I could write a generic story about how we are soldiers for God and how Hearts of Beauty weekend is like boot camp, tearing you down, then building you up, but, the best writing is like a strip of scotch tape–transparent. So, (sigh), here goes… It’s really difficult to watch the blessings fall down on others like rain and you feel like you are in a drought. I have told friends, “Don’t worry, God is in the blessing business.” But in the back of my mind, I would say. “Except me.” I… Read More

Over a year ago, I found myself penning a single cross on my left wrist daily. Some former cutters do this to show they are now transformed into a new creation in Christ. I began doing it for a different reason. I wanted a daily reminder that it’s ok to be broken, imperfect. That Christ came to allow Himself to be broken for me. That somehow He presses into my broken mess and brings something beautiful out of it. “And Jesus took the bread and broke it, saying this is my body,… Read More

I really enjoy good wine! I grew up in California, maybe that’s it? Maybe it’s because I really love food…GOOD food paired with GOOD wine! To me, good food and wine is a wonderful part of the abundant life that Jesus has provided for us. Even in the old covenant, King Solomon said that we should eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all our labor- this is the gift of God. (Ecc 3:13) How much more should we be able to enjoy life now, as partakers of the new covenant? Back… Read More

Two weeks ago, my breakfast area, and eventually the rest of my downstairs, became a sheep’s pen. Literally. My daughters are apart of a 4H program at a local farm, at which they raise dairy sheep and goats. As a 4H project, “the horse lady” as she is affectionately called, allows the children to foster baby lambs during lambing season with the purpose of training the lambs to eat from what is called a lamb bar. It’s a bucket filled with formula with nipples stuck in the sides. Straws from the nipples… Read More

The girl was sad. Her stepfather was drunk again and the whole apartment was smothered by fumes of alcohol. His increasing drunken shouts, like the background music, bounced around the girls’ mind. It was her birthday and her mother had made salads and dressed the cake. She was dressed up and waiting for classmates who were invited to the party. But while the clock unceasingly walked forward, and the stepfather become irrevocably more drunk she got smothered by even more complete and horrendous throbbing; the realization that nobody was coming. Any bursting… Read More