Bloom!

Happy Autumn, ladies!  Check out these links below to boost your weekend! Ways to Serve Looking for a way to actively live out your faith this fall?  Author and speaker Leslie Ludy has a wonderful and encouraging site called "Set Apart Girl" that has some great resources here to help you get started! Pumpkin Bread Need a dessert with fall flair to serve at church, a Bible study, or at home?  Look no further than this scrumptious pumpkin bread recipe, a favorite in my family!  The original recipe makes three loaves (great for freezing), but you can change the servings easily on the site. The Briefing Recently a friend told me about this fantastic podcast by Dr. Albert Mohler, The Briefing.  In a world where chaos seems to becoming increasingly the norm, along with a huge deficiency in Biblical wordview and standards, Dr. Mohler's podcast is a refreshing and welcome one!  Each weekday, Dr. Mohler takes some of the top world news of the day and filters it thr

{This is the third installment in my Reflections from Cambodia .  Be sure to check out part one and part two .} Kim’s face is filled with regret.   He speaks in English, stumbling over his second language.   He profusely apologizes over and over.   I simply accept it and smile gently.   My friends do the same.   I nod and assure him it’s okay.   He apologizes again that the hostel got my reservations wrong.   That we don’t have a place to stay.   He tips his head down, eyes downcast, waiting. He expects me to scold.   To rage and yell and threaten.   I see it in his eyes.   He expects me to do all that because I’m a foreigner and from his experience, that’s what foreigners do in Cambodia. But I’m not just a foreigner – I’m also a Christ follower.   I seek to follow His example in each part of my life.   I’m not perfect.   Far from it.   But I follow the Spirit’s leading this day, calmly accepting his apology and telling him I’m not angry. His head slowly raises.  

When we first developed the Heroines of History series, our goal showcase the lives of faithful women, that together we may be inspired and encouraged to live a life closer to Christ. Yet, do you ever look at these stories as a check list, and think that what makes these women remarkable is their actions? She started an orphanage. She rescued kids from slavery. She moved to dangerous places as a missionary.  Impressive, impressive, impressive.  I've made that mistake, too. But my sweet sisters, today I simply want to remind you that their lives, and our lives, matter not because of what we do but who we are and the faith we have.  What matters is not how public our lives are, whether anyone ever oohs and aahs over something that we accomplish. Yet I know how much of a struggle it can be to believe that, especially in a world that is so performance-based, and especially if you battle perfectionism as I do.  This past spring, both Joanna and I were super sick