Equipping Parents for The Journey
In his recent blog post Exciting News: I’m Not Enough, and You Aren’t, Either!, Family Ministry Pastor Dave Carl said, “You are not okay, and you don’t need to pretend to be anymore!” Dave Carl I wish I could put that line on the marquee sign out in front of our church. It would...
When I was a kid, my dad had the cure for everything: Vicks VapoRub. Got a scrape there, buddy? Slap some Vicks on it. Coughin’ with a cold? Slather yer little-man chest with Vicks and get to bed. Got a sore throat? (you are not gonna guess the cure for this) Swallow a dab...
His big brown eyes looked up at me as if to say, “See, Mom. I told you. Now what do I do?” The silent but obvious question was in response to another child shoving him right in front of me, an adult, and saying how he was “so much bigger and better than everyone...
In 2000, my son and I found ourselves with a father and husband who wanted to leave home. Unfortunately, this would be the first time but not the last. I was a 32-year-old mom of our only child, who was age two, when my husband left the first time. I remember my granddaddy telling my mom, “Divorce is like death.” That...
Does this sound familiar? Yesterday morning went something like this: Me: Liv. Liv! Olivia! Olivia Marie! (at the top of my lungs) Liv: Crickets. Me: Stomping up the stairs, muttering under my breath, Disrespectful! She’s ignoring me!? I bet she’s just hoping I’ll give up. I’m not giving up! In fact, I’m the opposite of giving...
“I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:35 I love this verse more than I can tell you. It’s becoming all the more meaningful to me as Thanksgiving draws near. As more and more stores attempt to minimize the holiday and reduce it to little more...
Stonebriar is a large church made up of many beautiful families, so it seems only fitting that we take the time to get to know one another better. And what better way than sharing some of the God-sized stories behind many of the familiar faces we see? I’m so appreciative of The Creek Family for accepting the...
You may have heard there’s an election taking place. Not to worry, I won’t be taking a political stance here or turning this into a place for conservative versus liberal fodder, but it would be remiss of me to act as though we aren’t on the cusp of a sizable moment in our nation’s history—a moment that...
We would like to extend my sincere thanks to Kelli Lawrence for sharing her heart and wisdom with us today. Motherhood has given me my greatest joys and my deepest disappointments; my proudest accomplishments and my most humbling failures; my deepest contentment and my most unsettling struggles. Do I have any “AMENS” out there? Parenting...
My dear, sweet children, you are truly the zest of life! You add more excitement to the days than I could ever anticipate, and you make certain the tips of these parenting toes are in top shape. The dishes would have been done hours ago, but attending to bug spray in the eye kind of came first. Same...
“I can’t imagine.” Whenever tragedy strikes, these words are often tossed about. Yet, these words don’t carry much truth when you truly stop and think on them. You see, when tragedy strikes, we can indeed imagine, and that is often what makes circumstances all the more real to us and the presence of God all the more...
As you have likely heard, a small boy recently found his way into a gorilla cage at the Cincinnati Zoo. The gorilla, a 17-year-old, 450-pound silverback named Harambe, was ultimately shot to death once it was deemed the safest option to save the child. I have pondered whether or not to share my thoughts on...
