A Deeper Gratitude Every Thanksgiving, the tradition of going around the table and proclaiming thanks one by one leaves me feeling frustrated. Why does this practice feel empty and insufficient to me? I think it’s because thankfulness, as a sinner-made-saint, demands an understanding of gratitude far beyond a last-minute toss-up. And so I search my […]

Overwhelmed With Debt It started out slow. A shopping day here, a weekend trip there, and then it got out of hand. No matter what I did or how much money I threw at them, the numbers only got bigger. And scarier. About six months ago, I confessed to my community group that I was […]

Jesus and My Past Sometimes my past haunts me. I’ve been a believer for nearly ten years and barely recognize the woman I was before Jesus plucked me out of darkness and gave me a new heart. Yet, in the quiet hours of the night when sleep is nowhere to be found, I see her. […]

What Is Toxic? I’ve seen and heard a word floating around increasingly the past couple of years describing others: toxic. It is used to describe friendships and romantic relationships and family dynamics. In essence, it’s another way of saying a relationship is really unhealthy or dangerous.  But here’s the problem: the definition of what a […]

Meaningful Moments After Miscarriage It was only a couple of weeks after our first miscarriage. I was leaving the church bathroom on my way to pick up my son from the nursery. A fellow mom I barely knew stopped me at the door. “Hi Lara,” she said. She had that sympathetic tilt to her head […]