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What's Your Story – Lisa & Kyle
Kyle Bonenberger and his wife, Lisa Ramsland Bonenberger, are experts on love and forgiveness. A few years ago they planted City Church in Anaheim, CA. They speak, encourage, council, write, and give relational advice daily. Not to mention their credentials speak for themselves. Kyle is currently working towards his M.Div from Talbot Seminary and Lisa recently graduated from Talbot with a Master’s in Counseling. Lisa and I are both graduates of Biola University, and I had the pleasure of meeting them through Lisa’s mother, Marcia Ramsland, my mentor! Marcia is the one who named me the “Devotional Diva!” My first question to them, “What does love mean to you as…
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What's Your Story – Jenn
Jenn is my first best friend. Jenn and I met at North Coast Church’s college group and became best friends. It’s funny how God uses certain people to remind us who we are, and who bring out the best. Jenn is that person to me. I felt bad that I couldn’t be there for her when her story started. Jenn became a single mom. She went through much criticism by her family, peers, the church—and worst of all herself. As a result of her choices she had a lot of questions to answer. My first question to Jenn was a heavy one, one that I’ve wrestled with myself. Why do…
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What's Your Story – Ashley
[Guest Post by Ashley] I always had a close relationship with God, and felt I could always lean on Him. In high school, I got a job at a leather store in the mall. I was a trainer on the football team and fell head over heels for popular guy on the team. I had my whole life planned out. I wanted to be a stay at home mom and be an active part of a church. I knew I wanted to save myself for marriage, but I started to drift from God. He wasn’t into going to church or praying. I ended up dating him and we had a…
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6 Month Wedding Anniversary
My 6 month wedding anniversary has taught me so much. Because I love celebrating both small and large milestones–here are six lessons learned from the first six months (Oct. 15-Apr. 15)! 1. Insecurities Magnified. When I was saangle (really single) I thought it was my fault. I’m so glad for those years now that God spent teaching me how to replace the lies with truth because now that I’m married, my insecurities are only magnified. 2. Serving/Submitting to Marc is my joy. At first, I was so excited and grateful to serve Marc because God answered my 12-year-10-month-24-day-prayer. I now believe it’s because of prayer, God’s help, and understanding–that my…
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Singleness Is NOT A Disease
[Guest Post] American culture values independence. Somewhere between my twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh birthdays, my status as a single man in the church downgraded from laudable to questionable. People stopped celebrating my singleness as a gift affording me undivided focus on performing God’s will (see I Corinthians 7) and began seeing it as a problem. They also began analyzing why I had failed to solve it. The message was clear: My “malady” of being single was somehow my fault. It wasn’t anything I did. It was what I didn’t do enough of. I didn’t do enough to prove my independence. American men who cannot demonstrate enough independence begin to feel weak…
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Friendship Quotes
Today my amazing husband Marc turns 29. If you recall, he wrote me a book on the 29 reasons why he loves Renee for my birthday in June. Since Marc is more of a private guy–I thought I’d return the favor by posting different 13 quotes on friendship. According to Timothy Keller’s book The Meaning of Marriage, Chapter 4 explores friendship as the mission of marriage. I hope you enjoy and are encouraged by these friendship quotes. 1. Christian friends…are to honestly confess their own sins to each other (James 5:16). 2. Christian friends…are to lovingly point out their friend’s sin if he or she is blind to them (Romans…
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Your Relationship Status
[Guest post by Jessica Bufkin] – And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life. Don’t think I’m being harder on you than on the others. I give this same counsel in all the churches. (1 Corinthians 7:17 MSG) People mean well. Really, they do. But honestly, sometimes the things that they say, despite their well-meaning intentions, remain lodged in our minds for a very long time. For instance, your relationship status. My parents have never once poked or prodded…
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Single Appreciation Day
Happy Single Appreciation Day! Notice I didn’t say singles appreciation day. But single. Our culture is obsessed with relationships, and I know because I’m one of them! I used to HATE Valentine’s Day because I was single. Charles Ringma writes, “We are surrounded by family and friends who have enriched our lives in various ways. Much has been given to us. But we receive more when we are thankful for all that God and others have given us. It is thankfulness that builds in us the capacity for generosity. Unthankfulness robs us of the benefits of the very thing we have received…life” (Seize The Day With Dietrich Bonhoeffer). I love…
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Marc's Thoughts on Dating
My husband and I were discussing the release of my book. I happened to ask him what his thoughts were on dating. He said he’d have to think about it, and knowing my husband, I knew he’d come up with something deep. Here are Marc’s 5 Thoughts on Dating: “If you pressed me to provide thoughts on dating you might be surprised on how little I would have to say. Of course men do not think in the same ways women do about these matters. Most of us guys have not dreamed about marriage since we were young, constantly thought about our knightness in shining armor, or kept a notebook of…
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Happy Endings Do Exist!
Happy Endings Do Exist! I have been searching for the words to write this blog for over a week now. The fact is, I have another book coming out. Today in fact. I am so beyond excited, but I am also scared. Will anyone read it? Will anyone be blessed? Will I get to hear the stories of personal transformation? I remember standing up on stage for my first book release party. I said something like, this is as good as it gets because I’m probably never getting married so I better enjoy the spotlight now! WRONG. I was so fed up when I wrote Not Another Dating Book. I…
