Satan seeks to sift you;He relentlessly demandsTo pound and press and shake your faithUntil you cannot stand. The sifter watches closely;He cannot read your mind,But if you let him in […]
Deep Roots and Divine Resilience
You probably overlooked her at first glance. She’s not not much to look at. Surrounded by her thriving, productive counterparts, she seems to be a lost cause. You see, the […]
Healing from the Inside Out
Years ago, following our baby girl’s open heart surgery, doctors were unable to close her sternum, so they sewed a patch over her incision, and sent her to the PICU. […]
Death Gives Way to Life
It was a sunny October afternoon when death came to visit. Once my favorite season—filled with family birthdays at apple orchards, hot pumpkin spice lattes on crisp, frosty mornings and […]
When Grief Rocks Your Faith
Profound grief has a way of bringing us face to face with what we actually believe about God. Often, we are surprised by our own doubt. We wrestle with the […]
Go Ahead and Scream
The year our daughter died, I had to stop watching the news. I remember every time there was a big news story about a tragedy, I could hardly keep the […]
Butterfly Theology
There are few creatures more fragile than the butterfly. So God lovingly created each one with the instinct to protect and preserve herself during storms, knowing that rain and wind […]
Post-Traumatic Resilience
This is resilience. I remember a huge holly tree that took up residence next to our house when I was young. She was actually quite beautiful, but when she started […]
Parable of an Ice Cream Cone
I pass by a small child, with a deliciously drippy ice cream cone in her hand on a sweltering hot day. What joy she must be feeling in that moment! […]
The Battle For Your Mind
Oh, friends, the battle for our minds is fierce! The enemy slithers up, while you’re lying on a grave with the wind knocked out of you, and he whispers in […]
Graves and Gardens
When Karissa died, Jeremy and I were newlyweds, living on a single Christian School teacher’s salary. Meaning, we didn’t have two nickels to rub together. Thankfully, my parents were gracious […]
Anorexia vs Faith
Not many years before we lost Jeremy, we almost lost our 14-year-old daughter. We helplessly watched as she slowly and painfully tried to take her own life. The diagnosis was […]