• Relationships

    Can you Take a Risk?

    [Guest Post by Lore Ferguson] -The air in the car was solid, thick with humidity and silence. It was late and it was August. This conversation was going nowhere fast and everywhere slowly. Tangents kept us from landing on solid ground and fear was keeping us from saying everything swirling inside of us. What he wanted was for me to take a risk on him and what I wanted was for him to take a risk on anything. It was against this wall that we faced the end of the what had barely begun–without risk, no matter how small, we could not move forward. A friend tells me recently that he…

  • Relationships

    Fifty Shades of Virginity

    [Guest post by Arleen Spenceley] – In the twenty miles between my house and my office, there are at least six strip clubs. As I write this, ‘Magic Mike’ – a movie about a male stripper – has been in theaters a week and has grossed an estimated $63,322,000. Fifty Shades of Grey is novel about a woman who gives her virginity to a guy whose version of sex is violent and demeaning. It is now a New York Times bestseller. All this is to say I was not surprised that when my own grandmother learned that I am a virgin, her eyes were wide and her surprise obvious when she fumbled for the words: “You are?” It’s…

  • Relationships

    Becoming Approachable

    [Monthly Columnist – Rebekah Snyder] – Maybe beauty has nothing to do with it. Maybe instead of focusing on making ourselves beautiful, we need to focus on making ourselves approachable. I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks how ludicrous this is. Me. The girl of whom it was whispered around the youth group, “Don’t mess with Rebekah, man. Her dad will snipe you.” Me. The girl who spent five months avoiding two guys who would eventually become some of her best friends. Thankfully, they patiently pursued her until she finally agreed to attend their silly Christmas party – just to get them off her back. Yeah, I know…

  • Relationships

    A Woman Unashamed

    [Guest Post by Sarah P] – This is an emotional message, and I don’t like writing out of emotions. But since reading Friends With Girls, I’ve been eaten up. I didn’t want to spill my guts on your blog–and probably should be writing this to someone who actually knows me. But I just want to vent. I’m thirty-two. God started working on me in college, almost thirteen years ago now… I had pretty much rejected femininity. Saying I was uncomfortable in my skin was an understatement! Through the process I discovered that I had been sexually abused. With dear friends and mentors I worked through that, and began to let…

  • Faith,  Relationships

    Friends With Girls

    [Guest post by Andrea Marbach] – I know the feeling of being friends with girls and being left out in a conversation. The feeling of being less important and ignored. Being single is all I know. I have never been on a real date. Never been asked out for drinks. Never been kissed. I’m almost 25 years old. Growing up in a Christian household did not protect me from some really bad, life changing things that happened to me when I was a child. For many years, I struggled with self-confidence. At the age of 22, I was finally able to look at myself in the mirror and like what…

  • Relationships

    Intentional Friendship

    [Guest Post by Julianna] – Friendship is the mother of all relationships; ironically. Without friendship, the human race cannot thrive. We could survive, sure, but we wouldn’t be living at our full capacity. We wouldn’t be tapping into who we really are: Created beings in the image of a relational God. Now with that, let me say I am a bad friend. Or at least that’s what my sweet husband tried to tell me. We were watching a video series on marriage and that evening’s topic was on friendship. The pastor said that friendship is the foundation of all healthy relationships. Different types of friendships will go to different levels…

  • Faith,  Relationships

    Friends With Boys

    [Guest post by Clara Bastidas] – Sometimes I wish love wouldn’t have such a huge hold in our lives as women. Love is an important part of our lives whether we want it or not. I wish it was the topic of politics, or gardening. But I know God created us this way, and if He did, He must have meant it for good. I’ll try to get to the point of my post. Even though I know any advice on this earth will provide me with the peace that only my faith in Christ will bring, I could use some insights from others who have gone through some of…

  • Relationships

    What's Your Story – Carla

    [Guest post by Carla] – I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be married, a time when I wasn’t desperate for someone to love me. I feared that I would be alone forever. You would think that after two divorces I wouldn’t want to be in a relationship any more, but that fear was still very alive inside me and so I launched my dating career. Yes, it became a career. I was 28, mother of three and on a mission to find someone to love me. I have since gone on more dates than I should ever admit out loud. Some of my dates have been…

  • Faith,  Relationships

    What's Your Story – Samantha

    [Guest Post by Samantha Krieger] God interrupted my story the summer after I graduated from college. I interned at a Christian publishing company in Nashville. I loved my work and what music city had to offer. I wanted to plant roots there but two weeks before my internship ended, I felt God leading me to pursue seminary. The funny thing is that seminary was never in my thoughts. Not once the whole summer. Then after pondering the idea and really considering it, affirmation came from those closest to me. Coincidentally, they were praying about the same thing. After talking with different seminaries, to my surprise, I received a full scholarship…

  • Devotionals

    What's Your Story – Ashleigh

    [Guest post by Ashleigh Slater] – My oldest daughter celebrated her eighth birthday two Saturdays ago. As she blew out the candles on her “Sew Cute” Lalaloopsy cake, I marveled that I’m “Mom” to a second-grader. Not to mention a first-grader, preschooler, and toddler. Let’s just say, over a decade ago it wasn’t where I’d expected to find myself at 33. Me, filling sippy cups up with pink milk throughout the day? No. Me, carrying snack-sized bags of Goldfish and Chex Mix in my purse? Nuh-uh. Me, making multiple trips to the grocery store for that bottle of ketchup that’s perpetually forgotten? I don’t think so. I wasn’t attending grad…