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Practice Patience with Your Spouse
[Guest Post by Ashleigh Slater – I always appreciate returning the favor when a fellow author lets me share about my book on her blog. This is Ashleigh’s first book entitled Team Us. I appreciate her sharing wisdom on 4 steps to practice patience with your spouse’s old habits. Enjoy and be encouraged!] In the weeks that led up to our wedding, my husband Ted informed our friends, family, and anyone who would listen of his impending death. “Death?” you ask. Yep, death. Death, that is, to his single self. The self that could buy a new Nord Electro on a whim. Or stay up until two in the morning…
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A Different Kind of Stress
[Guest Post by Bonnie Gray – I was surprised to find the answers I was looking for in her new book Finding Spiritual Whitespace. I think all of us at some point in our life think we just have to try or pray harder. Do more. I love, love, love her story. If you’re stressed out today, I know you’ll be encouraged by Bonnie’s fresh word!] Can we ever be free from stress? Stress seems to be so embedded in our modern lives, we’ve come to breathe it like oxygen. Emails, Twitter, doctor appointments, and a to-do list filled with growing unchecked boxes are all part of my reality. Is…
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Resolved to Surrender
[Guest Post by Andrea Portilla – Why is it that we try to work harder, give and serve more when all we need to do is simply surrender? I appreciate Andrea’s post, and I hope you will too!] At the beginning of the New Year I had made a resolution: I was going to take a bubble bath once a week! A perfect kind of resolution! The first few weeks into the year I was beside myself, for I came to realize God desired so much more from my life than I had been giving Him. In the midst of motherhood and babies; being a loving wife and intentional mother, I…
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Shame, Our Souls, and the Gospel
[Guest Post by Kimberly Davidson Campbell – I have never met a woman who had it all together on the inside. Maybe you do a good job or holding everything together on the outside, but there’s always traces of shame that tries to steal our joy. I appreciate Kim’s words of encouragement today. Like fresh water in a desert oasis of my heart. Receive them today with love!] As I sit in the passenger seat of my husband’s now trip-cluttered (otherwise immaculate) Camry, I am intrigued and overwhelmed by all the areas of shame that plague me. These areas of shame don’t just plague me — but in some way…
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Life as It Is Meant to Be
[Guest Post by Hannah Anderson – I met Hannah through my friend Lisa Velthouse, founding editor of PickYourPortion.com. I always appreciating meeting new people through others. It excites me even more when I found out that they are also (shocker) a writer! Please welcome Hannah who writes with grace and glory — while reminding us what life as it is meant to be, looks like!] “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”—C. S. Lewis One summer my husband, Nathan, and I drove from Seattle to Los Angeles on Highway 101. We had both been raised in the eastern United States, more at home in…
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Choose Joy in a World of Sorrow
[Guest Post by Kay Warren – When I attended the Mental Health and the Church Conference at Saddleback Church, I was inspired by Kay’s story. She has learned to choose joy through sorrowful circumstances. If, like Kay, you find yourself in mourning or grief — I hope you are encouraged today because of Jesus!] Sisters, Jesus was a man of joy. He was a man of joy! He showed it in his attitude; he drew crowds who couldn’t get enough of him. He showed it in his words; he was a master communicator who impacted those who listened to him in person two thousand years ago, and he impacts us…
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When Our Hearts Are Unguarded
[Guest Post by Holley Gerth – Whenever I go through seasons of feeling like I’m not okay, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one. I appreciate her sweet words reminding us why it’s important to guard our heart — and how our hearts can function from a Biblical perspective. Please welcome Holley!] She sends me a text and I can almost hear the sigh in her voice at the end of her words. “I said something I shouldn’t have,” she confesses. She goes on to share that she’s especially frustrated with herself because she’d just been studying how we’re to use our words for gratitude and praise. Isn’t…
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Navigating Female Leadership
[Guest Post by Elise Boggs – When I heard her share about women in leadership in person, I was blown away. I asked — no begged — Elise to share with all of you. It is tough to be a woman in leadership. I hope her story and three points encourage you to keep going. Pull up a chair. You are desperately needed!] I have led teams internationally and state side, within small and large organizations, and in the safety of both the classroom and the jungle of life. As a female, this meant saying “yes” to a narrow road, a road that traditional cultures attempt to restrict and boys…
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When Church Hurts
[Guest Post by Lori Tisdale – We know each other through mutual friends nearby, and she asked me to share my story on her blog — I had to host her here! If any of you have stepped foot in the church, you’ll understand what it means to be hurt. But. It’s what we do with our hurt that matters. Please welcome Lori!] I was the first born of a new pastor and his young bride. For the most part, I was a very well-behaved preacher’s kid — the teacher’s pet, a devout Missionnette (the church’s version of a Girl Scout). I led the on-campus High School Bible Study, taught…
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Hit the Start Button {of Your Faith}
[Guest Post by Nicole Unice – We go way back to before the days we were published authors. We met at Story Conference in Chicago, IL — and it’s my pleasure to spread the word about her newest book entitled Start Here: Beginning a Relationship With Jesus. May you be encouraged wherever you are on the journey, that it’s never too late to start, and restart!] It was late on a Saturday night and we were sitting at a bar. There were six of us crowded around, and conversation drifted, the men talking among themselves while the women turned to the normal topics, of marriage and mothering and work. And…
