Recently, my friend Dee called me. Several years had passed since I saw her last. Hearing her voice after so long filled me with delight as it reminded me of my previous local church. On the outside, we couldn’t be more different than one another—her life was completely opposite from mine. She’s an older white […]

Have you ever felt left out? Excluded? Maybe even abandoned? Whether it’s a childhood best friend who suddenly dumped you, a high school romance that went awry, a parent who walked out, or a husband who broke his vows, most of us have experienced some form of abandonment. And in that moment, it can feel […]

This article is part of the Preach the Gospel to Yourself Article Challenge. We know that phrases like “preach the gospel to yourself” are used so frequently in Christian circles that they can become Christian gobbly gook. You kind of get what it means, but don’t know how to actually do it. This series of […]

It happened again.  I was standing in church wrangling four kids when a well-meaning lady commented, “God bless your family for what you’re doing for those kids.” I looked up at her briefly and then back at my kids (two of which were transracially adopted). I knew immediately that she was praising our involvement in […]

[This week we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of The Well-Watered Woman! In this article originally posted on book launch day, Gretchen reminds us that looking forward to the end provides hope for the hard middle and the everyday mundane. Read on to find out why she needed these specific truths as she labored through each […]