Blog - Page 7 of 7 - LUTHERWOMAN

Longing For Home

I didn’t plant flowers this year.

I always plant the flowers. In the 20+ years of home ownership, I would wait until May to plant annuals in the ground. Every year. But currently we are renting, and so I am not planting in the ground. Instead I have taken to making my little porch an oasis of flower pots. And I start planting pots in March, as soon as Lowes puts them out!

I love my porch.

But this year...I just wasn't feeling it in March. And April.

The Present Parent

If only parenting came with a “how-to” manual or a training guide. You can read all of the books out there on the market, and yet when that day comes, you may remember a nugget or two on the “how-to” that you’ve pocketed for later, but most likely, you’re going off of instinct. You start to just do. It’s trial and error day by day. This is what comes naturally.

However, there will be days you may think to yourself “Oh my goodness” …

-I totally failed
-That did not go as planned
-I’ve messed this kid/these kids up

Alone And Lonely…Even In A Crowd

I grew up in a large, tight-knit, homeschool family in Texas. When I went away to college it was the first time I had been to a “real school” since kindergarten. To call this transition a culture shock would be an understatement!

I was so excited for the new phase of my life. I was excited for the “college experience” and all that entails, and was thrilled to begin preparing for a career in ministry that I was so passionate about. I was also terrified to go to what felt like a “huge” school with so many people from around the country, and felt a lot of anxiety over leaving the people and places I was so familiar and comfortable with. I’m what people call an “ambivert”

Coping With Loneliness

When I was in college, I was blessed with an awesome group of girl friends. We lived as roommates and suitmates all four years of college and we were inseparable. It was the type of friend group that truly becomes like family. And I had friends in different groups on campus – including touring choir, campus ministry, pre-med club. I loved that whenever I walked across our small campus I would run into several friends to say hi to. I felt like I truly belonged to a strong and loving community.

All of that changed my senior year when the COVID pandemic began and I was forced to

Busyness Overload

I don’t know about you, but I tend to live life to the fullest.

Or rather, I fill my life too full. It’s an auto-pilot thing for me.

If I’ve got time, I’ve got space to fill that time.

Maybe you can relate, or maybe you view busyness in a slightly different way, but would still like to let go of some of what holds you captive. I mean, keeps you busy…

I once would have told you “There is no such thing as being too busy” or that “multitasking can add

The Hopeless And Desperate And Lonely Feeling Of Personal Debt

Late in my twenties I was drowning.

The water. It felt manageable.

Go deeper. I can handle it. It’s fine.

Soon all I could see is water.

Things got rough. Unexpected things started pulling me under.

The water was all around me, on top of me, in me. Who could help? No one was there. There seemed to be no way out.
I was drowning in debt.

How To Cultivate The Discipline Of Regular Bible Reading

When I look back through my old Bible study journals, it gives me some feelings of guilt, and I cringe when I see the gaps in dates, some of them weeks or months long. There have been times in my life where I was very consistent with Bible reading. I would keep up the habit for several weeks, or even a few months at a time. But then something would happen to make me stop, and a habit, once broken, is hard to restart.

My problem was not busyness, or lack of time, but a lack of discipline.

Discipline is such a good thing. In order to create any new good habits, we need discipline.

Spiritual Disciplines: The Active Pursuit Of God’s Purposes

There was a time in my life when it took me 20 minutes to walk a mile on the treadmill, and that was when I thought I was pushing myself. The first time I tried to do a push-up I face-planted on the floor. The first time I tried to make a budget I totally underestimated how much money I should set aside for gas and groceries. And then there was the time that I vowed to learn to eat healthy and then gagged on the vegetables I didn’t particularly care for.

All of these were things I thought I could just “start doing on Monday” and then excel at. As it turns out, I had to discipline myself to workout and eat healthy and make wise financial decisions.