The beauty of Isaiah & the Worry Pack is that it doesn’t dismiss the things kids worry about. Instead, it reminds readers of God’s big love for them, and provides a script to help them entrust their worries to God. Goring’s story, coupled with Pamela C. Rice’s artistic illustrations, remind readers that sleep isn’t the time to fear, but the time to rest.
Read moreBook Review: Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit
Photo Copyright IVP Kids
I’m grateful for a book like Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit, encouraging those who’ve ever been forced to doubt this biblical truth: God made people unique in skin color, hair texture, sizes and shapes because He is gloriously creative.
Read moreBook Review: Saint Nicholas the Giftgiver
{Photo copyright IVP Kids}
My favorite thing about this book is the tension it captures for people of faith. When asked about the inspiration behind the book, Bustard explained that while raising children he “wanted a way to teach the truth and enjoy the legends—while not confusing which is which.”
Read moreThis Weary World {includes free Advent Mourning calendar}
This weariness is more than physical though. Life is heavy because heaviness constantly weighs down those around us. This is the nature of entangling your life with people whose lives are hard every day – their grief becomes yours.
Read moreWrestling Toward Gratitude When Life Isn’t Great
Name what hurts – to safe people, but most importantly to God. This might feel like a faux pas in a culture that pretends the power of positivity can cure all wrongs. Even in our Christian sub-culture, we become prey to the lie that having faith equates to calling bad things “good.” Though God certainly grows beautiful roses out of the scorched earth of our lives, that doesn’t mean we must pretend the part when we burned to the ground was pleasant.
Read moreAcknowledging Someone’s Loss Validates Their Pain
So if you’re walking alongside someone who has lost someone, understand the value of acknowledging that loss, be it weeks, months, and years down the road. They certainly haven’t forgotten their loved one has died, but hearing that others also remember and miss them is such a gift.
Read moreA Note to Those Dropping Off Casseroles
When I cried out for God to show me mercy, to tell me where He is in all of this, you called and eventually knocked on my door. His Body showed up through your hands carrying a 9x13 pan of supper I know I wouldn't have been able to muster the strength to make tonight.
Read moreChristmas Is For The Mourning, Not Just The Merry
Christmas is not just an invitation to the broken hearted, beat down, depressed, and mourning to join in the fun that all the merry folk are having. Christmas is for them. Christmas is for those who mourn, who recognize their neediness. It is for those who see and say, “I am broken, and I am hurting, and I am a sinner. Save me.”
Read moreLife Would Be Easier if We Didn’t Have to Live It {And Other Lies Depression Tells}
God gives us space to mourn this life, space we must take and do the hard work of letting ourselves mourn whatever has broken our hearts and minds and brains. And He also reminds us that in a world where it feels easier to despair, even tempting to think life would be easier if we didn’t have to live it, this life is not all there is.
Read moreNot-Expected Christmas
It’s not about lowering our expectations. It’s about erasing them completely. About replacing them with the highest expectation of all: A baby boy, Jesus. God becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us. The beginning of salvation from our ugliness, brokenness, and darkness. From tears and sadness.
Read moreWhat We Didn’t Say “Yes” To
Sometimes I feel more like that now. Like the brightness in my eyes is gone. Like part of that hopeless romantic, naïve, “Happily Ever After” woman died when her daughter died too. Like there’s still plenty of laughter and love and even happiness inside of me, but that their optimism doesn't quite reach all the way up anymore. And that it might not be fixed until Heaven.
Read moreIn the Deep End {Of Grief}
Because this whole grief thing is deep. Deep, like getting pushed into the deep end of a pool when you don’t know how to swim. Like thrashing around in the water not knowing which way is up. Like feeling afraid that some days you just might drown in it.
Read moreYou Have No Idea
And I wonder how many other people I walked by that day, and the many days since then, who are going through things I have no idea about. Who else is suffering silently as they wade through life in a sea of unsuspecting people? People who have no idea what they are going through? I know how invisible I feel walking through the grocery store, waiting in line at the bank, talking to a complete stranger at the park. I can’t be the only one. I KNOW I’m not the only one.
Read moreThy Will Be Done {Because Then Nothing is Wasted}
Thy will be done. This phrase is a challenge for me to let go. A giving up of control. It's an opportunity to recognize that nothing in life is a waste when I let God use it for His purposes. An acceptance that while brokenness and death and pain and sorrow and grief and sadness were never a part of God’s original plan for this world, that His will is to use those things for good. If I am willing to let Him.
Read moreI’m The Same, But I’m Different {Since Losing Our Child}
We are coming to the part of the story where the rest of the world stops grieving with us. Not our family or our close friends of course, but the world beyond that. This is natural, and it’s okay. But as I slowly come out from under my rock and back into community, there are a few things I want you to know about me.
Read moreI Don't Know What to Say
Since our 20 week ultrasound when we were told our daughter probably wouldn’t live, and since our daughter passed away at 33 weeks along, people have said a lot of things. And since that 20 week appointment, and since the passing of our child, I realized more clearly that I was hurt by the kinds of words that tried to fix our pain. And I was comforted by the kinds of words that simply acknowledged our pain.
Read moreWe Both Lost Our Unborn Child {But It's Different}
Some have tried to say that losing our child must be worse for me, because I am the mom. But that is not true. My pain is not worse. It’s just different. To every father who has lost a{n unborn} child: your grief is important too. It might be different. It might not be processed or expressed the same as your wife's grief. But your thoughts, your feelings, your timing - they are all valid. They are important too.
Read moreEmpty
I know that someday I might even feel at peace and be grateful for this experience and all that it has taught me. I know that someday things will get better. But why won’t that knowledge numb my pain right now? Why do I still just want to curl up on the floor and weep? Why do I feel so empty? Empty arms. Empty womb. Empty heart. Empty pit in my stomach. Hold me, Jesus. And while you’re at it, please hold our precious daughter Aliza for me too. Your precious daughter, Aliza.
Read moreThis is My Act of Worship {Motherhood}
Lord, this is my act of worship: The satisfying, the joy-filled, the precious, The messy, the frustrating, the chaos, Both the worst and the best, This is my act of worship.
Read moreTo Those Waiting and to Those Mourning on Mother’s Day
It's not that I think you need random pity from a random stranger such as myself, but I do think that sometimes it helps when recognition is given to how tough the valley can be to walk through.
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