Scientific Name : Diphylleia grayi This flower is called a skeleton flower because its petals turn crystal clear when they make contact with water. When dry, the flower is white in color! When the Living Water of Christ pours over our lives, we become transparent and clear. People can see through our flaws to something […]
Perspective
Don’t Worry, I’m Not All I Seem Either
Right before Christmas, I wrote down the top 19 memories from 2019, but truthfully, they weren’t necessarily my top memories: they were just the ones I wanted to remember. After all, sometimes we just want to forget the painful events that pushed us over or left us gasping for air. Social media has deluded us […]
Iron on Iron: Why Accountability Counts
Proverbs 24:11: ” Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” For many Christians, accountability hovers over the same category as humility, perseverance, and character. We know we should have it, but the thought of accountability makes us uncomfortable too. Ironically, having accountability upfront with safe and healthy believers makes […]
That’s a Gift? How Sometimes our Hardships Are God’s Fulfilled Promises
I’ve been reading through Scripture and Advent devotionals for myself (and the kids). We are so familiar with the story of Christ’s birth, sometimes we don’t slow down long enough to contemplate the implications of Immanuel, God with us. Or how Jesus fulfilled numerous prophesies foretold hundreds of years before He came. Or that He […]
Rethinking Education
I don’t agree with this guy 100%, but he does raise some interesting questions. Does our educational system need revamping? Even if a child “succeeds” through high school and college and graduates with a 4.0, how much of that information will they remember? Have they learned more than how to regurgitate facts? “Forgetting is almost […]
Birthdays Make Me Do This
More than New Year’s day, birthdays serve as a catalyst to analyze, to ask the questions: what am I doing with my life? Am I where I want to be? What do I need to change to be where I want to be (in relationships, in my health, at home, in my spirit, etc.)? Five […]
A Few Things Homeschooling Has Taught Me
I rarely write about homeschooling, even though I’m passionate about this area of our lives. Despite the world’s quick—and often ignorant –judgements on homeschooling families, I don’t want other families to feel judged or condemned from me if they choose to utilize the public or private educational vectors. Parents can parent well regardless of how […]
You Belonged to Me Before You Belonged to Anyone Else
We all belong to someone: even if your life is so broken, you can only claim the foster system or the government, you are associated with another entity besides yourself. Sadly, we identity ourselves by tag lines that don’t give us a complete or accurate picture of who we truly are:_______’s spouse, ___________’s daughter, __________’s […]
A Marriage of Compliments & Challenges
This morning, I woke up unusually early, in part because my body was hurting and in part because I heard Aaron’s alarm. I rarely want to engage, converse, or even move much before 8:00, but my husband bursts into his day with enthusiasm, energy, and a talkative spirit he doesn’t always possess in the evening. […]
Rethinking Mondays and House Size
Recently, my family made the trek to Oklahoma to visit my husband’s extended family. Four generations of Hanley men in one house was a precious and rare privilege. Ralph Hanley, my husband’s grandpa, raised up a heritage of men and women who then raised up a generation of men and women who love and serve […]