Do you ever think of God as stingy? Do you focus on the things that He hasn’t given you? The opening scene of Genesis shows us a different view of God. As we see the waters teaming with life and the birds filling the sky and plants popping up everywhere from the...
Is gender a social construct? And what does it mean to bear God’s image? And how are the two related? The earliest pages of our Bible begin to answer these questions, as we watch our origin story unfold in Genesis 1-3. I’m so thankful to have my friend...
Meg is twenty-six and has gone to church all her life. She loves Jesus and lives with her boyfriend. She also serves in children’s ministry at her church and attends a women’s small group Bible study. Meg knows that the Bible has some things to say about...
How are the chairs arranged, when discipleship happens in your women’s ministry? Are the chairs arranged in Rows, facing a teacher at the front? Are the chairs gathered in Circles, where small groups of women gather? Or is there a single Chair, where a woman...
This is a photo of the puzzle I just threw out. (You can watch on Instagram.) Why did I throw away my unfinished puzzled? Because I used up all the pieces in my box and (as you can see), there were LOTs of pieces missing. I always store our puzzles on foam boards...
There’s something in a boy that is magically drawn to the concept of manhood. It’s in his DNA. Instinctively he knows that manhood is what he was made for. With shoulders back and muscles flexed, he embraces the challenge of becoming a man. He dreams of...
I read a blog post last week titled, “If I Had a Dollar (Why I Am a Feminist)”. It has 373 comments so far. 372 of the comments are about how powerful and touching it was. Mine was the other one. Not that I think it wasn’t powerful or touching;...
Dedicated to my friends at Thornapple MOPS. :)I’ll never forget the Hazens. We knew their family when we had preschoolers and babies. They had big, burly boys, who absolutely loved my kids–especially our new baby, Cade. They would ask to hold him, and...
A few years ago, I spoke at a moms group on the topic of ‘beauty’. While I planned to speak mostly about inner beauty, I didn’t want to seem completely disqualified to present the topic! So, in front of my mirror that morning, I tried to muster all the beauty I...
I noticed something about the couple sitting down the row from us in church last week. He kept whispering little things in her ear and she kept smiling. Their interaction was subtle, not distracting, but very sweet. Though she didn’t laugh out loud, it was clear that...