in the love of Christ

I had spent time in the bible for the first time in years as a seventeen year old girl completely overwhelmed by how much good news there was to read in this leather bound book with my full name printed in the bottom right corner of the cover. This gift had always been precious to me but had collected dust for a while. It was becoming the lifeline I did not realize my soul needed. I quickly quipped a scripture from the book of Romans in the New Testament that I had been rolling around in my head to a leader from church. We were discussing some hard things happening and I said, “Oh but we know that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him!” Papa Gary looked back at me and said, “and have been called according to His purpose. Don’t ever forget there’s more to that verse. You have to look at the whole promise.” For days - maybe years - that rolled and cycled in my head and my heart. The whole promise? What’s the difference? Wait, for whom will God work

I can clearly remember sitting in the stadium seated lecture hall for Anatomy and Physiology II at Western Kentucky University, halfway through college with the real beginning of nursing school only four months away. I don’t clearly remember what was going on in my life. What I clearly remember and have memorized since that very moment is this: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:10 By nature, I am a little too strong-willed to be a people-pleaser. But, in certain settings, I can find myself giving in to the very human desire to be liked, to be approved of, to be understood. The Lord knows He has placed me in many of those “certain settings” in the past three years. Thankfully, I am less likely to fall into the trap of people pleasing than I was sitting in that university lecture hall but less likely does not mean I never fall into it.

This conversation happens every time I pick up the hair brush in our home. Daughter: Brush my sister's hair first! I don't want you to brush my hair! Me: I have to brush your hair now please come here before it dries and let me brush it. Daughter: It will be okay without brushing. I don't want to do it! I have tried a thousand ways to get to the hair brushing point without crying. I use distraction. I buy the fancy hair products. I therapeutically discuss, at other points in the day when we are all calm and well fed, why we brush hair and how necessary it is. We have even talked through the options of cutting hair so brushing takes less time. But, nearly every time, the hairbrush comes out with sounds of anguish and fury (too dramatic...or completely accurate?). I remind them that, in our home, brushing hair is not a "want to" but a "have to" activity. There are a few sentences that I hear my mouth repeat during a hair brushing. Phrases li

It is hard to be so far away from people you love so dearly. For years, I have read the letters written by the Paul the Apostle in the New Testament and thought it was so sweet how much he loved the churches he was teaching from afar. He pours out beautiful prayers for them and makes it clear that he has been endeavoring to keep up with the news there. He is definitely not the only one who loves his brothers and sisters deeply, but he is the one on my mind today. When we landed in Ireland over a year ago, I started to feel that longing for our families and our friends back in the States. I was watching on social media as the church we had just been serving for four years was changing, growing in answer to so many teary eyed and heavy hearted prayers. I was in the group texts still hearing the prayer requests and praises of women in whom the Lord was mightily working. I longed to see it with my eyes but knew it wasn't my place to be there in that season. From afar, I pra