We live right by the coast. So, each summer my family ends up at the beach quite often. No matter the weather, my kids love it. It doesn’t have to be hot for my kids to want to dive into the waves. In fact, as soon as the summer sun
A few years ago when I read through Ephesians, I underlined each instance of “in Christ,” “in Him,” “in the Lord,” and so on in purple. With a quick glance now, I count thirty times that Paul uses this phrase to emphasize Jesus’ redemptive work and the role it has
Growing up, my three siblings and I were pretty different. Even so, there was one thing that never failed to bring us all together – the smell of my mom’s chocolate chip pancakes cooking on the griddle next to sizzling bacon on a Saturday morning. Within minutes of the first
Every night before our two kids go to bed, we spend a little time together as a family reading the Bible, praying, and singing a few hymns. Our youngest, at almost three years old, often excitedly asks to pray right after his big sister. And as many toddlers like to
Rule Following vs Approval Seeking If you’ve ever spent any considerable amount of time around young children, you might have observed that kids take great delight in many things, but following the rules is not often one of them. At two years old, my youngest has an ever-changing relationship with
Most of us have probably held a sweet, little baby before – maybe our own children, or a friend’s newborn, or a tiny niece or nephew. And we probably wondered what this little baby might grow up to be like. Will he or she love to read? Or be the
Redefining Humility Pride is one of those funny things where we can actually trick ourselves into thinking we aren’t being prideful at all but humble. This has always been a struggle for me, especially when it comes to working in ministry. When our ministries seem to be thriving, and we’re
Growing up, I always thought I would end up living in my hometown for the rest of my life. I’m a homebody at heart, and I crave the feeling of belonging in a community and making a home where my family feels anchored and stable. I wanted to live in
Learning From Our Example As many moms do, I keep a running list on my phone of funny things my daughter says. Oftentimes, they’re mispronounced words or phrases. Occasionally, something makes the list that I find encouraging. A few weeks ago, she was playing in her room when I walked
True Identity A few years ago, after a hard, full day with a newborn and a toddler, I was hiding out in the bathroom getting five minutes of kid-free time. Naturally, I started scrolling through Instagram and came across a post of an old classmate pictured with her kids and