TICK. TICK. TICK. Today is the LAST day of CHRISTMAS IN JULY. But is there ever a LAST DAY OF JESUS? Hmm. Think about it. Was the CROSS HIS LAST DAY when HE said, "IT IS FINISHED?" Was the TOMB HIS LAST stop when the stone was rolled into place? It certainly looked like the end. But what appeared to be HIS LAST DAY became our FIRST DAY. Because HE ROSE. The tomb was empty. Death was defeated. And JESUS was ALIVE. So where is JESUS today? HE IS HERE. CHRISTMAS IN JULY may b

My husband is THE SECOND. I am THE SECOND. My son is THE SECOND. And today, we celebrate the birthday of our son's SECOND. Five years have passed, yet it still feels like yesterday. Oh, the miracle of BIRTH. I can still picture the moment Hudson entered this world. And now my "little boy" is holding his own little boy. What a beautiful reminder that we are simply vessels of GOD. HE entrusts these precious little lives into our care, yet HE never asks us to care for them in ou

Do you shy from being VULNERABLE? Because what if you SHOW UP as your REAL VULNERABLE self? What will THEY say? What will THEY think? What will THEY do? Is it worth the RISK of being VULNERABLE? VULNERABILITY means "the quality of being easily hurt or attacked, or the state of being open to injury" (Oxford Dictionary). Who is your THEY? There was a time when my THEY was actually GOD. I was afraid to be VULNERABLE with HIM. I BELIEVED that if I was VULNERABLE with GOD,

I remember as soon as she saw me, she greeted me with a hug and a smile that came from deep within her HEART. Then she handed me a picture she had colored just for me. A turkey. I will never look at a turkey the same way again. As we waited for our food, we made paper boats out of napkins. Then somehow the napkins turned into butterflies. Then came rock, paper, scissors. A turkey. A paper boat. A butterfly. A CHILD. And a simple night that became tattooed on my HEART. Because

What if all you had was JESUS? Would HE be enough? Oh, you may quickly say, YES! Of course! Because that sounds like the right CHRISTIAN answer. But what if the answer is actually... NO. Because JESUS isn't JUST ENOUGH. HE is so much more than enough. HE IS EVERYTHING. Think about it. ENOUGH means adequate, sufficient, satisfactory. But EVERYTHING means ALL. WHOLE. ENTIRETY. So would you rather have ENOUGH or EVERYTHING? From the very beginning, humanity needed more than a te

Once upon a time, there were two women. They both had a baby son. One baby died. One baby lived. During the night, the mother whose baby had died switched the babies while the other mother was sleeping. When morning came, the mother awoke and found a dead baby beside her. But when she looked closely, she knew that THIS WAS NOT HER SON. THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE! The two women went before King Solomon. The mother of the living baby pleaded her case~ "During the night this wo

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY may be the title of a movie, but it is oh, so much more than that. Because IT is where you and I are LIVING right now. LIVING IN THE MIDDLE. From your ONCE UPON A TIME, when GOD knitted you together in your mother's womb, to ETERNITY, where you will live forever and ever and ever and ever... Think about that. YOU WILL NEVERCEASE TO EXIST. From this moment to your last breath on earth, your story does not end. JESUS said, "I am the resurrection and the li

I read a sign with the words, LIFE IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL! As I thought about those words, I realized I believe just the opposite. LIFE IS A DRESS REHEARSAL. Think about it. A DRESS REHEARSAL is about preparing for what is still to come. It is about practice. REAL CHANGE. Learning. Growing. Becoming. "Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the GOD of peace will be with you"(Philippians 4:9). A DRES

I hear THE SILENCE of the morning, and the ringing in my ears. I want GOD to do what I love when HE does it. I want HIM to speak. To whisper. To reveal something I have never seen before. Instead, there is SILENCE. But perhaps THE SILENCE is exactly what HE wants me to hear. It is the BE STILL kind of SILENCE. I don't "feel" that HE is here. Yet, I know HE is. Sometimes THE SILENCE can feel deafening, especially when I have purposely set aside time to meet with GOD. HE seems

There it was. The Shining Moon, piercing through the remnants of night. In a matter of time the Sun would take over to shed its LIGHT. * LIGHT in the darkness, LIGHT in the day~ LIGHT never sleeps, as it points the way. No matter how dark, THE LIGHT is always there~ The Moon & the Sun are the brightest pair. * But there is a LIGHT that never grows dim~ Because it is THE TRUTH and THE WAY that lives within. In our hearts and our minds, even on the darkest of dark~ This LIGHT f