The daylight looked all wrong for a June morning in Las Vegas. The sun should have been so bright I'd need to angle the blinds to keep it out. Instead, it looked weak and pale, though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Turns out, the moon eclipsed the sun that day. Just as sorrow eclipsed my soul. Days earlier, twenty weeks pregnant, I'd received devastating news from my midwife. "I'm so sorry, but the ultrasound technician couldn't find a heartbeat." She went on to explain something about fetal demise at seventeen weeks. I struggled to process her words. No heartbeat. Fetal Continue Reading
How a Timid Girl Gained a Voice for the Voiceless
Remember that shy kid in your grammar school class? The timid, sensitive kid who was anxious to follow the rules and get good grades? The last kid you’d go to for help if a bully picked on you? That kid was me. Not that I was apathetic; it’s just that my feelings had a hard time finding their way out of my mouth. It’s like I was wired with perpetual inner conflict between my strong values and my distaste for conflict. Does that sound familiar? The one place I found I could pour out my heart without holding back was with pen and paper. A sixth grade essay, a smattering of Continue Reading
How Compliments can be Evil
If you're a woman, think about how many times you've walked into a new situation and started out by complimenting the other women in the room. I really like that color on you. Those shoes are super cute! I love your earrings. Or am I the only one? I thought not. Compliments aren't inherently good or bad. It all depends on our motive. If praise is genuine and flows from a pure motive of building others up, compliments are great. But if praise is false or the motive is to fend off insecurity and get others to like us ... maybe not so much. I'm a natural encourager, careful to Continue Reading
This Restriction Will Liberate You
God’s rules are for our good and for his glory. Right. I know this in my head; my heart is a little slower on the uptake. Over the last couple of years, three books I read converged into a perfect storm of theological truth on a very important spiritual law. The one about keeping God’s Sabbath rest. I’m not just talking about petty rules concerning which day to set aside for worship, or what you can and can’t do that day. I’m talking about a lifestyle free from the idol of control. This is a tough one for us, immersed as we are in a culture of constant activity and Continue Reading