I didn’t grow up with it, this Advent thing… this word whose root means to come, to arrive. If you look it up, you’ll get “the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.” I didn’t grow up with the traditions and rituals of this season where we count down and prepare for the arrival… Read More Prepare for the Preparing: Getting Ready for Advent
My friend prayed over me after I shared my heart with her, the things I’ve been struggling with this week. She prayed these words “Lord, Janise is living in a not-yet space…” Isn’t that the truth. I have hope for what God can do, but I am not there yet, in the impossible possible of our… Read More When You’re Tired of Being a Bad-ass Living in the Not-Yet Spaces: Words of Hope from the Longest Prayer in the Bible
So if you haven’t noticed, Facebook and Instagram have been flooded this week with pictures of kids, and quite a few adults, dressed up as their favorite characters for the festivities of Halloween. As a mom of a boy going on almost five years now, it doesn’t surprise me anymore by how many boys are… Read More When You Need to Know You are Not Fighting a Losing Battle: The Hope of Isaiah 54:17
There are hardly words for last week. For the violence we witnessed last Sunday. Lives ripped apart by gunfire. A festive concert turned into a nightmare. What do you say, what do you do in light of such horror? And where is God in all of it? I am sure that wasn’t all your week held… Read More Reminding God to Remember – When it Feels Like God has Forgotten Us
We stood there waiting for the bus. She asks innocently, “How was your day?” For a moment I think, “Just say fine,” but truth is it wasn’t fine. “Oh, it’s been a hard day.” I say with a tired smile. I don’t even really have the energy to go into it, the hard of my… Read More The Sun Will Set… When You Just Need to Know that a Day Will Have an End
At 10:30 pm a year ago today I look at my husband while leaning over our bed, breathing deep, and said to him, “We’re not going to make it!!” I was in labor. I knew this was it! Our girl was coming. And while I knew I was in labor, I could also tell that this… Read More The Difference a Day Makes: A Control Freak Learning a Lesson in Giving up Control
“Just give me a moment.” I say it all the time to my kids. My kids who always seem to have an urgent need that can’t wait. “Mom! MOM! Where are you?” And I think, “Can’t I just have a moment here please.” I’m usually in the middle of something… making dinner, trying to stay… Read More Take a Moment
So, I am training for a half marathon. There. I’ve said it. It’s out there now. I have been toying with the idea for a while. One of those turning 40 things that people seem to be doing these days. But I’ve held the idea close to me. Because you see if I tell other… Read More You Are Farther Along than You Think: A Lesson from a Glitch in the Matrix
She screamed the first six months of her life any time she touched the water. This wasn’t a little protest. She screamed at the top of her lungs. She screamed that baby cry that sounds so desperate. You would think we were giving her a shot every time we tried to bathe her. I thought… Read More Loved Poured Out When We are Unaware: A Born and Raised Baptist’s Reflections on Why I Practice Infant Baptism
I was asked to come share part of my story to the 3rd-5th grade girls Sunday School class at my church as part of a summer dedicated to one generation of women sharing with another generation of soon to be women. So I told them a story of this little girl who never knew… Read More You Never Know What God Will Do: Sharing my Story to the Next Generation of God’s Masterpiece Women
