Faith

The Facebook Addiction

July 25, 2017

Can I be honest for a second? I’m sort of frustrated. I’m frustrated with social media, I’m frustrated with my generation, and I’m frustrated with myself.

Why so bothered, you ask?

Because Facebook.

We are all so wrapped up in it that we have forgotten what it looks like to value real relationships with our friends.

To be quite blunt, we have an addiction. Think you don’t? I challenge you to go an entire week without looking at your Facebook feed. Maybe you can do it. Maybe you can push through. But maybe it will be hard. Maybe you will reach for you phone twenty times and realize just as you open your app that you need to close it….

Dear Women, Start Respecting Yourselves

July 20, 2017

This is post is very personal to me. I mean, I guess all my posts are, but I often try to keep it objective and share more about topics and facts and less about emotions and my heart. This is one is straight from my heart. It is a letter to fellow women, and a deep cry for change.

I have wrestled with this for quite some time. I don’t just mean writing this post. I mean that I have literally wrestled with the very thing I want to talk about, and my words come from deep experience and painful process.

So what is it, you are wondering? I want to talk about women posting photos on social media. I want to talk about the photos in swimsuits, the gym selfies, the photos of our kids that conveniently show the muscles we are most proud of, and the selfies we took over and over to get the perfect one that showed our very best features. I want to talk about the photos, and I want to talk about the motives behind them….

When Life Isn’t Satisfying

July 11, 2017

Part of being in your twenties is that you’re just figuring stuff out, right? I have heard it said (of your twenties) that “struggling just comes with the territory” and that it all works itself out.

As someone in my twenties, I can definitely say that struggling has been on my radar (and my family’s) for quite some time. But I can’t say that it’s just because “it comes with the territory.”

Maybe some bit of it does. But the rest?

It comes with the mindset. The way we think shapes our experiences.

So while I know there’s some “figuring stuff out” in our twenties that can definitely be a struggle, I also know that our mindset and attitude play a large role in how our lives are defined.

…

Six Months of Sadie Rae

June 5, 2017

Our sweet, feisty, determined, energetic, and cuddly Sadie Rae is six months old today. I’m not really sure how that happened, because I swear I just had her yesterday.

In honor of the most amazing six months of my life, this post is dedicated to my sweet girl.

Sadie Rae, everyone told me to cherish every moment you were in my belly because I would miss it. While I can honestly say I miss the nearness of you inside me, I can also honestly say that every single moment since the day you were born is so much sweeter. You bring me joy inexpressible and my heart overflows with a love that is just unreal. You challenge me every single day in so many ways. I am a better person because of you and your sweet heart. I’m also more patient than I ever have been, and have a far deeper understanding of the love of God than I ever imagined. …

The Modern Day Pharisee- Part Two

April 20, 2017

If you read part one, you have probably been waiting for part two.

Part one ended like this:…

The Modern Day Pharisee – Part One

April 4, 2017

My husband and I have been reading through the book of Matthew together. Actually, we are reading through all of the gospels- one each month for four months, but we just finished Matthew.

I ask my husband a lot of questions when we read the bible together because we have very different perspectives (notice I did not say different beliefs). We really see things through a different lens, and I think it’s an amazing combination. The perspective I bring always challenges him, and the perspective he brings always enlightens me….

How The Best Things Come From The Worst Things

March 25, 2017

Isn’t it funny how the best experiences in our lives usually come from the hardest and worst times in our lives? It’s baffling, to be honest.

That was Texas for my husband and me.

Living there was one of the hardest and worst times for us, and somehow it brought about some of the greatest things we could have ever imagined….

Passive Aggressiveness- It’s Power, It’s Problem

February 10, 2017

I’ve been thinking about the issue of passive aggressive behavior for quite some time, with full intention of writing on the subject, but continue to find myself stumped and perplexed.

Finally, I realized that the reason I kept finding myself that way is because literally nothing about the behavior makes any sense at all. Still, because it makes no sense, I found myself struggling to write about it. I mean, how do you write about something that makes no sense, apart from just writing about all the reasons that it makes no sense?

You don’t….

When The Courage To Be Spiritual Just Isn’t There

February 2, 2017

Let’s be honest, we all know that one person who is super spiritual.

Not in the, “wow, she really encourages me and calls me to higher level of faith,” sort of way…
It’s more of an, “okay, thanks for reminding me for the one-thousandth time that God has a plan and I just need to pray,” sort of way.

Or, you know, the person that tells you they are praying for you so often you find yourself wondering if they are secretly a nun.

You get me.

I say these things with a dose of humor and sarcasm, but it can also be a serious frustration. While I do believe that prayer is always the answer, it is also true that sometimes it isn’t that simple. Sometimes it takes a great deal of courage to bow my head and pray.

And while our culture, specifically the Christian culture, is really quite silent about the true struggle of a consistent and disciplined prayer life, I’d venture to say that I’m not the only one who struggles with this.

I have a close friend that I admire for many reasons, but one of the biggest things I love about her is her raw honesty.

She has said to me more than once, “I have been praying for you. And honestly, I don’t really pray for people. I sort of struggle to pray at all sometimes.”

That level of honest is simply beautiful, and encourages me to take a look at my own level of honesty and vulnerability.

When I do that- when I take a step back and evaluate myself and my prayer life with zero filter and zero desire to pretend to be more spiritual than I am- I’m both heartbroken and encouraged.

I am heartbroken because the battle of flesh and spirit going on in my heart at times is so very real. I say it takes courage to pray because, really, it takes a lot of courage sometimes to pray.

“Just pray,” isn’t always enough to overcome the realities of my day and give my fears and failures to the Lord.

But the whole point of praying is letting go, right?

That’s exactly my point. Sometimes it takes a LOT of courage to let go.

To let go and pray means to say no to that fleshly desire inside of me to indulge in the never ending list of “what ifs.”

And the thing about indulging in all of those unknowns, is that imagining every possible worst case scenario allows me the opportunity to come up with a possible solution or element of control for each and every one.

Therefore, letting go and praying means having the courage to give up control.

If you’re anything like me, that’s hard. It’s painfully hard and humbling. It is my nature, my flesh, my habit to want to have control over every situation in my life, and to let go of that means letting go of the desire to protect myself, and choosing to trust the one who is greater than all others.

It’s just plain hard sometimes.

But the good thing is, as I said before, I’m encouraged.

I’m encouraged that the Lord would be so kind and patient as He sheds light on this struggle. I’m encouraged that it’s okay to be honest about these struggles. I’m encouraged that I don’t have to put up a front and pretend to be more spiritual than I truly am. I’m encouraged that I don’t have to give in to the (often phony) Christian culture that demands empty statements such as, “I’ll be praying for you!” I’m encouraged that I can simply be me, even in the midst of struggles.

Because living in a lie never brought freedom to anyone.

The depth I’m craving in life and with the Lord will never come from pretending to be spiritual, but rather from fighting with everything in me to have to courage to let go of control.

How Fear Of Confrontation Holds Us Back

September 23, 2016

For some of us, speaking our mind comes quite naturally.

Actually, it comes way too naturally for some of us- if we are honest.

I know this to be true, because I am one of those people. I mean, it certainly depends on the situation or scenario, but I think very quickly, process very quickly in a moment, and sometimes forget to breathe when another person says something that is out of line, or perhaps something I just don’t like or agree with.

This definitely comes with its weaknesses, and it is something I have to really think about at times, but it certainly has its strengths, too.

An acquaintance posted this on Facebook today and it really caught my attention: