God shows his love to us through his grace, and grace is an essential ingredient in a strong marriage. If we want a marriage that filled with grace, there are some practical applications we can focus on. Here are six of them.
Read moreGrace in Parenting
Sure, we can get outward compliance by shaming our kids, but that is all that it will be. Shame is not the same as repentance. It’s grace that brings about a heart change. I love the practical example, above, from Elyse, which shows what applying grace to our parenting can look ike in daily life. Here’s another example,
Read moreAmazing Grace: the story of John Newton
photo taken at Stanford Chapel, Palo Alto, CA
There once was a man named John. He was born in London, in 1725. His father was the commander of a merchant ship that sailed in the Mediterranean. Little is known about his mother, except that she taught John what he knew about God. She died when John was young. At the age of eleven, John began sailing on long voyages with his father
Read moreWhat I Learned- May
Just for fun, I'm joining in with Emily of Chatting at the Sky for a link-up called What I Learned. This is a mix of treasures that I picked up along the way this month.
Read moreLife Itself is Grace
This morning, after days of heavy rain, the sun appeared. I went for a run through the forest. Sunlight filtered through a thick vapor that was billowing off the mossy tree trunks. The water droplets on the tips of the pine needles and leaves appeared as thousands of tiny glittering diamonds. It was so beautiful, tears came to my eyes
Read moreThoughts on writing, connecting, and story
image credit: thinkstock.com (edited)
I’ve been thinking about the wonderful feedback I received from the reader survey that I offered recently. It was honest, encouraging, and constructive. I appreciate you; dear readers, and I want to say a big, sincere thank you.
Your words, as a summation, were a validation of a single word, that I’ve been pondering and hearing spoken to me from many different sources. The word is story
Read more5 Creative Ways to Preserve Childhood Memories
As parents, we understand all too well the fleeting nature of childhood.
We want to remember these years- and with our camera phones, it has never been easier to document every moment. If we’re not careful, we can turn into parent paparazzi. As a former mommy blogger, from the early days of the genre, I’m guilty. But I’m telling you, if you only rely on taking massive quantities of pictures to preserve those childhood memories, you’re missing out. I have five simple ideas to give you, that you can incorporate into your record keeping, which will offer you a richer, more complete picture of your child’s early years.
I'm writing at Arabah Joy today, go here to read the rest!
5 Realities of the Gospel Worth Considering
I’ve been a church girl my whole life. There was a time when I thought of the message of the gospel as something that I didn’t need to hear anymore, something that maybe other people needed to hear, particularly if they weren’t Christian yet- but if it came up in church, in boredom, I’d let my mind wander. What good did hearing it again do for me? I was already saved.
“We have spoken freely to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in our own affections. In return I speak as to children, widen your heart also!” 2 Corinthians 6:11-13
True, I was a Christian, saved by grace, but a very immature one, and I was wrong about the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is not just a message of one time salvation or a ticket to heaven.
Read moreWhat I Learned About Grace in a Romanian Orphan Camp
I walked with a group of about fifty children, ages 2-16, through the cobbled village streets of Săvârșin on a summer evening in 1992. We were on our way to the soccer field/cow pasture, to play with the summer camp orphans. It was just after dinner. Tea, dry bread, and an oily “beef” soup (where was the beef?), had not satisfied my hunger, and I hungrily eyed the chickens placidly pecking about in the tidy garden off the side of the path. There must be eggs somewhere in this village, I thought. There sure weren’t any in the camp dining room, nor on the empty shelves of the market. I accepted and ate a sour crabapple, picked off a nearby tree, from six-year-old Nadia.
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