A patriotic charcuterie board is a simple and festive addition to your holiday celebrations. Whether you are having a Labor Day or Memorial Day picnic, a Fourth of July swim party, or an election watch party, you can’t go wrong with a delicious tray of cheeses, meats, olives, nuts, and fruits. This year we decided to change it up by adding a yummy Blueberry Goat Cheese Dip. Board IngredientsBlueberry Goat Cheese Dip (recipe follows)4 provolone slices1 cup pistachios in the shell½ cup olives24 ... [keep reading]
What the Lord’s Prayer teaches us about God and ourselves
The topic and practice of prayer is a matter of significant value and worth, but it is so often neglected for other things that vie for our attention. Sometimes praying can seem difficult and distant, but it is vital to our relationship with God. The Lord’s Prayer was given to born again believers to draw us into a worshipful, dependent, grateful, and trusting relationship with God. Divided into two parts, it is a brief, yet comprehensive guide that teaches us how to pray properly. The first ... [keep reading]
When you don’t have all the answers
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. ACTS 4:13 In the fall of 2009, I pulled into an unfamiliar church parking lot to attend an unfamiliar thing called a Bible study. As a newlywed and a new believer, I was looking for ways to meet other women in our area and grow in my walk with the Lord. Since my husband and I hadn’t settled on a church quite yet, ... [keep reading]
How the Holy Spirit can strengthen you every day
Living the Christian life in your own strength is an impossible task. Have you ever felt defeated, powerless, or struggling to overcome the same temptations? You and I need the Holy Spirit’s help. Jesus said in John 14:16-17 (NKJV), “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in ... [keep reading]
Why skills, not rules, lead to better, lasting health
Back in the early 2000s, we were two sisters in the woods of Tennessee, raising our two households of kids and trying to figure out how to be healthy. Like so many women, we tried every diet that promised an answer. Plant-based gurus told us to drop animal foods, so we did, and slowly grew deficient. Low-carb voices told us to drop the bread, so we did, and quickly grew exhausted. We juiced, choked down meals nobody wanted to eat, and burned through stacks of diet books that all contradicted ... [keep reading]
7 tips for when you feel like you’ve failed as a mom
Do you doubt yourself as a mother? Your ability to choose rightly? To stay the course? To set a righteous example for the kiddos you love more than life itself? To avoid shooting yourself in the foot? Well, join the club of Christian Sisters Who Make Our Lives Hard with Poor Life Choices but Also Know God’s Grace Is Sufficient for Our Sin (that would make one doozy of an acronym, I realize—I’ll work on it). Remember, we are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), which means His power ... [keep reading]
People make terrible gods—here’s where your confidence should go instead
The older I get, the less I know and the more I realize most everyone knows less than I thought they did. It’s a little shocking to get to middle age and realize older people aren’t always as wise as you assumed. Throughout the years, Psalm 146:3 has been a powerful reminder to me. It says, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” The beautiful people around us—leaders, friends, parents and pastors—are all gifts from the Lord. But they make terrible ... [keep reading]
Fighting pesky weeds? Save hours of work with these easy tips
I grew up in the 1960s, and my oldest sister fell in love with the “back to the land” movement, so she diligently kept a large vegetable and herb garden growing, and we regularly ate meals that included her organic produce. Our grandparents kept us supplied with tree fruit and nuts. I believe that this clean eating contributed to our general well-being—we rarely got sick. But when we hurt ourselves or got a cold or the flu, Mom and Dad were on the job, and doctor’s bills were practically ... [keep reading]
Anxiety is not your enemy: 3 questions to help you rethink it
Anxiety. Physically, it’s miserable. Emotionally, overwhelming. Relationally, disruptive. And the accompanying thoughts? They can absolutely hijack your mind. A mild concern of I hope they are safe traveling can spiral into intrusive images of the worst possible scenarios. Waiting for routine lab results can plummet into fears of incurable disease. Yet, when you share what you’re going through, perhaps you’ve been met with hurtful responses that minimize ... [keep reading]
What rest requires of us (and why it’s worth it)
My mom loves shopping. Scratch that—my mom loves a good deal. This is great when it comes to making wise purchasing decisions, like waiting for a couch to go on sale or scouring Craigslist for gentlyused American Girl dolls for her granddaughters instead of buying them brand new. But take a look at her overflowing closet and you’ll quickly see that a markdown on a price tag has tempted her one too many times. Last year, she asked my sisters and me to come help her purge her cluttered closet. ... [keep reading]
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