When my oldest daughter was born, many people immediately said she looked almost identical to her father, my husband. We quickly matched up baby pictures, and they were right. God is a God of diversity. She’s his image and name bearer, yet she’s unique. She has both my nervous personality and my slight build. She…
“This is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11 ESV). A hand-painted sign above my front door reads “Love one another” in elegant script. While the lettering and words are beautiful, I have the sentiment displayed there not because I like how it looks,…
Earlier this year, I experienced a period of great loneliness, grief, and anxiety. In the wake of profound loss and an ongoing battle to juggle caregiving, child rearing, and mental illness, I found myself with a thousand acquaintances but what seemed like no close friends. Finding friendship right in front of me At first, I…
I used to hold onto everything as tightly as I could–material possessions, places, talents, jobs, relationships. I attempted to maintain control, terrified I might let something slip through the cracks. I strove for perfection and grieved each and every change, failure, and loss as a sign of my own powerlessness. Then, as I became a…
“It [love] … always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV) We have our first kiss. We fall in love. We say our vows. And then, we find out that all that “in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part” stuff is for real. We fight depression and “man” colds, job losses and…
