Peace

This year has been a challenging journey for me. There have been unexpected detours that felt overwhelming and stressful. Truthfully, they left me feeling weary. Some days all I could see was everything that had gone differently than I imagined. Some days the temptation was to just camp out in the land of discouragement.  But […]

As I look at this picture of my firstborn as a toddler, a flood of memories comes back. My greatest challenge as a parent in that season was navigating between dependence and independence. In my eyes, she was just a baby. Therefore, I felt inclined to do everything for her while she resolved that she […]

My husband and I each have two siblings, the youngest being 10 years apart from us. That means while our children are in their teens and twenties, our nieces and nephews range from 6 months old to pre-teens. I absolutely adore the variety of ages and stages in our family. Just this past week, we […]

Earlier this year, my son had a health scare. He was over at a friend’s house and had a seizure. They were playing football in the house (because this what we do), and my friend heard the ball hit the wall. She turned around at the exact moment that he started to fall down. She […]

When I reflect on my early days of parenting, what comes to mind are the times my children were dependent on me for EVERYTHING. Each child has had their own challenges and adversities to work through and overcome.  I knew it was my job during that season to help them and I embraced it. It […]

A few weeks ago, I joined some friends for a painting event led by an instructor.  Maybe I should preface this by sharing how I ventured out to a similar event a few years ago … except everyone painted whatever they wanted … without any steps or instructions. And I floundered … miserably. You see, […]

This past Saturday during our Bible study of 1 Samuel*, we were asked to share how God has delivered on a promise that He has given us. Immediately, I thought of the promise from Deuteronomy 31:6 in which God says He will never leave us nor forsake us. If I were to even begin to […]

It’s hard to believe that just a week ago, I was watching snow fall while my home was experiencing rolling power outages. Having grown up in New York, I was familiar with the snow. But it took me by great surprise to see the entire state affected by lack of power and/or water. I thought […]

In Luke 21:26, it talks about a time when there will be “…men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world”.  These words were said by Jesus over 2000 years ago about His second coming but it seems that we can apply them today. Jesus may not return […]

Are you a peacekeeper or peacemaker?  At first glance, they can seem one in the same but actually, they are quite different.   I struggled with this recently.  Someone I occasionally interact with was frustrated with how I handled something and proceeded to let me know exactly what they thought.  Their words and tone were disrespectful […]