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Becoming My Best Self
[Guest post by Catherine Hawkins. I just met Catherine, and I am already glad we met. After submitting her first piece, I read it and thought how much I still feel this way. Maybe you or I will never quite feel like a grown up, but that’s okay too. Enjoy her piece!] When I was little, I pictured my future self as a fully functioning adult. I thought there would be one defining moment when I would suddenly say, Yes, I have become a woman, and the road after that would be solid and straight–no more of this winding uncertainty that seemed to be the mark of growing up. I…
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Follow God's Heart
[Guest Post by Teryn O’Brien. I always appreciate it when people ask me if they can guest post, especially when they know they want to write about. I am encouraged to get to know Teryn and hope you will appreciate her piece. I can totally relate, by the way.] Growing up, I believed if I followed my heart and believed in myself, all my dreams would come true. Even in Christian circles, the thought persisted. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” The context of Philippians 4:13 was often overlooked. I could do anything I dreamed; Christ would always help me. In high school and early college,…
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New Theme for April: Pursuing Dreams
This April I am introducing a new theme on pursuing dreams. When I was in my early 20’s, I had a dream about my future. I was at a concert and I had a brochure of people’s pictures and where they would end up in 20 years based on the choices they were making today. I hoped to see my picture, and when I did I was immediately excited. In my picture, I saw that I was married and we had a daughter. I couldn’t wait for this dream to come true. I became very frustrated when the years 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 went by with no…
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An Introvert Living In An Extrovert World
[Monthly Columnist- Rebekah Synder. I appreciate the fact that I am able to challenge Rebekah without even realizing it. I just simply ask her to post on something I think she would be great at, and then before I know it she’s tweeting me about how it’s the one thing she never wanted to write on. I say it’s all God. Enjoy her piece.] During my teen years, my parents called me the hermit. Whenever I would surface from spending hours alone in my room, they would make a big deal about the hermit coming out of her cave, and I would simply roll my eyes, polish off a peanut…
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Living By Myself
[Guest Post by Jessica Baumgardner. Jessica and I connected on Facebook and I asked her to write a piece on living together by herself. She thought I was crazy, but I’m so glad she did! She has a big heart and has been through a lot. I think we could all learn a lot from her, actually!] I have always believed in God my entire life, but I never had a relationship with Him or even knew what that meant. I was forced to go to church when I was younger and I did not understand anything about it. My parents finally stopped making us go once I got to…
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Quarter Life Conference LIVE today
Quarter Life Conference +Watch Party Click here to watch Quarter Life Conference starting at 8 PM EST. If you’re busy on March 21st (which is totally understandable), you can still bookmark the link to watch later. +Event Guide I have created a FREE .PDF to follow along with Annie Downs, Bill & Pam Farrell, Justin & Trisha Davis, Gary Thomas, Joy Eggerichs, and Dr. Gary Chapman. Download that here. +Free Books We will be giving away a free copy of Not Another Dating Book by Renee Fisher, She’s Got Issues by Nicole Unice, and Beyond Ordinary by Justin & Trisha Davis. Enter to win here.
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Should We Live Together Before Marriage?
[Guest Blog by Pam and Bill Farrel. Pam is my mentor and has gone above and beyond to help me publish my first three books. They are also one of my upcoming speakers at Quarter Life Conference. Don’t forget to register here.] Should we live together before marriage? The whole area of how to know you are in love, how to know if this is Mr. Right or Ms. Right, then how far to progress sexually at what commitment level seems to be a grand mystery in today’s world. Often couples today are opting for a live-in, cohabiting arrangement. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, cohabitation increased 533 %…
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Infatuation Makes Us Very Vulnerable
[Guest Post by Gary Thomas. I’m very excited for him to share on the blog today as he is one of my heroes (he doesn’t know that yet). My husband Marc and I went through Sacred Marriage in our pre engagement counseling and believe in his message. He is also one of my upcoming speakers at Quarter Life Conference, a free online conference for the 20/30-somethings on Thursday. Register here for free.] Not only are you stupid when you’re infatuated, but you also become extremely vulnerable. I’m speaking as a pastor who has witnessed the tremendous pain that romanticism has led so many people into. Psychologically, “hearts broken from lost…
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Living Together: In Sickness And In Health
[Monthly Columnist – Wendy van Eyck] – “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galations 6:2 (ESV)” My husband and I started living together on the 16th of April 2011. The same day that we stood in front of 30 friends and family, and promised to love and honour each other, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health. Moving in with my new husband, was great fun, and for us fairly easy. There were unexpected things: disagreements about whether the bathroom seat should be up or down, about where it was appropriate to cut toenails, and how the chairs should be arranged. Of…
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Moving Back Home With Parents
[Guest post by Diana Palka] – There’s really no glamorous way to come to terms with moving back home with parents. It’s not that it’s a wretchedly horrific concept–in fact, I didn’t think much of it until I was here. But once the excitement of graduation fizzled away and I settled into a non-academia life for the first time in 22 years, it hit me. All of the sudden, there was this abrupt realization that I’d entered the front end of a cumbersome transition from a built-in community to a community-less environment. It’s a transition that no one talks about. Without anticipation, life was a little lonely. Instead of spending nights in…
