Truth, Love And Books

  I am no Swiftie, but my young daughters are. My daughters are not big NFL fans, but their parents are. This season's combination of TSwizzle and pro football was nothing but sheer entertainment for our family of six. Including the reactions of the social media world. Americans seem to either love and worship the duo or vehemently hate and demonize them. Well surprise, surprise: I hold a different perspective than most Americans.  My daughters aren't witnessing me hate Taylor but they have heard me repeatedly say I would never switch lives with her. While hating a person is always wrong, elevating these two celebs - or any created being - to be gods is also to err.   The above meme is inadvertently communicating that all the young girls of the world should strive to be Taylor Swift.  She's the standard. And parents who don't encourage their kids to reach earthly success well they gotta just do better.  I unreservedly disagree.  To unwittingly communicate that Taylor

  At the beginning of 2023, I thought I had the year relatively mapped out. I planned on a simple, uneventful twelve months with plenty of reading. I was aiming to read 60 books last year. I would spend plenty time walking in the woods and blog and go out to dinner with my family and friends. Easy and predictable was the plan. But God led me in another direction and while my completed book list was minimal, the path to adventure and growth seems to be ever expanding. I am so grateful that my year did not go as planned. It was a year of pouring out into others. And I needed it. Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. I am more at peace and aware that God is good. Plus the point of reading isn't just to get through as many books as you can, it's the reveling and reflecting and enjoying the story and the perspectives themselves. While most of what I read was non-fiction, the books were thoroughly entertaining mainly because my reading evoked a reminder of the true story that I am l

The day I found out I miscarried a second baby was the same day the Ohio State football team played and won the 2014 National Championship. I have cheered voraciously for the Buckeyes for as long as I can remember, but this time, all I recall is crying and napping throughout the game. I could not find it in me to care. Something seemingly so important suddenly became starkly insignificant. Significant was the utter guilt and sheer sadness. Each of my pregnancy losses resulted in guilt. But this time was harder, more intense. Mainly because I possibly could have done something. I could have fought more for our little one.  Our firstborn was nine months old when we found ourselves unintentionally pregnant again.  With our oldest, a fertility doctor had placed me on the hormone supplement progesterone which resulted in a healthy, beautiful, seven pound baby girl, Rylie Grace.  I fearfully asked my OBGYN doctor if for this pregnancy I would need to be on progesterone again and she told me

I recently made a scary yet quite thrilling life decision. Numerous people reacted pretty strongly to my decision. They disagreed. When people you care about aren't on board and you are attempting something new, it can be confusing and a little disheartening. But as I reflect on all this, I realize I am no stranger to rebelling. Rebelling in a good way. When I have sought God and walked and prayed through big life changes with Him, He has always been there. Stepping out in faith, into the unknown, can yield some big blessings in our lives.  A few ways that I have (so-called) rebelled against the popular opinion: - My husband and I married young and before we finished college  -We decided to try for a fourth baby after having twins -We home educate our children - We walked away from a church community we grew up in Someone always voiced their opinion. Someone always disagreed.  While it has not always been easy, greater good has come from all of these above life decisions. If I have

I'm sure you've seen them. The Jesus ads. Okay to be humbly honest, my husband and I went back and forth on this campaign. It's confusing right? When was the last time Jesus was name dropped on a near global scale? Some Christians seem to be cheering. Finally , Jesus is getting some good coverage! Other Christians are pointing out: We aren't reading our Bibles! While that does appear to be more and more  statistically true ... I can attest that my husband actually is reading the Bible. And he has shown good discernment. He initially did not see why the ads were problematic and I did not either until we did some thinking and a little digging. All this to say, no one should be feeling bad if you originally thought this campaign was a good idea.   But allow me to graciously point out it's not a good idea. And here's why. If we are going to portray Jesus of Nazareth we must portray His character fully and accurately. Jesus claimed to be the truth Himself. And it is

As a kid, my dad would often tell my younger sister and I stories of his childhood. Like all kids, we often begged for just one more. We were completely enchanted as he relayed both the mischief and innocence of his youth. When dad's mom died, I stood up at the funeral and told one of my favorites of these stories.  "Dad was often bullied and one time a kid smashed a raw egg down his back.  Grandma couldn't just sit by and do nothing. As a good mom should, she advocated for and defended her kid. Grandma told Dad, you take this tomato here and when you see that kid you hurl it right at his face. And in Dad's words...' it was the throw of the century, the tomato splattered against the bully's face right between the eyeballs.' I thought I would share with you all because I am grateful to have a grandma who protected her child and who took action. I thought it showed her humor, her fiesty spirit and her love."  My talk lasted two minutes and I didn't s