say here and now — I did not handle most of it well at all. In fact, I pretty much bombed. I yelled when I should have prayed. I fought against my girl rather than for her. I was ... [Read More]

{ABIDE Day 5} Encourage Others

And so, here we are ... the end of our five-day journey to ABIDE. I hope you have been encouraged and motivated to start this year with intention and focus on building your relationship with the Lord through these posts. In case you missed any of the previous posts, here they are: Acknowledge Him First Bring Your Burdens to Him Intentionally Slow Down Develop a Rhythm of Gratitude And today, we wrap up with this one ... Encourage Others Seems sort of counterintuitive, doesn't ... [Read More]

3 Reasons the Church Matters

Welcome to day 24 of STAND OUT: 7 traits of a counter cultural life. You can find every post in this series indexed here. We're wrapping up the discussion about DEPENDENCE today. In a society that values self-sufficiency and independence, one of the most radical ways we live counter culturally is to acknowledge our need for relationship both with God and with others. We were created with an inherent desire for connection with God and community with others. As believers, we also have a ... [Read More]

I Need You

Welcome to day 23 of STAND OUT: 7 traits of a counter cultural life! You can find every post in this series indexed here. I spent yesterday morning at my grandmother's house. We sat at the table in her breakfast nook and chatted about life. I shared with her how tired I am right now and how hard parenting a teenager is. She smiled and assured me it would get better — but it might take awhile.  My cousin came by and my grandaddy joined us at the table and we caught up on the doings in each ... [Read More]