life. faithful.

Motherhood is a lot of things. It has good and bad, ups and downs...and no shortage of people telling you all the things that you need to know to be a good mom. If you're a mom, you've thought all of these at some point--I know I have. I'm far from perfect as a mom, and I still have a ton to learn. But as of today, we officially have 5 teenagers so I thought it would be a good time to share some of what I've learned in the past 18 years of motherhood...or rather, some of the things I've unlearned. 1. You'll fall in love with your child at first sight. I've become a mother in two different ways, through giving birth and through adoption, and I'll be completely honest. My first reaction when my tiny daughter was placed in my arms the first time wasn't a whole lot different from when we brought the three we adopted into our home: "What in the world am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to know how to be a mom?" Yes, I'm sure there are w...

 Moms and dads, we are failing our daughters. The world is telling them how to dress and how to carry themselves, and we're allowing it. We are letting Hollywood and social media teach our daughters how they should look, how they should speak, how they should carry themselves--and in that world, for some reason the only voice telling them they should be "demure" comes from an overweight man pretending to be a woman. What are we doing?! The world is telling our daughters that their value comes from how others perceive them . They are being told that they should dress "to catch a man" from childhood. They are shown women with unrealistic body types and told that if they don't measure up, they are somehow not good enough. I see teenage girls every day who are wearing skin tight leggings or booty shorts with tight, low cut tops. They are being taught to reveal every curve of their bodies while simultaneously being taught to conceal every perceived imperfection o...

  Welcome to 2025! Through the years, I've joined a group of people who have chosen to trade in the traditional New Year's resolutions. Instead, the idea is to choose one word that will stand as your theme for the year. It's what started this blog in 2012, and though I haven't chosen a word every year, it has been a steady feature most years since then. Some years, I've struggled to find a word up until January 1st. There have even been years that I've chosen a word, then started writing a post and found that a different word is stuck in my head and had to change everything. This year, though, one word has stood out for almost a month: STEWARDSHIP I can't say that it's the prettiest word...it's not like "believe" of "faithful" or "trust" or "follow" that lend themselves to flowy calligraphy. Instead, it seems business-like in my mind. I've got to admit, it isn't necessarily a word I'm super excited...

There was no better place. The city of Bethlehem was crowded, every makeshift inn filled. I'm sure Joseph was beside himself with worry--his young wife in labor, both of them scared, far from Mary's mother who would have been the one to walk her daughter through the birth of her first child. Mary had likely been having contractions for many hours of their journey. Then, as the icing on the cake, the only place available for his young bride was a stable. Can you imagine what it would have been like, trying to make a place in the barn for the birth of a baby? I wonder if Mary and Joseph thought they had gotten something wrong. They hadn't misunderstood Gabriel, had they? Surely a barn was to wrong place for the Son of God to be born. I wonder if they thought they had failed Him that night. Those thoughts couldn't have stayed around for too long, though. They would have soon been replaced with the issue at hand--Joseph kneeling beside his young wife, watching her go throug...

My husband and I were talking to our kids the other day about how important it is for them to learn to stand for their beliefs and live the life God has called them to now, while it is easy. We were talking about how one day in the future, they will most likely be forced to either cave to the world or stand for God, and in that moment the decision will mean a whole lot more than just social standing. Right now, Christians in the United States have been given a reprieve. The election of Trump was honestly not something I expected. I've written for quite a few years now about the decline of our nation, and I know I'm not the first--or only--one to point out the downward spiral of morality that we've been seeing for decades. As a nation founded by men who claimed the protection of God, I truly believe we chose to be held to the standards of the covenants we entered. God keeps His side of His promises--the good and the bad. That means that broken covenants have consequences. Wh...

  Our nation--and our world--is in a very dark place right now. Everywhere you turn, you see chaos, confusion, fear, despair, loss, and hopelessness. People are lost. People are broken. People are living with shame and regret, desperate to hide the parts of themselves they are afraid for other people to see. In their desperation to hide, they are running toward the darkness... " Still some people preferred the darkness over the light because their actions were dark. Some of humankind hated the light. They scampered hurriedly back into the darkness where vices thrive and wickedness flourishes." (John 3:19b & 20) When people are ashamed of their actions, they hide them in the dark. They don't want them exposed to the world--it would be embarrassing, humiliating for people to see all the things better left hidden. They cling to the darkness because they are afraid of what will happen if light shines on the things they are ashamed of. People fear things they don't kn...