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Join the Launch Team for My New Book, Lean Into Grace
I have exciting news to share with you today! After years of hard work, intensive editing, and much prayer, I’m preparing to release a new paperback book at the end of this month! It’s called Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free. I’d love your support in helping me launch this book into the world. If you are interested in joining my launch team, I’ll send you a free PDF file of the book in exchange for your support. I won’t ask much, only that you consider writing an Amazon review if you enjoy the book. I’ll also invite you to join…
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Suffering at Christmas? 5 Insights to Give You Hope
Snow falls heavily like flour through a sifter, and I’m alone with only my thoughts and the hushed whisper of flakes gathering on frozen earth. As I sit beneath the hemlocks, I’m reminded of a season years ago when our family was suffering at Christmas. It was a year filled with illness, disappointment, and deep grief. We’d just watched a lifelong dream go up in smoke, and we weren’t sure where to turn next. We were grieving, and we were having a hard time embracing the Christmas season. I wonder if you’ve walked through a similar season of your own. Maybe it was a long time ago, or you might…
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Beauty in Brokenness: 7 Insights for Challenging Times
The first storm of fall comes with gusty gales and breaks loose the brittle branches and untethered leaves. I have a deep sense of my own brokenness as the leaves scatter across the yard, and a question stirs in my heart: How do you turn to God and find beauty in brokenness when life is hard? Beauty in Brokenness Perhaps it comes with remembering the ways God uses our brokenness. The world around us tells us to avoid suffering, failure, and brokenness. However, Jesus offers a different invitation. He invites us to embrace suffering, failure, and brokenness. We cannot become spiritually mature without adversity. This truth is difficult to swallow,…
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Your Pain Has a Purpose, and This Is Part of It . . .
A wide arc of geese honks overhead like a black thread woven through the grey. I watch them from the deck and remember a similar evening several years ago. I sat on this same deck and let these words wash over me: “Your pain has a purpose. Don’t rush through this valley of suffering.” I was at the end of a long season of suffering, and most of the time, I couldn’t see the purpose of the pain. It seemed entirely unnecessary. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you want to know that your pain has a purpose. Meanwhile, for the most part, it seems unnecessary. Your pain has a purpose,…
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4 Positive Affirmations for Hard Times
Are you facing a difficult situation right now? I invite you to join me as we uncover four positive affirmations for hard times and difficult circumstances. Speak these words when life is tough and you feel discouraged. 4 Positive Affirmations for Hard Times This week, the robins returned to our wilted lawn. I envisioned the coming days with emerald grass and sapphire skies overhead. I turned the calendar to March two days early because I just couldn’t wait. Perhaps I was wishing my life away, but I wasn’t overly concerned. I wanted to wish away the long, cold months of winter and welcome sunny afternoons in the backyard with little…
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Remember This When You Pass Through the Waters of Adversity
Last year at this time, the valley behind our house flooded. After three days of rain, the ice encasing the creek finally gave way, and the whole valley was swallowed in the icy torrent. Standing at the bridge, the words of Isaiah 43:2 came to mind: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” We will all face the waters of adversity in life. At times, we might wonder if the flood is going to sweep…
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God Uses Broken People—and He Wants to Use You
My early twenties were tumultuous. I was angry with God and decided to live for myself instead of living for him. After a few tough years, I realized I wasn’t cultivating the life I wanted for myself. I returned to God with a humble heart and asked him to help me put my life back together. Slowly, God began the restorative work of healing my heart. I also began to realize that God uses broken people to fulfill his purposes. When I first returned to the Lord, I felt disqualified from ministering to others. I remember sharing my feelings with a mentor who looked straight into my eyes and said,…
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Let God Set You Free: My New Online Devotional
Two months ago, 12-year-old Bekah and I took a leap of faith and published our coauthored mother-daughter devotional, Girl to Girl: 60 Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith. We’d like to thank you for all of your support. The book is doing better than we ever expected, and my daily prayer is that God uses it to bring mothers and daughters closer together and draws women of all ages deeper into his unconditional love. Thank you for helping us spread the word, writing Amazon reviews, and buying our book! I’m amazed by the outpouring of support from the writing community, our hometown, our church community, and the global…
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How to Overcome the Storms of Life
Not long ago, we awakened to a world encased in a silver sheen of ice. Crystal droplets, frozen in time, hung from the railing of the deck like daggers waiting to fall. The wind howled, and frozen shards flew from the jostled branches of the poplar tree. The scene prompted me to consider how to overcome the storms of life. How to Overcome the Storms of Life The storm raged all day, and when I came home from getting groceries in the evening, our daughter, Bekah, was outside attempting to feed our three pet beagles. Our beagles are hunting dogs, and they are happiest living in a well-insulated kennel in…
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A Prayer for Strength and Healing When Life Hurts
The Queen Anne’s Lace stands in full bloom—sprinkling the fields with flourishes of ivory. Admiring it from the window, I utter a silent prayer for strength and healing. Not long ago, I slipped into the woods on a balmy evening. As I gazed into the murky creek water, I assessed the state of my soul and realized I was wrestling with uncertainty. The creek bottom exhaled the pungent scent of decaying earth, and I immediately sensed an invitation: Anyone can declare trust in God when life’s going well, but it takes faith to declare our trust when life feels uncertain. A Powerful Prayer for Strength and Healing: “Lord, I trust…