Everyday Insights and Real Life Stories

Do me a favor. Close your eyes for a moment and think about who you are.  How do you see yourself? What comes to mind first when you consider that question?  Is it something you would want to change about yourself or something that makes you smile?  Now consider who you are in Christ and how God sees you. I’ve been thinking a lot about these questions recently and, while I would never claim to be a theologian or Bible scholar, I feel it’s something that God is calling me to address in this blog.  I hope you leave this post feeling encouraged. It’s no secret that the world we live in today can be a cruel place and it can be difficult to hear the truth through the chaos. It seems like there’s always someone or something telling you that you’re not good enough, strong enough, smart enough, thin enough, enough in general. Sometimes that someone or something is on the outside -- ads on Facebook for weight loss supplements, your grandma at Thanksgiving asking when...

The night before last, I had gotten out of the shower and was laying down, talking to my husband and that’s when it happened.  My baby girl kicked and I saw it from the outside of my stomach. This is the first time that had happened and you can imagine how excited my husband and I were.  It was the most amazing moment since we saw her for the first time and heard her little heart galloping away at the ultrasound. I know it’s really cliche to say, but every time I feel her move it’s like another little miracle that God has blessed me with.  My husband hasn’t been able to feel or see her movements yet, so it’s like a private secret that baby and I share, just the two of us.  This got me thinking. The Bible has a lot to say about babies.  Psalm 139:13-16 speaks of how God builds and designs us from the start.  Even before I knew I had a baby growing inside of me, God was there, putting her body together and forming her perfectly how He wanted her to be...

I know it may seem as though I haven’t posted anything in centuries, but trust me, it feels that way for me too.  I have several pending posts that I just haven’t had the chance to finish writing yet, but I hope to fix that soon.  You know those seasons of life when it seems that everything is happening at once and it takes conscious thought just to remember to breathe, much less take the time to write a blog post?  That’s where my life has been for about the past year. Let me catch you up on some of the things that have happened: I did an internship at a church in St. Louis last June.  It was an amazing experience but it kept me pretty busy.  As a result, I was really only able to find time to post the poems that you’ll find further back in the archives of this blog and that you can find on my YouTube channel (feel free to go check them out! And here’s a link to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDQhCvWIEyHRSLGOPe3fcUg ) My (then) fiance and ...

God has been teaching me a lot over the past couple of years. People suck sometimes. This may not sound like a good Christian thing to say, but it’s true. People can hurt us and betray us and do all kinds of dirty, nasty things that make us feel inadequate and angry. It happens to everyone regardless of race, gender, or background. And what’s worse, they may not even know they did anything to hurt you - or they could be totally aware and just not care. It’s completely inexcusable, right? As the wise Jedi Master Yoda pointed out in the famous movie The Phantom Menace, anger leads to hatred and suffering of the worst kinds. The Bible speaks a lot on these topics and how they can affect us in our walk through life. We hear sermons all the time about forgiveness and verses like Matthew 6:14-15 which says “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” or ...