Materialistic Mania
If you’ve ever visited a department store the day after Thanksgiving, you’ll understand the title. Materialism is one of my greatest struggles. I’ll do well for a while, practicing Philipians 4:11-12...
View ArticleWatch Out For Those Gimmes
As I look around my house, wrapping paper strewn across the floor, packages lined on the shelves, and shopping lists still waiting to be fulfilled, a twinge of conviction nabs my heart. Each present,...
View ArticleBeyond Christmas
I’m the queen of distraction. I easily get caught up in the tinsel and carols and cinnamon smells of the season, but this year God used a squirrel-like husband and a box of old ornaments to center me...
View ArticleTraining by Example
Shannon and I at the ACFW conference in 2009. Or 2010. I can never remember! Moms, do you ever feel like the gimmees have infiltrated your home? Like your child’s main focus is himself? Since our...
View ArticleA Nostalgic Christmas
Photo by VinnyCiro taken from Pixabay.com First, to all my lovely and faithful readers: Merry Christmas! Some of you have been with me since way back in 2009, long before I signed my first book...
View ArticleHas the Hustle Stolen Your Joy This Christmas?
This is the notoriously most stressful, and for many, most depressing season of the year. The pressure to buy that best gift, to create that perfect evening or morning for our loved ones, the urge to...
View ArticleSquelching Our Inner Martha This Christmas
Messages encouraging us to slow down this Christmas abound, but without a game plan and the courage to follow through, those inspiring posts and articles lead to little more than guilt. We know we...
View ArticleHow Miss Perfect Stole Christmas
There’s only one way to introduce today’s guest and her post … Y’all, meet my sweet, hilarious, much-too-talented friend Tara Johnson: And now, read her (real life) tale of how Miss Perfect Stole...
View ArticleGod Revealed Through The Gift
Wrapped within the tinsel, lights, and candies of Christmas, there’s a thread of anticipation as, daily, children eye the presents tucked beneath the tree, daydreaming about what might be hid inside....
View ArticleWhen God Uses Christmas to Point us to Something Bigger
2002 started as a guilt-ridden Christmas but resulted in one our family will always cherish. A month before the holidays, we feared our daughter would suffer the consequences of our bad choices. After...
View ArticleChristmas dysfunction—or growth and peace. Your Choice
If my Christmas feels out of control and produces more anxiety than joy and peace, I’m probably to blame. Nine times out of ten, when I honestly evaluate those things that cause me the greatest stress...
View ArticleFinding Strength to Love Well This Christmas
Unfortunately, when I most need Christ’s strength is often when I’m least apt to seek it. When I most feel rushed and overwhelmed, somehow I deceive myself into thinking I can handle the situation and...
View ArticleExperiencing Peace When Encountering “Problem” People
Relationships can be hard and rewarding, stressful and comforting, this time of year especially. We all probably have at least one person we’d must rather avoid but whom we tend to find ourselves...
View ArticleChrist Came for the Outcasts
This holiday season, I invite you to look at the Christmas story through, perhaps, a difference lens—not just of all God did in giving us the gift of His Son—the promise of salvation, the prophesies...
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