Life Lessons

I am a Failure

Life Lessons, marriage, relationships, second marriage, Spiritual Growth

Recently, I received a brokenhearted email from a friend. Her email read simply, “Today, I am struggling with feeling like a failure as a wife”. My heart wretched inside me. In a time and place not so long ago, I had uttered those exact words. I struggled with that exact thought in my own mind. Have you ever had those thoughts? I’m a failure. Damaged goods. Tainted. Too far gone. A lost cause. My divorce was the first time in my life I had failed at something. I failed at marriage. I couldn’t make it work no matter how hard I tried. My marriage failed. I failed. Therefore, I am a failure. That…

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The One Thing

Life Lessons, marriage

Can I confess to you something I’ve been really good at? I’ve been really good at noticing “the one thing”. And that’s not a good thing. Our household is a little bit unique because I travel for my job, so my husband actually does most of the day-to-day keeping the house tidy and in order. I hire a house cleaner to handle the dirty work, because I don’t come home on the weekends to just clean my house either. But Barry does a lot to maintain while I’m out of town. But, I’m really good at walking in the door after a work trip, taking a look around and noticing the one thing…

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I Can’t Stand the Way He Loads the Dishwasher

Life Lessons, marriage

I heard an all-too-familiar story this week about a newlywed couple I know having the same kind of toxic, merry-go-round fights that were a constant, continual pattern in my life at one point. Young wives, can I share with you the two best pieces of wisdom I learned after failing miserably at my first marriage? First: Choose. your. battles. I know as you blissfully walked down the aisle on your wedding day you could never imagine your Prince Charming ever doing anything that would cause you to want to fight with him, but let me tell you a truth: at some point, he’s going to. Even if you lived together prior, there’s just…

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The Best Days of Your Life

faith, Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

Every year, I tape a quote to the front of my planner, something I am going to focus on for the year. This is what I choose for 2013.  March of that year would mark 2 years since my divorce, and 3 years since my husband left.  2010 and 2011 were a blur, as everything I believed in and the picture I held of my life shattered in front of me. 2012 was the year God chased after me relentlessly, as I was running full speed away, and invited me into a new, fresh relationship with Him unlike anything I had ever experienced.  But I still struggled to see how my my dreams…

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Weighted Words

Life Lessons

The first time someone tells you they took notes on your talk, is a humbling and sobering moment.  You realize you’re not just talking anymore. I’ve always been a story-teller, but now my stories carry a weight and a purpose, and can change people’s lives. They always have on a smaller scale. Words are seeds. Seeds we plant in our own mind and our own lives, as well as in the lives of those we encounter.  A few weeks ago my church played a music video for “Shake It Out” by Florence + The Machine that they remade.  You should go watch it, but for those of you with limited time I’ll attempt…

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Worth Fighting For

grace, Life Lessons

We ran into a Purple Heart Vietnam veteran in Vancouver, when my husband thanked him for his service, he turned and looked him intently in the eye and said, “you were worth fighting for.” Makes me tear up again just typing it. Though vastly underappreciated, what an incredible generation of warriors. And what an honor to be told we are worth their sacrifice, even at the times we don’t deserve or appreciate it. Kind of reminds me of Someone Else I know who tells me I’m worth fighting for even when I don’t deserve it….. #sundayfoodforthought

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Color-Blinded

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

This is the most uncomfortable topic I’ve written about. Here’s the thing, I grew up in a small farm town in Kentucky, of the 1300 kids in my school, there were like 3 black kids, and I was friends with them. I wasn’t naïve enough to ignore that there were some people in my town and in my school who were outwardly racist – white people who hated the black families for nothing other than the color of their skin. But it didn’t make sense to me. I moved to the “big city” of Cincinnati two months after graduating high school and my black friend ratio went way up. It’s not like I…

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Eye See You

Life Lessons, Metaphors, Success & Motivation

It’s been said that our eyes are the windows to our souls. I believe that. I saw a picture tonight, of a girl I don’t know, and this thought went through my head: There are some people, who even though they are smiling in every picture, and even if their smile is perfect, you can still see sadness in their eyes. Have you seen this before? Has this ever been you? My next thought was: These are the people I want to meet. I want them to know they don’t need to wear a smiling mask. I want them to know they are not alone. And I want to give them a picture…

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#56

faith, Life Lessons, Spiritual Growth

Skydiving is was on my bucket list. It’s number 56, in fact. I kind of had it penciled in for this Summer, and then my best friend turned 40 and decided that’s what he wanted to do to celebrate. BINGO! Weeks leading up to the event I was pure bottled excitement and eager anticipation. My husband had a scheduling conflict arise so that he was not able to join us, and I remember having a strange little flutter of uneasiness. Am I going to be able to do this without him? Won’t I need him there?  Then I reminded myself, I lived a pretty routine life for 25 years before I met him,…

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Voices at the Bottom

Life Lessons

When we go through dark seasons in our lives, there is a little voice that comes and whispers in our ears, “You are the only person going through this. You are alone. No one else will understand.” And so we withdraw from the world, and keep our problems to ourselves. The more people I meet who open up and share their stories with me, the more I realize there is ALWAYS someone else going through, or that has gone through, EXACTLY what you’re going through. You are never alone. That is a cleverly designed lie to drive you into shame, isolation and depression. Do not listen to that voice.

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