Journey Archives - Page 2 of 4

Praising God Through Pain

It was mid-December, and we were in the throes of Christmas preparations. Each year I make a list of each person I want to give gifts to, plan a budget, and write out some ideas. I was studying the list, feeling completely overwhelmed that we could hardly afford gifts for our children let alone anyone else on the list. The days were counting down quickly, and it felt so hopeless. Our family was in a difficult financial situation, and this was just one more thing added to that list. The anxiety was coming over me like waves as I imagined Christmas morning with nothing under the tree.

In the darkness of this moment, I felt the Holy Spirit ask me, “Can you praise Me right now?” I was dumbfounded and just sat there as I considered the question. My ultra-convicting, brutally honest answer was,

It Was Today

It was today. I knew it was coming, but had no way of knowing this would be that day.

Backstory: We knew the diagnosis ten years ago when we adopted our son…Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). He was 7 weeks old, and due to biology and family history of Duchenne, genetic testing had already been completed. Two years later, we adopted his little brother, knowing the likelihood (50% chance) of him having the same diagnosis. After genetic testing was completed, we received confirmation that he also has Duchenne.

The formal definition of DMD

Living Intentionally With Your Family

Habits. Routines. Oh, how I have a love/hate relationship with those words.

You too?

For the longest time, habits and routines sounded boring and stiff. Yet, the older I’ve gotten the more I understand why habits and routines are so key for the health of my family.

You may be like how I was, and sometimes still am, where I feel like life is happening more to me than I am making life happen. Things pop up on my schedule that I don’t remember putting there or don’t find fulfillment in. A month

Marriage Matters

This is what I’ve learned about marriage in my 13 years as a spouse. It isn’t always easy.

You take two people from entirely different backgrounds and place them into a home together. Each has a different job, social circle, friends, and hobbies before entering each other’s orbit. You have two separate lives coming into one. That is supposed to be picture-perfect and run smoothly. According to the world, yes.

The world tells us it should be easy, and if it’s not…

Well, if it's not perfect you can just try again. The world will tell you it’s okay, give up

The Importance of Community with Other Moms

Motherhood is one of God’s highest callings and greatest gifts. Those of us who have the vocation of mother have the joy, privilege and responsibility of raising little soldiers for the Kingdom: teaching and training our children in the faith, loving them with the love God has for us, and walking alongside our husbands and God Himself as we help raise our children into men and women of God.

This joy and gift is not without its struggles, as any mother well knows. Some days the task of motherhood seems challenging. Other days it feels downright impossible. And there are dozens

Home is Where Your Heart Is

Lately, home is quite often on my mind. For the past 10 months, my husband and I have traveled to visit churches in order to share about God’s ministry to the Subula of Cameroon. While this time has blessed the both of us meeting so many of Christ’s faithful across the country, life on the road has meant less time at our home in Concordia, MO (and with our beloved pup Fig). These last couple of years, our time in this place building a life as newlyweds has had its ups and downs but it will still always be our first home.

As a former homeschooled kid, home has always meant a great deal to me. For so many years, my life was centered in the home, in a house I shared

God in the Midst of Motherhood

Almost exactly a year ago my first child was removed from my body. There were no joyful nurses, no cries of new life, just a handful of somber medical staff performing a D&C to remove the 9-week-old baby who had passed away in my womb.

We named our child Eden as a reminder that God would one day restore his creation to perfection and unite us in resurrection.

As I grieved our precious baby, I wrote about this experience to help myself process the loss. I delved into what the scriptures say about unborn life and found comfort in God's mercy.

A Season to Bloom, A Season to Grow

Spring flowers blooming is one of the most welcome sights after a long winter! There are so many phrases that we hear about blooming. “Late bloomer” was one from years ago if a child took a little more time to learn how to walk, talk, or read. Today you may be more likely to see a post on social media of two plants talking back and forth. Usually one looks forlorn about the other blooming first or differently and the first one replies by saying something like, “We’re different plants, Silly.” Another popular mantra you might have heard is, “Bloom where you're planted.” But what does it mean to bloom?

In our world one could argue that to bloom would

Feeling God’s Peace Living with Chronic Pain

My own journey with chronic pain started when I was around fourteen. I started to notice my back would feel stiff and sore if I stood for longer than a half hour or sat in certain positions, like in the car. But I brushed it off. I honestly didn’t know that having back pain was out of the ordinary - it was just so common for me. As a junior in high school, I learned that my back pain was NOT normal… it was caused by severe scoliosis.

Even after major surgery to correct my curve, the pain continued. I can’t remember a day since then that I haven’t experienced pain and discomfort in my spine which often spreads to my hips as well. Over the years, I’ve grappled with accepting that

A Lifestyle of Doing Transformed into a Lifestyle of Being

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s one of the first questions people ask us as little children. Truth be told, it doesn’t seem to matter very much what the answer is. Teacher? Doctor? Dinosaur hunter? The important thing seems to be that, even at three or four years old, we are already figuring out who we are as individuals and forging our paths into adulthood. As we age, we are met with advice to find ourselves, and if we try that for a while we might start to categorize ourselves. We might be free spirits, or businesswomen, or life-long learners, or homemakers. We start throwing our enneagram type and our horoscope into the mix, desperately trying to sort out and define what