Nov 4th, 2016

Three years ago on this day, I sat on my living room couch in my snack-stained bathrobe and messy bedhead bun – on what should have been one of the happiest days of my life – only feeling confused and disappointed. I remember thinking, this is not at all what I imagined this would be like. I thought I would feel…..different. I thought I would feel something at least. Anything but the way I did. It was launch day for my first book, Now What? A Story of Broken Dreams and the God Who Restores Them. This was the culmination of a six-year journey. The achievement of a dream I had held in…

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What to do with the Death of a Dream

Have you ever given up on a dream? Has life ever beaten you up or beaten you down so badly, you felt it was pointless to believe in a better or different future? In my book Now What? A Story of Broken Dreams and the God Who Restores Them, I talk about how after my divorce in 2011, I felt like my life was ruined. Like I had blown my chance at the dream life I pictured in my head, by mistakenly marrying the wrong person, and would just have to settle for whatever second-rate existence I could get from thereon. A divorce is not only the death of a relationship, but the…

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The Year God Stopped Talking to Me

New year’s day 2016 I sat on my living room couch, face red-stained and eyes puffy from hours of crying, my voice half-strained from screaming – at God – in particularly colorful language at times. Why? Because it was New Year’s Day and as I sat down to reflect on the previous year and craft my plans and goals for the next, I realized 2015…..Well…..sucked. Sure there were good things in 2015.  In fact, on the outside it looked like a GREAT year: We bought our first house. Barry left his job where he was miserable and went into business with his Dad. We took my my mom on an incredible trip to…

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Deserts

Lately I’ve been feeling….dry. And by “lately” I mean for like the last 6 months. And by “dry” I mean a little dead on the inside. Spiritually. I have heard about spiritual desert seasons people go through. When they feel distant from God. And I’ve seen the cheesy church signs that say things like: “Feeling distant from God? Who moved – you or Him?” Thanks for that extra guilt and shame, church sign.  In a time when I already feel lost and confused. The fact of the matter is, I have been marching steadily toward the purpose and the mission to which God has called me. Not away from it or Him. So…

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The List

When I was 16, some well-meaning mentors of mine recommended I make a list of the things I absolutely wanted in my husband, from physical attributes to character traits. Four typed pages and 160 bullet points later, I had what a “perfect spouse” looked like to me down on paper. Things like: 2-5 years older than me, 5’8” to 6’2” tall, dark and moderately-short styled hair, nice abs, no visible tattoos or piercings, strong Christian example & leader (or striving to become), passionate with a clear, concise dream/goal/calling, makes me laugh, takes me on picnics, notices & remembers “the little things”…. you get the point. Some valid, some negligible, some ridiculously adolescent. The…

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