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Encouragement in the Waiting Rooms of Life
By nature, I’m not a patient person. You can just ask my husband. If the world operated in Kristen time, there would be immediate results to all our efforts, quick answers to prayer, and a tidy answer for every question. As convenient as Kristen time would be, I’m grudgingly grateful the world doesn’t work on my schedule. If it did, I would have no need to lean into prayer more, depend on Jesus, search His Word for guidance, and stretch my faith. I truly believe those are all reasons God chooses to make us wait and that He does so for our good. Back in January, I listened to an…
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How to Give and Get Gifts that Delight
For those of you who already finished your Christmas shopping, I congratulate you. For the rest, I feel you. How do we choose gifts that delight the people we love so much? The other day, I was brainstorming presents for my nieces and nephews. As an author and avid reader, I went straight to researching what books would be good fits for them, because a love of reading runs in the family. Who’s their favorite author? Do they have a special series? Those are the questions I started asking . And guess what? They were excited to tell me! I now have a detailed list of Nancy Drew books my…
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Author Chat with Ashley L. Jones on Modern Cast Iron
This author interview is special for so many reasons. I met Ashley during a writer’s conference several years ago, and we formed an instant friendship. She is such a godly friend and gifted writer, and I am so excited for you to learn about her new release, Modern Cast Iron. It’s a guidebook to choosing, using, caring for, and cooking with cast iron. Q: What prompted you to write Modern Cast Iron? It was totally a “God thing”! I had been using and researching cast iron for years for the health benefits and nostalgia of it, but it wasn’t until I met the publisher (Red Lightning Books) at a book expo and…
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Upset the World – Giveaway & Review
When I first read the title Upset the World, it immediately grabbed my attention. “Upset” so accurately describes our society these days. I was curious to learn what Tim Ross meant by “upset the world” and how being an “upsetter” could radically change people for good. His definition provided the starting point: “An upsetter is a person who has been upset by the overwhelming love of Jesus and upsets others” (Ross 12). Before we can do that, though, we must first allow Jesus Christ to upset our lives. In other words, we need Him not only to save us, but also to make changes. As Ross says, “If you come…
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Renovating Our Homes and Hearts, Part 3
If you’ve been following along with our kitchen remodel story (now on day four), you can only imagine how eager we were for Monday to come. Having already waited an extra two days to use our kitchen, I silenced my alarm when it went off and ignored the snooze button. “Hurry up and get over!” I told the day. Yet once it started, the day dragged by. Pound. Whack. Thud. Pound. Pound. All. Day. Long. We started to get nervous when the crew wasn’t done by dinner time. Then the project manager arrived, and James and I offered Gatorade and snacks to the workers. Finally, they reached the last part…
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Renovating Our Homes and Hearts, Part 2
Day one of kitchen renovations went so quickly that we had high hopes day two would complete the job and let us get our home back to normal. Seriously, have you tried not using the kitchen sink for a full day? Go to your kitchen right now and thank God for your sink. Okay, back to the story. Around noon on the second day, we started getting worried. “He is coming, right?” I asked James. Although the AC duct guy was almost done, the electrician had just arrived, and we hadn’t heard a word from the project manager. “He’s supposed to,” James said and shot off a text. By two…
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Uncertain Future, Certain God
I used to have the bad habit of flipping to the last pages of a book to find out what happened. Maybe you don’t have that problem, but have you ever wanted to know something that’s out of reach? Right now, I think we’re all wondering when life might get back to normal. Perhaps you’re wondering if you’ll be able to attend college in the fall or if working from home is now a permanent situation. At some point, most of us have wanted to know the end without dealing with the drama in between. In real life, we often don’t understand why we have to wait so long for…
