8 Days Late:: A Vignette of Hope and Grief
I was more than a week late for my period, but too scared to take a test to find out “for real” whether or not this meant anything. Having miscarried six years prior, I knew how much it hurt…
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Putting On Our Oxygen Masks
“In the event of a decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you. To start the flow of oxygen, pull the mask towards you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head,…
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Rising Up, Covered in Grace
I did it again. I yelled in frustration at my whining, won’t-stop-to-take-a-breath three-year old son. Actually, let me be more specific: I screamed at the top of my lungs— so loud, in fact, that I think I literally…
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Humble & Bold: A Response to Daniel 1 & 2
After all the drama our nation and our world has been going through in recent months, Jennie Allen’s invitation to dive deep in the ancient book of Daniel has come at just the right time for me. Along with thousands…
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Rising Up, Deeply Rooted
How can I expect to be effective at loving the precious people around me if I don’t root myself straight into the source of Love Himself? How can I hope to bring any sense of comfort or joy or healing to…
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Rising With Refreshment: Heeding God’s Call to Rest, Remember, and Celebrate
I just spent an entire week with my extended family— my dad, my brothers, their wives and all of our kids. The 17 of us rented a big house on a lake and simply “hung out” with each other. We…
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Rising With Hope: Clinging to God’s Unchanging Presence in Our Lives
My daughter grabbed a marker, wrote the word “Hope” on a rock she was holding, and snapped a quick picture. When she texted the image to me later that night, my heart caught a little in my throat. She has no idea…
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Rising in the Night: Doing Our Part Despite the Surrounding Darkness
A few years ago, my husband and I were roused in the middle of the night by the sound of our dog barking furiously at the front door and a man shouting at us from our gate. It turns…
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Finding Freedom: Part 5 – How He Sees Me
Sometimes the “diseased attitudes” we believe are so deep-rooted that our freedom and healing from them comes in stages. I used to believe, with all my heart— to the very core of my being, in fact— that I was…
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Finding Freedom: Part 4 – Come Away With Me
Has God ever spoken to the most exhausted, tapped out part of you in an unexpected, rejuvenating, life-altering way? A handful of years ago, when I was still mourning a recent miscarriage and while my girls were still small…