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There Is No Metric for Healing
After my post last week about my own healing which came rather quietly, I had someone reach out and ask what healing has looked like for me. I appreciated the question. It provided the opportunity for some introspection; what does it mean to actually heal after loss? It’s challenging to consider because healing doesn’t always… Continue reading
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Healing Came Quietly
When we first lost our 18 year old son to cancer, the grief was so acute, so intense, I was unsure I would ever heal. I could not fathom a day when the pain did not feel crushing. I could not grasp a time would come where I did not feel overwhelmed with sorrow. Those… Continue reading
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We Raise Them to Leave
We leave today to drop our middle-born son off at college. Although we have launched kids before him, there is a tender grief that arrives with each exit; a sort of reckoning that comes with the end of an era. When I first began having children, I did not consider the goal of mothering was… Continue reading
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When God’s Plans Seem Inconsistent With His Promises
I recently interacted with someone who has walked away from their faith. They have endured a long season of pain and suffering and the God they thought they knew did not respond how they had hoped. This time of testing and their disappointment over what God allowed has caused their heart toward him to harden.… Continue reading
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Drought Training
I love when God gives us real life pictures of how he often interacts with his children, training us in dependence and resilience. While there is not always a one-to-one correlation in every aspect, there are things we can glean from nature that remind us that we have a good Father, at work in our… Continue reading
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The Mercy of God When Formulas Fail
I have battled clinical anxiety with seasons of depression on and off for more than three decades. This battle has, at its roots, held some of the deepest and most discouraging times in my faith. Because of this piece of my story, I am often drawn to articles in which believers address mental health through… Continue reading
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When Necessary Rhythms Become Foundational
I’m in a season of transition as a mom; entering the “twilight years” of parenting as I have known it. My eldest son graduated to heaven in 2022 and my role of mothering him is finished. My second eldest son has moved out and is living independently. My middle son is leaving for university in… Continue reading
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The Joy I Took for Granted
We took our younger two sons for an overnight stay in Denver last week. We tried to find some fun with them, saying “yes” as often as we could. We rode scooters through the city streets, swam, ate delicious food, shopped, and spent some time at a driving range. It was sweet to be together.… Continue reading
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Wrestling with “Your Will Be Done” When the Outcome Is Not What We Hoped
There is a very real tension that comes within the Christian faith when we face times of loss and devastation. The strain comes for many believers on the road that travels from a head that knows what obedience is to a heart that feels deeply hurt by the outcome. We see the example of Christ;… Continue reading
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When Grief Becomes Identity
I had someone recently ask, “Do you think grief can become an idol?” My gut reaction was, “Yes, of course!” As Calvin stated, our hearts are idol factories. As I have chewed on this question over the last several days, I actually think the answer is much more layered. Long before grief becomes an idol,… Continue reading
Learning to trust God’s goodness as we wrestle with the sorrows of life.