Category: family
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Peace in the Storm: When the World Feels Too Loud to Choose
There is a kind of exhaustion that doesn’t come from doing too much, but from holding too much inside. It lives in the chest, tight and unmoving, formed by thoughts that never quite find words and decisions that never feel safe enough to make. For many young adults today, the world does not feel short…
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Peace in the Storm: Afraid to Choose
By the time Mara turned twenty-three, she had become very good at disappearing without leaving. She showed up online every day. Her face appeared in group photos, her name lit up in story views, her phone chimed with notifications from people who assumed proximity meant connection. But when it came time to speak or to…
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Tea Time with Mandy: Five Loaves, Two Fish, and a Midnight Knock
I didn’t write Peace in the Storm last week, and I want to tell you why. It wasn’t because the storm passed. Nor because the message no longer mattered. But because sometimes peace looks less like stillness and more like obedience that costs you sleep. Christmas morning found my family and I tired in a…
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Tea Time with Mandy: When Avoidance Looks Like Strength
Elizabeth Hunt had learned that grief did not always arrive with warning. At times it settled into her body before she had time to prepare, like those moments in the driver’s seat when the door was closed and the world waited just beyond reach. Her hands would rest on the steering wheel, fingers tightening just…
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Peace in the Storm: When Feeling Again Feels Like Drowning
The first thing I noticed was my breath or rather, the absence of it. I came back into myself gasping, lungs aching as though I had been underwater far longer than I realized. Fear followed immediately, sharp and disorienting, because with breath came awareness, and with awareness came feeling. I did not know how long…
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Tea Time with Mandy: A Pause in the Middle of the City
There are places in New York City where the noise does not disappear, but it changes character. Where urgency loosens its grip just enough to remind you that you are allowed to pause. Sant Ambroeus is one of those places. Outside, the city presses forward—crowds folding into one another beneath towering buildings, voices rising and…
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Tea Time with Mandy: The Empty Chair
Sarah hadn’t felt much of anything for a long time. The house was quiet that December afternoon—too quiet, the kind of quiet that grief lays over a home like a heavy blanket. Lights from the Christmas tree glowed softly across the dining room walls, yet nothing in the room felt warm. It had been over…
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Peace in the Storm: Taste and See That the Lord Is Good
Before you settle in, I want to invite you into a small ritual, one that warms the body and steadies the heart. Make yourself a cup of hot tea. If it’s morning or afternoon, I personally recommend Rooibos Red Tea with a splash of pomegranate and raspberry. It’s bright, soothing, and full of quiet strength.…
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Tea Time with Mandy: The Emerald Chandelier Tea Room
The Taste and See That the Lord Is Good Series. Part I There are moments when God invites us to slow down long enough to notice His goodness again. Stepping into The Emerald Chandelier Tea Room in Griffin, Georgia, felt like stepping into one of those moments. The morning sunlight filtered through floral draperies as…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: When the Bells Broke Through the Darkness
“Till, ringing, singing on its way… The world revolved from night to day.” There comes a point in every soul’s journey where despair whispers louder than truth. Where the night feels thicker than morning. Where the world seems too far gone to ever find its way back to peace. That’s where Longfellow was when he…
Country Girl Gone City 