When Fear and Faith Live Together

When Fear and Faith Live Together Last year I sat at my dining room table during nap time with a friend. We talked about fear. Her dreams were dust in the ground. Literally. Burying a baby can make fear a permanent fixture in a heart. I struggled with words. We cried together, remembering a little boy less than a year old.  If I had only known her through social media, text messages, or from conversations in public, I would have…

How to Find Rest, When Life is Stressful

One day I was driving to take my husband lunch. I discovered the secret to how to find rest, when life is stressful. The car is sometimes a torture chamber. Don’t get me wrong. I like driving, but pile in five kids, nine and under. Not fun, people. Not fun. It’s sometimes enough to drive me insane. The fighting, pinching, pulling, crying, and “MOOOOOOMMY” was about to cause a wreck on the interstate the other day. This question came to…

How to Read Your Bible on Vacation

What summer plans do you have this summer? How do you read your Bible on vacation? A month ago we left for China. We were there for over two weeks. Although it wasn’t a vacation, we were out of our routine for awhile. It was been a much different trip than the last time. Even though it was so much less stressful, I still struggled with reading my Bible consistently. It was hard, living in a hotel room with various…

Six Ways to Cultivate a Prayer Habit

Six Ways to Cultivate a Prayer Habit Our garden this year is completely overrun. We had grand plans for green beans, green peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, and even broccoli. Unfortunately, we let it be overrun with weeds and failed to water it during the drier days. It is a sad little plot of land, barren and empty. Cultivating a garden takes work, and so does cultivating a prayer life. If we neglect prayer in our Bible study time, we might find our…