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10 for 10 – Marriage Learnings
Today my husband, Craig, and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary! We have learned much, are still learning and will learn new things. Below are 10 things that I have learned in the 10 years I’ve been married to my best friend. 1. Seek your identity in Christ first. Your identity is not rooted in your marriage nor who you are married to. Yes, your marriage is a significant part of your identity as is your spouse, but that is not where you identity is (or should be) rooted. If your identity is based in Christ (and is continually deepened) your defenses will fall, confidence and compassion will increase…
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Silenced Anger
The family culture I grew up in allowed anger. We were allowed to feel frustration and anger and even express it in both healthy and unhealthy ways. Our anger was more often than not a self-righteous anger rather than a righteous but nonetheless, the emotion was allowed. Some might look into our home and think we needed to be more self-controlled and less passionate. Some might think we hated each other because of how vocal or expressive we were. We were actually just the opposite – we loved each other and still do. We are even incredibly vocal and expressive to this day. Whether our anger was then acted on,…
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Seasons of Sacrifice
Eight days with junior high kids on a mission trip in South Carolina may not sound like a blast to you, but they were for me in more in so many ways. Love for mission trips are part of my heart, my DNA, how God created me. I love serving on mission and being on mission, especially internationally. My first mission trip was in 2001 while in seminary. I served for six weeks in Freiburg, Germany. I fell in love with international missions. It was so hard to even return to seminary and learn old and “dead” languages such as Greek and Hebrew when I could be learning…
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Like a Girl
The Always video, #likeagirl, has gone viral, having almost 20 million hits to this day. The video challenges the insult and stereotype that is spoken in the phrase “like a girl”. There are many things about this video that are beautiful, sad, true and tear-provoking. Click here to watch the full video. Then come back and read the rest of the blog. What I want to highlight comes at about 1:06, a young boy when asked “So do you think you just insulted your sister?” He quickly replies with “No! I mean, yeah, I insulted girls, but not my sister.” He was quick to defend…
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#bringbackourgirls
In Nigeria, families await answers about their kidnapped girls. Daughters, sisters, cousins, friends have been kidnapped by terrorist groups and reportedly being sold to men as wives for $12. They were in school, they were kidnapped and have been treated as property. Their families have not seen their faces, touched their hands or heard their laughter in days. (For a link to an AP article, click here.) Photo courtesy of Associated Press What do we do with this? How do your respond? How do I respond? Questions arise such as: – Why isn’t anyone doing anything? – How can they get away with this? – What are they experiencing?…
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The Invisible Watch
Our son (almost) five year old son, Luke, comes to our church’s contemporary worship service with us. During the service he often takes his daddy’s watch and changes the time, hoping that he can move time along and therefore, the service along by moving the hands on the watch. He believes that if he changes the time then time will pass more quickly. (Note: this is not a commentary on the quality of our worship service – we are talking about a five year old, here!) What Luke is physically doing with a watch we often wish we could do with time as well. We encounter a time…
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What Can Thaw a Frozen Heart?
Spoiler Alert: there may or may not be spoilers in this blog post. If your family is anything like mine, we are Frozen obsessed. We bought the movie on iTunes just last week and watched a portion if not all of it, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. We needed a break as our obsession was getting out of hand. (And by “we”, I mean me and my husband). There are so many aspects of this movie that we LOVE. The fun-loving, persistent, optimistic and full of life nature of Anna. The fun and truthfulness of Olaf. The friendship (and just sheer cuteness) of Sven. The bravery of Kristof. And of course there…
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Bode Miller and Grief
Watching the Olympic Super-G last night the commentators were focused on Bode Miller as the last few skiers bumped him from the Gold. After the race, the interviewer quickly breezed by the Silver Medalist to Miller. She noticed some deep emotion and began to probe. Something significant was going on and she noticed. Kudos for that. She then asked questions and never let him answer. The moment and her questions were triggering something much deeper but his processing was cut short by more words. (Photo courtesy of USA Today, (NBC Screenshot)) Maybe Miller's emotion caught her off guard. Maybe the fact that he was speechless, overwhelmed by emotion and grief…
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Contributing Writers
Contributing Writers We learn so much by reading a biography. A few years ago, the biography of Andre Agassi came out. I loved reading his story. His story told me a lot about who he was and now is and who he was not. His biography helped me understand his identity, his beginnings and his struggles. It told me about his hopes, dreams and expectations. His biography gave me a picture into the person of Andre Agassi. In Isaiah 42 we are given a biography of a Servant, of Jesus. We read about his identity being rooted in the delight of God, his call, empowerment, dependence and righteousness. We read…
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A Year of Courage
Repeated words are words to pay attention to. The past few weeks, the word “courage” has echoed in various forms and contexts. From dictionary.com, the definition for courage reads, “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain,etc.” Quality and character are key in courage. The definition reminds us that it is a quality or characteristic of our mind and spirit that our actions our based on. Courage is something that can be built up, strengthened and possibly remain quiet until called upon to step forward. Where does this courage come from? What is it based on? When do we…
