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Help, I Feel Like I Don’t Fit in
The scents of vanilla bean body spray and cherry blossom lotion waft through the door before I even enter the room. I hear them laughing, talking about children, and discussing essential oils as I pass through the threshold. It’s my first meeting with the Moms’ Group, and familiar anxiety rises in my chest. I wonder where I’ll sit and immediately feel like I don’t fit in here. I scan the room as I wait in line to fill out my nametag. My box-like letters look like they were penned by an eight-year-old boy, while the other women etch their letters with elegant calligraphy. Awesome. Why did I not take cursive…
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10 Biblical Affirmations for Kids of All Ages
Not long ago, our family endured a moment that reminded me of the importance of speaking biblical affirmations over our kids. Join us in the backyard, and we’ll talk about teaching our kids to stand on their identities in Christ. Biblical Affirmations for Your Kids I’m not thinking about developing my daughter’s identity in Christ when it happens. It’s a balmy August evening, and rays of sinking sun shine white on the lawn as we finish dinner on the deck. Darrell offers to take the kids to the yard while I clean up. In no time, the hose is squirting water into the sky, and rainbows dance over the grass. …
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Hope for Your Hidden Pain and Unspoken Struggles
Our kids looked adorable together, and someone said something about taking a photo. It was after the comment about how they’ll look nice together at prom someday that his eyes filled with embarrassed tears. He buried his face in his mom’s hip and wiped them away on the hem of her shirt. The moment got me thinking about our hidden pain in life. I understood the little guy’s struggle. I hid my tears throughout most of my childhood too. No one ever made fun of me for crying. I simply thought I needed to appear strong. All the time. The Truth About Hidden Pain We all have struggles and weaknesses.…
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Be the Real You: 5 Reasons to Be Authentic
Do you ever feel like you won’t fit in if you decide to be the real you? Last summer, I drove eight hours to attend a conference with a large group of talented female writers. I walked into the hotel where I would be staying on a scorching July evening, and every woman in the foyer looked poised, gorgeous, and entirely put-together. I looked like I’d just run five miles and then hopped in the car and driven for eight straight hours. Suddenly, I noticed the distance between the woman I sensed I ought to be and the woman I actually am. (Click here to read about this moment.) Most…
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Why Is It Important to Know Your Identity in Christ?
I recently went to lunch with a friend who asked me a life-changing question. We were talking about finding our worth in God when she looked into my eyes and asked, “Why is it important to know your identity in Christ?” She then shared that she didn’t truly know what it meant to find her identity in Jesus. I told her about a difficult time in my life when God taught me how to find my identity in him. (You can read about it here.) Then, we discussed why it’s important to find our identities in Christ. Why Is It Important to Know Your Identity in Christ? Ultimately, knowing who…
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8 Bible Verses About Courage for Your Insecure Moments
The thick Carolina air presses on my lungs like I’m caught in a stranglehold. Running along this wooded path, I wonder if I have what it takes to do what God has called me to do. I try to conjure up some Bible verses about courage, but I come up empty. Lavender thistle blossoms bow and rise in unison, and yet there is no breeze. They must be praising their Maker. I join them, and the heaviness in my chest seems to lift. Perhaps it wasn’t the Carolina heat strangling me after all. I’ve been wrestling hard this weekend. I’ve wrestled with the realization that I am different than the…
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10 Empowering Bible Verses About Identity in Christ
Our daughter, Bekah, asks for a mother-daughter date, and I take her to the lake on a cloudless afternoon. I’ve been feeling less than in pretty much every area of my life lately, and I slip my Bible into our bag with hopes for a few quiet moments to soak in some Bible verses about identity in Christ. Perhaps you need this, too. Maybe you’ve been feeling wounded by the world, and you need God to remind you of your unchanging identity in Christ. Today, I invite you to join us at the lake. I’ll share my heartwarming conversation with Bekah, and then we will dig into 10 empowering Bible…
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Feeling Left Out? This Is for You . . .
I open the refrigerator in search of milk, but the sticker on the door catches my eye. It reads, “Star Student Award.” The white paper is creased and is very well-loved. The little girl who earned this sticker was feeling left out until the day the teacher handed her the sticker. She wore it for two days. The day she earned the sticker, she bounced off the school bus in the blazing heat with a fleece jacket over her shirt. She said she wanted to surprise me. She ripped the coat wide open to unveil the prize she’d been longing for all year: the principal’s star student award. My sweet…
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Go Ahead and Wear Your Fat Pants: How to Love Your Body the Way it is
Don’t pretend you don’t exactly which pair I’m talking about. I have them. You have them. They sit folded in the bottom dresser drawer, and we only break them out when our winter waistlines increase, in week seventeen of our pregnancies, when going to visit our grandmothers, or when we just want to be comfortable for once! Yes, they are our precious fat pants, and if you’re like me, you have a love-hate relationship with these pants. I’m learning to embrace the skinny jean trend. My favorite thing about skinny jeans is that the bottom of my pant legs don’t drag on the wet cement of parking lots, and they…
