a settled place

In my quiet time yesterday, the task was to contrast Nicodemus and John the Baptist. Not a comparison I had ever considered before, and yet it taught me a lot. Most of what I was referencing for my response was in John 3 where John is quite certain of who Jesus is. For Nicodemus, on the other hand, I wrote, skeptical. Nicodemus was earthly-focused - only seeing things for what they really are, as they really are on earth. Essentially, Nicodemus really could not think creative

(alternate title: "reflections on my current running playlist") The lyrics to one of the best songs on my playlist right now go like this: "I am tired, I am drained But the fight in me remains I am weary, I am worn Like I've never been before … This is harder than I thought Harder than I thought it'd be Harder than I thought Takin' every part of me Harder than I thought So much harder than I thought it'd be But empty's never felt so full" Perfect words for halfway through a h

It's common, during Lent, that we'd avoid something - give up, go without. We have so much, and we have the absolute luxury of being able to pick and choose what we sacrifice, and we'd all admit that even that hardly feels like a sacrifice because again - we have so much. I often find that when I avoid sugar, I simply consume more salt as an attempt to assuage the craving - we still often seek false substitutes for what we give up even when we are attempting full devotion. An

Livia is the youngest child, and really has everything her heart could possibly desire - the Christmas list was short, and her siblings have already received all the gift suggestions I could come up with in years past. After more time than I probably should have allotted for searching for things for her, I finally landed on a Charlie Brown Christmas Polly Pocket. My own siblings rolled their eyes at what I'm permitting for the youngest but we'll just wait and see how things a

In our Bible study group right now, we're working through "Grace in Chaos: Biblical Hope for the Hard Days in Motherhood". It has generated some wonderful discussion and so much self-examination as well, as any good study does. But there's an emotion I've been wrestling with on a number of different levels in the past couple weeks that isn't covered in the book - embarrassment. I've failed in hard-to-recover-from ways several times in the recent past, and I know there is Gosp

I commented to our Bible study group the other day that most of my biggest relational regrets stem out of one root problem: my failure to...

I had made one too many mistakes in just one day last week, and my weariness was spilling over into tears. I was so tired of saying the...

Our Bible study group has been reading this phrase a lot in Every Home a Foundation by Phylicia Masonheimer. It's a concept that has...

Context in Luke 22 would suggest that the servant girl knew Peter had been with Jesus because of simple facial recognition - she had seen...