When it comes to hobbies, my husband and I are as opposite as they come.
At the beginning of our relationship, he would often ask if I wanted to do physical activities together: tennis, hiking, kayaking, swimming, jogging, biking, camping, soccer, etc. But in my ignorance, I shot them all down. Continue reading
By nature, the word salvation implies that we are saved from something.
The Gospel isn’t a self-improvement program. It is a liberation movement.
And liberation is only needed if I am a slave.
The truth is that all of humanity is enslaved to sin. The word sin means to “miss the mark”; we are by nature law-breakers and fail to meet God’s perfect moral standard.
“For all have sinned…everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin…for whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (Rom 3:23, John 8:34, 2 Pet 2:19).
Yesterday was a down in the dumps kind of day.
I was tired. Our summer has been full of non-stop activities, busyness, and stress.
I felt overwhelmed. My last few days were engulfed by piles of laundry, chores, work, errands, packing lunches, and scraping together dinners.
I also promised myself that I would accomplish my personal goals for the week. But an upcoming road trip + daily responsibilities left me with a bad case of the blues.
So naturally, I did what any of us would do. I mindlessly thumbed through Facebook.
And then I saw her life. You know the one.
Last week my cousin spent the day chasing plywood and supplies all over town in preparation for Hurricane Matthew. Store shelves were sparse, gas stations drained, and Home Depot was like Black Friday with the amount of frantic pushing and shoving.
My cousin spent nearly 24 hours securing windows and battening down the hatches. He was just praying his home wouldn’t blow away.
When faced with a natural disaster like the one we saw last week, one thing is for sure. People spring into action. Survival mode kicks in. Some evacuate. Others brace for a fight. But one thing we all have in common? Continue reading
I’m not gonna lie. If there’s one day I dread each year, it’s Father’s Day.
For many families, it’s a time of celebration; a day honoring the men they love and admire.
Every year, we go to church surrounded by families only to watch them all disperse to after-church lunch venues. In that moment, my husband and I look at each other with half-hearted smile and ask, “Well, what do you wanna do today?”
Because for some of us, Father’s Day isn’t always a happy one. Continue reading
Thanks to technology and social media, we are now more connected than ever before.
Yet we are more isolated and alone than ever before.
Today, the average person has 300+ facebook “friends” yet the average American reports having only 2 close friends. 25% of Americans report having no close friends (Dave Sumrall, The Struggle is Real: Relationships).
Social media has made it easy for us to feel connected to others without actually requiring us to be in relationship. Continue reading
Forgiveness is that fuel that keeps your marriage (or any relationship) going. If you don’t forgive, your marriage will tank. It’s as simple as that.
But how do you do it? What does it look like? Why is it so important? If you missed the first half of this post, click here to find out what forgiveness is not.
Correcting our understanding of what forgiveness is not paves the way for what forgiveness is… Continue reading
Love requires risk. If you’re in a relationship, you will get hurt. And when you get hurt, you must learn to forgive. But how do you do it? What does it look like? Why is it so important?
Well, I’m glad you asked. I had way too much to say on this topic so I divided it into two posts for your reading sanity. There are a lot of wrong ideas floating around on what it means to forgive. My hope is to help you understand what it is and what it is not so that forgiveness will become a powerful discipline in your life. In fact, your health and the health of your relationships depend on it.
So first, let’s take a look at what forgiveness is not… Continue reading
