Today I’m thankful to feature my friend Holley Gerth, sharing a painful yet redemptive story with you. She’ll be giving a FREE webinar next week chatting about transitions of the heart. Find out more here. Later, I’ll host a webinar about Transitions in Faith, followed by author Lauraine Snelling discussing Transitions in Courage. We’d love [...]

Two years ago in the summer of 2008, my son Aidan had a dream. He wanted to see water come to a small village in northern Ghana. So he helped raise some funds and we flew with a team of people to the north. Unfortunately, we didn’t find water, and now, two years later, we’re [...]

Yesterday my two eldest picked up their high school schedules, and today my youngest received hers. We walked through the halls of the middle school, locating classrooms, figuring out locker combinations, comparing schedules to Julia’s friends. Sigh. They’re growing up. (Just look at the picture!) And there’s still so much to teach them.

Today on my run toward the tail end while I huffed my way through a park and felt the sweat drip down my forehead, I chatted with God. The subject? A frenetic, crazy-busy life. It amazes me how deliberate I’ve been about paring down my life. And yet, even so, I find myself back in [...]

At the She Speaks conference a little bit ago, the weekend culminated with a time where you could write something on a card and place it before the cross. Something you wanted to let go of. Give up. Turn away from. It took me a little time, pen in hand, to write the words. They [...]

I’ve tried nearly every parenting method on the market. Sometimes I’ve felt elated that I grew my children Jesus’ way. Other times I worried that I didn’t discipline correctly. I’ve been stern. I’ve been lax. I’ve wavered. I’ve showered with love. But none of those methods captured my children’s hearts or me quite so much [...]

Last week I had the privilege of speaking at the national MOPS convention. I flew in early on Friday, then spoke on Saturday, which gave me an afternoon to relax. What is this relaxation I speak of? I’m not so sure. But I did promise my kids after the mountainfuls of work I’ve been under [...]

I’ve mentioned before my hospitality burnout in France. We entertained several days a week, inviting many, many people over for dinner. It’s taken me three years back in the states to finally welcome guests around our table. This weekend, our dear friends the Mills family, came over. We gathered around our dining table, ate Mediterranean [...]

In a quirky corner of the house, in a box tucked away, I came across a strip of paper. You can see a bit of it in the picture here. Dot matrix printing. Penned in names. Folded in half. A printing of our marriage vows. It reads “I, Mary, before our family and friends take [...]

When I started my writing journey toward publication, I thought I’d always be a novelist. My agent at the time suggested I write parenting books, something I balked at for quite some time. I was a storyteller after all. And because of my upbringing, I suffered from deep wells of insecurity in my parenting. And [...]