My dear, sweet Cassie, I don’t even know how to start this letter. The tears sting my eyes already as I begin to think of all the emotion that is pent up inside me. It seems like just yesterday I learned I was having a baby girl. After two rough and tumble boys, I was…
Children raised in single parent families have the odds stacked against them. According to one study by BMC Public Health, children is single parent homes are more likely to end up in the lowest educational and socioeconomic regardless of parental status. Pretty sobering for those of us who raised our kids alone. Monday evening, I…
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2 Corinthians 1:4 It’s now been 11 years since my divorce, and closer to 14 years since the entire mess began. Hard to believe…
Tomorrow is Good Friday, and Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection are on my mind–as they should be. For some reason, my mind has been asking if Jesus died for the narcissist. Let me start by saying the term narcissist has become a choice description for anyone who is self-centered. I think we have to be…
“When you can’t see His hand, trust His heart.” This quote hangs on my wall near my living room as a daily reminder that our God is always at work, even when we can’t see it. I can look back over my life and see all the ways He was working in the background when…
Today, March 21, is National Single Parent Day. For many years, I had no idea there was such a day. For many years, I wouldn’t have cared that there was a Single Parent Day. But, after eight years as a single mom, I would like to take a few minutes just to explain what being…
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or…
Have I told you about my son’s pigs? When my son was in high school, he showed pigs. Yes, live, eating, drinking, pooping, smelly pigs. Cole decided to join Future Farmers of America (FFA) in the 8th grade, and he excelled! He showed pigs and sheep. He judged livestock. And he was surrounded by some…
If I have never told you, my daughter is an amazing vocalist. She joined choir as a sophomore, and she made the Oklahoma All-State Choir her first year. Now that she is a senior, she is the school’s only three-time all-stater. This week, we are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the OAKE National Honor Choir. Today,…
I read a Facebook post by a friend recently, and it absolutely broke my heart. In the post, he talked about all the ways he has been hurt by the Church. By the congregations that shamed him when his marriage fell apart. By the pastor who fired him when people responded to his message. By…
Gary Thomas has become one of my favorite authors and marriage mentors. There was a time when I didn’t feel this way, mostly because his book Sacred Marriage was used as a weapon to tell me I should have stayed in my marriage. While I agree that marriage is sacred and divorce should never be…
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to…