Rethinking Christian Life

Discipling: If It Doesn’t Hurt Sometimes You May Not Be Doing It Right

“…my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” Galatians 4:19 (ESV) Childbirth is no joke. Carol Burnett said, “Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over you head.” She is funny, but pretty accurate. To endure natural childbirth women train…

Remember…When All You Want to Do is Forget

There are certain things I would rather forget. Things I want others to forget. I want to pretend it never happened and move on… Isn’t that what forgiveness is? Shouldn’t everyone just forgive and forget? Move past my mistakes…and just go on? “Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath…

How to Keep Serving God After You Blew It…Again

You really blew it. My inner diatribe kept poking at the stained place in my soul. Your words may have hurt more than helped. Others may hear about how hurtful your words were. And you want God to increase your speaking ministry? How can God use the likes of you? Unfortunately I deal with this type of…

Finding Joy When All Your Wells Run Dry

I did it. I clicked the button labeled “submit.” It was done. Three and a half years of work and my Masters Degree was complete. I imagined this moment for three and half years. I couldn’t wait for it to happen. I just knew I would be elated. But I wasn’t. I was dry and really tired…

When all You Want is a Name

Piles of dirty dishes surround the kitchen sink and the clutter the counter and litter the island in my kitchen. My dishwasher broke last week and for about three days I did a great job of keeping up with the dishes. Then stuff happened. I got busy and lazy and I injured my foot and…

Hello Again, New Year, New Word…

Hello. Happy New Year. I have remained quiet on my little part of the internet for nearly a year now… I remained super busy this past year… I was homeschooling, finishing seminary, teaching martial arts, teaching Sunday School, etc… And I was quiet because a part of me doubted I had anything to say… Sometimes I…

Rethinking 1 Corinthians 13 The LOVE Chapter (plus Give-Aways)

Today my friend Lori Wildenberg is sharing how she has been rethinking 1 Corinthians 13 and she has a great giveaway going on… Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it…

Fighting for Perspective

Beep, beep, beep. I fumble for my phone to turn off the alarm and it begins – a battle for my mind, my heart, my actions. I sigh as I look at piles of books on the floor near my bedside table, random blankets scattered across the floor, and a huge pile of clothes that…

When Big Questions Loom: An Honest Response

Some questions linger unanswered – questions that weigh heavy on your heart, mind, soul, and strength. They threaten to suffocate the joy out of life and life can feel barren, hopeless, endless. Everyone else seems to have all the answers or they never had any questions. Their lives seem purposeful, full of meaning, with no…

Your Holy Calling

You have a calling. Yes, you momma with the unwashed hair and spit-up stained shirt, you have a calling. Yes you who have made a mess of things again and you wonder if God could really use you. All of us, we have a calling and God tells us to live worthy of it… And…

Obedience, Running, and Calling

“So don’t throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised…But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.” Hebrews 10:35-36 and 39 CSB I’ve been silent for…

A Season of Silence: Experiencing God’s Peace

“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much.” -William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing Words have been hard for me lately. Silence is easier. I wasn’t so full of joy I could not share like Claudio in the above quote. The big emotions – all of…

The Hope that Does Not Disappoint

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces…

Sovereignty: Three Ways to Trust God When Failure Looms

Last week I watched Clemson trounce Alabama in the NCAA’s Football National Championship game. Clemson was up 31-16 at halftime and never looked back. After a botched fake field goal at the beginning of the third quarter Alabama’s loss seemed imminent. Failure, at least in that game, was coming. Still Alabama did not walk off…

The New, the Not Yet, and the Gone: How to Live Fully When Now is a Struggle

“The struggle is real,” is our snide mantra over laughable “struggles” like not having coffee in the morning. But real struggles do exist. Depression turns just getting out of bed into a war. The struggle for parents to love, guide, discipline, and direct children who want their own way. The battle to overcome addiction. Physical…

Newly Broken: How to Live Fulfilled

2018. A year of breaking. God broke my comfortable world. He called me to teach high school seniors (a leadership class), enroll my kids in the school where I work, and step back into nursing by becoming a school nurse. Nothing felt comfortable. Nothing normal. In the midst of all the change my brokenness became…

Hope and Character: How to Find Lasting Hope

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope… Romans 5:3-4 ESV Character produces hope… I always thought imagination produced hope. Imagination that figures out a way through a difficult situation. Or an imagination that dreams big dreams. But God tells us character…

The Day After: How Hope Changes Everything

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake…

Depression: How to Explain It to Others

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 ESV Looking back I can see it plainly. I was depressed and desperately clinging to my faith. No one from the outside could see it. They knew I injured my foot. They knew my house had to have all the…

New Beginnings: Grace, Growth, and Gratitude

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 ESV God is in the business of doing new things in our lives. Why? For our good and His glory. So that this world…

Rethinking Christian Life

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Hard Times

Rethinking Challenges, Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Faith

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Hard Times

Rethinking Christian Life, Rethinking Gratitude

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