There’s beauty in the way a child gives a hug, so full and free. You can feel their emotions because it doesn’t cross their mind to be stingy with love. They don’t realize it yet, but they’re busy refreshing people. Their whole spirit working in harmony with their Creator, just loving people. Unbeknownst to them, they’re God’s modern witnesses.

Who hears your voice, the words you speak?

They float on air, from here to there

A simple word can grow and grow

Becoming more, you’ll never know

We bring good news and sometimes scorn

Our words can take a drastic turn

I used to think I was missing out on something by not being raised in a Christian home. The evangelical world taught me this — in their language, in their judgment, in the look on their faces. I felt unwhole, broken, kind of scrapped together, when I sat in a room with people who had grown up in the crowning family.

Sadness lingers

Maybe you don’t walk with your mom anymore

Maybe it’s been years, or days

You’re single and there’s no one to prompt your littles to love you extra special

Maybe you long for motherhood yourself

And though you’ve tried, there’s no baby to hold

We like to think bearing God’s image is something we control. As if it’s up to us to do it...if we’re being “good” people. I think it’s something else completely.

Some endings become beginnings. Just when we feel like we can’t go under the wave one more time. Just when we think the weight of this is too heavy. Just when we can’t see the next step. When it ends, dies, runs out, leaves.

It’s amazing the powerful way a fleeting thought can spiral us faster than anything. We’re doing good, and then suddenly we’re not.

Betrayal is bitter. It could be a sibling, a spouse, or a friend. It could be a coworker or boss. It could be our child. It could be ourselves. Betrayal comes in many shapes. And the sting is deep when it happens to us.

Head held high, chin up

All is right with me

So full, so correct

It’s all that I can see

Where could they even go from here? The sorrow and confusion His followers must have felt, as He was forcibly led to Golgatha, bloodied, beaten, and scourged. They thought He would be their hero, their rescuer, their hope. But what hope did they have now? And who could they blame?

Jesus knew that after Peter failed 3 times, he would come back. And in an act of love, Jesus prayed for Peter’s faith not to fail, even though Jesus knew exactly what Peter was about to do.

It was her first garden since she was a little girl growing up in Illinois. For me, it was blood, sweat, and tears.