“Especially when grief is fresh, it is going to sneak up on you.” – Chrystal Evans Hurst Have you ever experienced accumulated grief? This is when you have multiple losses within a short period of time. Maybe you’ve experienced accumulated disappointments...
Dear Friend, In February of 2012, Valentine’s Day was anything but enjoyable for me. Twelve days earlier, my husband had left and my world was turned upside down. Not only that, but infidelity was a part of why he left, so there was a double-whammy on my heart....
Reading the Bible is such an important part of getting to know Who our God is and to carry His truth through our daily lives. But do you ever struggle to make sense of how the Bible applies to your story? Do you ever have a challenging time finding the truth in...
Something you may not know about me is that I’m a foster care Nana! My youngest son and his wife have been foster parents for about two years now, and seeing them walk this journey has helped me learn so much about the foster care community. A lot of us are...
Last fall, Mark and I hiked a trail in the Rockies that was listed as easy. However, we later found out it was mismarked and it was really a moderate 6.5-mile trail! The scenery was beautiful. We saw waterfalls, wildlife, and an alpine lake at the top of the mountain....
Has the “anger monster” ever shown up at your house? Do you sometimes find that frustration causes you to blow up? And afterward do you struggle with the guilt that often follows that anger? If so, I want you to know that you are not alone and today’s episode is going...
This week on the podcast, Mark and I get to dive deep into our own story in an incredible conversation with Shivonne Davis. Recently, Shivonne asked if my husband, Mark, and I would be willing to do an interview with her for her online Masterclass summit called The...
Marriage is our passion. When Mark and I went through our marriage crisis now almost 10 years ago, we weren’t sure what the outcome would be. Trust had been broken. Tensions were high. (You can find the full story here.) But as we’ve experienced healing and now...
What if we could become experts at seeing joy in the mundane? Think about it. We’d likely learn to see the silver lining in the clouds. We’d identify blessings even in hard seasons. We’d view life through the possibilities rather than through the liabilities. I...
Mark and I have the opportunity to host marriage intensives in our home, and it is truly one of our favorite aspects of the ministry we do. Today I want to share with you why that is. Our marriage intensives are a 3-day marriage retreat spent at our home here in...
Dear Jill: Our adult daughter has chosen to walk away from the faith she was raised in and all that we taught her. She’s also come out as gay. I have grieved deeply, lost much of myself along the way, and find myself struggling to know how to connect with my daughter....
“I had cashed in all of these blessings, all of this protection, this institution and community that God had given me to be safe in. And I exchanged that for what I wanted, for my selfishness.” – Chris Teague You know, there is nothing better than a story...
Mark: When marriage gets stale (and it does for all of us!), there’s a temptation to check out. We reason that if it feels like our spouse doesn’t care, then we won’t care. Or we tell ourselves that we’re the only one trying and we’re...
Today we’re talking about how things that happened in the past sometimes can put a cloud over the future. You may sometimes wonder: Can I really heal? Can I move forward without shame? Can God really use me? My guest really understands these questions. She has not...
It’s vacation season, isn’t it? My feed has been full of ocean pictures and sandy beaches lately! And while all that ocean scenery is beautiful, can you imagine if you built your family a house right on the beach? Not along the beach, but right on the sand itself. ...
