Every night at the dinner table, my family members will go around and say three things we’re thankful for. As you can imagine, my children ranging in ages from three to eight say the darnedest things. My three-year-old son Esaias whose speech is really just emerging the last three months can still get out the … Continue reading The Response to Life-Joy (38/40)

“Blessed” is a word that is used loosely at times, where the understanding of one being such is not fully understood. There are so many connotations to that word that it’s quite hard to capture its full meaning. Most people would say that I am blessed because I have a great husband with a fantastic … Continue reading Life-Joy (37/40)

Today I am celebrating. Celebrating today, celebrating my breath, celebrating my family, and most of all, celebrating God’s loving faithfulness toward us all. This morning I hit a major milestone in my physical journey which spills over into my mental and spiritual journey as well. A year ago July 1st I weighed in and began … Continue reading Celebrating Open Doors (32/40)

When I hear the phrase “highly blessed,” often my mind goes to the fact that so many of us in the United States are blessed financially and/or by material possessions, at least to some degree. Because of these “blessings,” sometimes we lose sight of other things that are more important. Which begs the question: are … Continue reading “Enslaved to Our Stuff” (24/40)

Throughout our first week back, my mind kept rerunning many powerful moments of our trip, easily the best trip of many I’d been on. Part of me daydreamed about what it would look like to move our family there, all the while knowing that was not in God’s immediate plan for us. But what other … Continue reading All Things Work Together, Part 3 (23/40)

After our summer mission trip to Peru in 2006, our calling was clear. We were to move to Peru as missionaries, which we did in September 2007. However, as I wrote last week and detailed in another earlier blog post, our time as full-time missionaries was cut severely short, and we came back to the … Continue reading All Things Work Together, Part 2 (22/40)

“God did not promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, nor sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears and light for the way.” – Author Unknown My sister-in-law made a painting with this phrase on it and gave it to me on the day I learned my … Continue reading All Things Work Together, Part 1 (21/40)