When Fear Comes Knocking

“Dad!” shouted a fearful small voice from the bedroom across the hall.   As my husband rolled out of bed, a glance at the clock glowed with a time well past midnight. Shadows. They have suddenly become sinister in the eyes of our child as they loom and...

It’s Ok to Be You

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…”  Isaiah 30:15 Not much in the world is harder than just “being,” that place of not striving to be more than you are. And yet, it should be the simplest of things. What draws us...

The Water’s Fine

It began when I was a Guppy. Growing up, summertime in Minnesota involved Vacation Bible School and trips to the lake to cool off. So it was only normal that my mom would enroll all four of us children in a summer swimming program, not only for our safety when we were...

An Ordinary Extraordinary Life/Lil’s Story

This is the latest article in our new series called “Every Heart has a Story to Tell.” As we head towards our first Thrive Conference this week, our desire is share how Your Story Matters! When I asked my neighbor, Lil, if I could interview her for this story she...

When You Decide to Choose Joy

We found my sister’s journals after her death, tucked in a bookshelf corner in the office she spent time dreaming in. Endlessly innovative, she spent hours haunting HomeGoods and perusing décor magazines, the journals yet another outlet for her creativity. When she...