I have a lot of nerve with this blog post title, as if I’m an expert or something. So, let me be clear that I had one successful moment handling my anger a few nights ago that I’m going to tell you about. As a teacher, I know that sometimes when trying to learn something, if you can get a… Read More
Giving Others the Gift of Neutral Beginnings
A few months ago, I made the 12-hour drive from northern Montana, to visit my mom in central Wyoming. On the way, I needed to make a pit stop but was in the middle of a Native-American reservation. I felt nervous to stop but finally made a desperate decision to pull into a gas station. As I walked in and… Read More
Finding the Courage and Strength to Keep Going
Only a week into this new year, and we’re already facing hard circumstances. The news of turmoil and the ongoing Covid crisis creates a sandwich, with our own personal problems in the middle. Turning the calendar page did not change the fact that we live in a broken world. At my normal 3:00 a.m. lie-awake-and-worry-about-everything hour last night, I could… Read More
Permission to Groan Your Way into a New Year
My squirmy, eight-month-old grandson was playing in my lap while his momma was taking a much-needed rest. I had my Bible open next to me and was attempting to memorize the passage of Scripture that was my devotional reading for the day. (Side note: kudos to moms with littles who make any attempt to reach out for God during your… Read More
Longing for Relief in a Broken World
We live in a high-end neighborhood in our town. This is the place where you want to go to garage sales and take your kids trick-or-treating, because you know you’re going to get good stuff. We live with my mother-in-law and her sister, and I’m always thinking to myself, We’re not the kind of people who can afford to live… Read More
How to Disagree with Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ
I walked the loop of our neighborhood last week, before going to church for the evening. Stress had been running high in my life, to the point that I was breaking out in hives, and I needed to take a mile to remember to breathe. But I passed by a house on the north end that was flying full democratic… Read More
Walking through the Rubble of 2020
It was better than Hallmark, when Matt and I left the Global Leadership Summit in August and he looked at me and said, “Part of our conference experience needs to be that we each go home and order one of the books that was mentioned by a speaker and that sounds intriguing.” I swooned. He totally gets me. And so… Read More
You Know You Need Counseling If
Some of you have had weekly private sessions with a professional counselor, because you realized you needed help. I had to marry my counselor. “Matthew, L.C.P.C. (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor), do you take Christy, H.M. (hot mess), to be your lawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to love and cherish her, in mental and emotional instability and in health?” He… Read More
Language Choice: Your Greatest Freedom
Let me preface this article by saying that I just took a personal assessment that described me as being someone who always starts with the question, “What is the right thing to do?” Funny, because I said those exact words to Matt before we went to sleep last night. I said, “I so desperately need the truth about what’s happening… Read More
Seven Ways A Reasonable Person Can Navigate Current Racial Tensions
I paid $15.00 for a three-shelf unit for our garage. It was light enough that I could carry the box home in one hand. When I opened it and slid out the parts, there were several bags of varying kinds of pipes and screws labeled A through J. Seriously? I had to lay it all out on the floor and… Read More