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Passion Week: Preparing Your Heart
The days leading up to Easter or Resurrection Sunday can be filled with a flurry of activities, ranging from church events to fun activities for kids. While these all have a place, I hope we’ll savor our time with God in His Word and prepare our hearts for Easter. Last year, I was privileged to be part of KHCB Upliftd’s Passion Week project: seven posts featuring seven figures in Jesus’ passion. Rebecca Falkner and I wrote the posts, and I’m including the links below. We examined the Easter story through the eyes of well-known and lesser-known Bible characters. I hope these posts will bless you this Passion Week. Posts by…
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Clip Back Into Your Passion
Some really great things have happened to me in March, and some really painful things have, too. Does anyone else have months like that? Topping the positive list is my marriage to James. This month, we’re celebrating our seven-year anniversary, marking one of God’s biggest answered prayers in my life. Over the years, I’ve also released two books this month, including Watch Your Back, which just celebrated its one-year anniversary with an audiobook release. Not all March memories are as sweet. One of my painful memories involved dislocating my shoulder on a ski trip. I talk a little about that experience in this Easter post, which remains timely. Even as ski…
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Theme for 2024: Abound in Hope
On our Christmas card last year, we included Romans 15:13. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (NKJV, emphasis added). Our God is a God of hope. What a marvelous thought! This short list of “hope” stories from the Bible come to mind when I think of ways God has provided a lifeline of hope to people in the past. Today, the God of hope still calls us to abound in hope. If you’re like me, I often struggle to dwell in hope versus fret in the worries of…
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Mistakes Aren’t the End of the Story
Searching for love in all the wrong places. Scarred from the past. Damaged goods. Those phrases describe how Jayna’s story begins in Hold Your Breath. Her story was uncomfortable to write at times, and yet I felt compelled to write it for the reader who relates to Jayna: someone who feels “less than” and needs to know her true worth. That true worth is what private investigator Liam Bracken tries to help Jayna see as he points her to the One who redeems and restores. Liam reminds me of the person Jesus describes in Matthew 25:35-36. “…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you…
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Reformation Day: Celebrate the Light
Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the castle door in Wittenberg over 500 years ago. Happy Reformation Day! What’s the first word or image that comes to mind when someone says October 31? Maybe it’s a costume hanging in your closet or your favorite candy or the fall festival your church is hosting. Maybe it’s the pumpkin carving contest that didn’t quite go as planned. For me, I think of my college Bible professor dressed in a long robe and hammering parchment paper to his office door to reenact the start of the Protestant Reformation. Most people celebrate October 31 as Halloween, but few realize this day marks a milestone of Christianity. On…
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How to Trust God When You Don’t Feel Ready
Almost one year ago, my baby boy arrived three weeks before he was due. I had gone to my doctor’s office for a routine stress test, and since I wasn’t feeling great, asked my husband to come with me at the last minute. When the nurse said, “We need to send you to the hospital for monitoring,” I was stunned. Still, my doctor assured me everything was probably normal, and I’d get to go home later that day. My husband dropped me off so he could get our hospital bags just in case. Two hours later, “just in case” turned into our doctor’s announcement: “You’re going to have a baby…
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Theme for 2023: Be Faithful
I have been trying to type this post for almost two weeks now, but being a new mama often means choosing between getting sleep and working on a writing project. Nine times out of ten, sleep wins out. Whoever instructed a new mother to sleep when the baby sleeps wasn’t wrong. Even when I choose writing after our little boy’s bedtime, my plans don’t always work. Our sweet son struggles with “false starts” where he wakes about an hour into his night’s sleep. Yes, sleep is a struggle for us both right now, but ironically, my perpetual tiredness is a reminder of how blessed I am. My baby boy is…
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Celebrating Firsts and All the Moments in Between
First bath. First smile. First laugh. As a new mom, I celebrate all my baby boy’s firsts. First Christmas? I already have his mini stocking! But the truth is, firsts can be hard too. First boo-boo. First break-up. First accident. The challenge with firsts is that depending on our circumstances, we view them with either excitement or angst. But as with anything in life, we get to choose how we respond. That’s the lesson my character Kaley learns in Take My Hand. As a trauma therapist working on her master’s thesis, she has all the head knowledge she needs to counsel others about their problems. But when it comes to…
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Newborn Life: 12 Takeaways for Perspective
He’s fed. We’re all alive. My teeth are brushed. Life with a newborn sets different standards for success. I knew the first few weeks would be hard, but really, nothing can prepare you for the sleep deprivation and postpartum stress. I can’t begin to imagine how anyone handles the newborn stage without a supportive spouse and lots of grace from Jesus. I’m very thankful for both! The good news is that the saying, “It gets easier,” is true. The last few weeks, we’ve started to find our rhythm, however imperfect. As I look back and see how far we’ve come, I find reoccurring takeaways that I hope I can apply…
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Our Unexpected Birth Story & Blessings
Our son Noah made his debut on July 26 at 2:54 in the afternoon. Three weeks early. Though the nursery was ready and the hospital bags were packed, I was emotionally and mentally unprepared. Due to my track history of Jesus needing to teach me patience, I figured Noah wouldn’t arrive until his due date or later. An unplanned induction had me in tears in the hospital admitting room. It just seemed unreal. James almost hadn’t gone with me to my doctor’s appointment because it was so routine. But at the last minute, I asked him to go with me because I wasn’t feeling great, and I’m so thankful he…
