“Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly,...
I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what hopes have been dashed in your heart. I don’t know how desperate and confused you may feel. I don’t know how thin is the hope you’re clinging to or how obscured your view of God has become. Maybe you have forgotten what it feels like to experience peace. Maybe the tide always seems too high. And I’m so sorry. But I am confident of a few things for...
There are moments when all of us feel alone and forsaken, burdened “beyond our ability to endure” (2 Corinthians 1:8). Life can feel like way too much fo us. We cry out with the Psalmist: “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.” (Psa 22:11 ESV) In this Psalm, David goes on to vividly describe how he feels surrounded by attackers, how his “heart is like wax,” and his strength is dried...
My sweet neighbor and friend, Lila, died from complications from lung cancer this week. She was in her late seventies. She read this blog, encouraged me, and told me stories about her life and her grandchildren. She even came to my art opening last month at a little local shop. The first week we moved into the neighborhood, she came over with some roses she and her husband had grown in their backyard. She was a beautiful person and...
If you spend any time at all on Instagram or Pinterest (as I do), you’ll scroll past lots of cute saying about life–what matters, what it’s supposed to be like, and how it’s supposed to be lived. “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” “Your only limit is you.” “Be your own kind of beautiful.” “You are enough.” We scroll and absorb and then when real life smacks us in the face,...
Sometimes anxiety can be a lonely experience. “What are you worried about?” my husband will often ask. “I don’t know. It’s just everything all at once,” I usually say. Anyone else with me? It can be lonely to not even be able to express an internal struggle. I was worshipping with my church family on Sunday and struggling with some anxiety, finding it a hard to sing out and focus. I think God said to me, “I know. I...
Sometimes it’s hard to get on this blog and say encouraging things, whether from a place of my own personal trials or the ones I share with those I love. And yet, the good news is still good. I hear the Savior say, “Thy strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all.” It’s hard for me to reconcile the goodness of God and pain. My tendency is to push...
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and...
Between homeschool school and co-op, a craft fair and travel over the weekend, all manner of issues swirling around our country, and Fall allergy season kicking in, everything feels a bit “fuzzy” for me right now. There are things on my heart I’d like to share, but because “fuzziness” of the brain does not a great writer make, I’ll share these words from Romans 12 with you today and pray that God speaks truth to where you need it...
