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My Apologies
My apologies for writing on failure and not ending with a word of encouragement. In the moment I was feeling sorry for myself. I have learned since there is a difference between venting and sharing. Venting leaves the person with no hope, and sharing enters the author and the reader into a dialogue of hope. Maybe not right away, but eventually. What I’m not saying is that you have to tie a pretty red bow on something that hurts. What I am saying is sometimes you have to give your love away and not expect anything in return. I wasn’t expecting to receive a few straggling emails from folks asking…
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Love Me?
This week God has been teaching me a lot about how to love me. First, there was this idea to start a series called I Love My Body. I invited many fabulous women (and men) to share their body stories. Stories of hate. Stories of acceptance. The series kicked off with one of the most beautiful Brit’s I’ve ever seen. Her name is Chine and she is actually writing a book on body image. HOW COOL IS THAT? Check out her story here. Then, there was my blog meltdown. I started a previous series called Monday Meditations–and let’s just say it failed. Read why here. Next up, I had the…
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Reflections on Life and Failure
Tonight, I write to make sense of life and reflect on failure too. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hosting guest bloggers for the past few months, but I felt a stir in my spirit tonight. So, instead of sleep, I will listen to that still small voice and write. Write aloud. Write to heal. I started a series called Monday Meditations last month and it has not gone well. In fact, it failed. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got more than 30-40 hits per blog. Compared to the almost hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hits I got for previous series including I Survived My 20s or Pre Engagement Questions–this is shocking. Well,…
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I Love My Body
[Guest Post by Chine Mbubaegbu] – I love my body. This is something I couldn’t have written this a few years ago. Because loving my body certainly has not come easily to me. You could say our love affair has been a tumultuous one. Sure, we’ve had some fleeting dalliances–the odd glance in the mirror where I’ve caught sight of it and approved. But on the whole, arriving at a place where I can say that I truly love my body has been a journey I’ve been traveling on most of my life. When you start writing about beauty and body image, as I have done, and you start telling…
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Monday Meditations #5 – Your Situational Comedy
[Guest Post by Lindsay Morelli] – I love watching situational comedy on TV. Not because of the great writing, or the relatable characters, or the not-so-relatable characters, but because for 22 minutes I am reminded that it’s entirely normal for our lives to become comical chaos. Each Monday morning the world wakes up to a brand new week; another chance at fulfilling our purpose in life and hopefully avoid any conflict or obstacle that comes our way. If you are smiling after that last sentence, you know that the perfect week is a rare occurrence. You have a great week at work, but your toilet overflowed and flooded your bathroom.…
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I Survived My 20s – Grief
[Guest Post by James Prescott] – This is the story of my grief. It was 7.30am on Saturday, April 29, 2000. I was 23 years old. My mobile phone rang. For some reason I had left it on overnight, which I never normally do. I picked up the phone. It was my Dad. I said hello, and he simply replied: “Your Mother’s passed away.” I was in shock. Mum had suffered with asthma for many years so it wasn’t a total surprise. But when someone you love encounters death that often and survives, you begin to think they’re invincible. I had begun to joke my Mum, aged 52 at the…
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I Survived My 20s – Consequences
[Guest Post by Tish] – As a young girl, I dreamed of the day that my very own Prince Charming would sweep me off my feet. I never once imagined that at age 29, I would still be single and dealing with the consequences of Herpes. I grew up in a Christian home, memorizing verses from the Bible, practicing hymns on the piano, and dressing up in my Sunday best for Church every week. I believed in God, even felt His calling once in a while, but I was soon to learn how shallow my faith and understanding of His power was. The chinks in my armor started to show…
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Monday Meditations #4 – Ungrateful
[Guest Post by Ashley] – The past couple weeks I have found myself very down and ungrateful. Trying to keep it together on the outside but ready to burst into tears on the inside at any given moment. I moved to Nashville 4 years ago. When I moved here I didn’t see myself working a Monday – Friday 8-4 job. I wanted to do music. Isn’t that why everyone comes to Nashville? Not only that I thought that by now, by 29 I would be married, have a house, maybe talking about a family.. like I see so many of my friends doing… Neither of those things have happened and…
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I Survived My 20s – Christian Woman
[Guest Post by Nicole Unice] – At 25, I was the stereotypical Christian woman. I was what most every Christian woman on the internet seems to want out of her life. I was in ministry. I was married. And I was pregnant. I had it all–every single thing that any good girl would want. But it wasn’t what I wanted. I was more of a ladder climber than a baby holder. I was more office, less kitchen. And because of that, young womanhood and young motherhood became a lesson in survival, a series of days and weeks and months where I fought a deep sense that I should be grateful to…
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I Survived My 20s – Unmarried
[Guest Post by Cathering Kabinga] – I once read an article that claimed that marriages between the ages of 20-27 are the most successful(still have it, don’t know why). Page after page only went out to prove that a marriage conducted in the early years of one’s life has the most potential of working out. Reasons ranged from having children and raising them while still young to handling finances together. The most memorable of them all cited the bible as one that encourages early marriages with the verse in Proverbs that speaks of ‘loving the wife of your youth.’ So why am I unmarried? I was 25 when I attended…
