Category: family
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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…
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The Isolated Are Devoured
Why We Cannot Survive Without Family, Community, or the Body of Christ. There comes a moment in every life when the weight becomes too heavy, the silence too loud, and the loneliness too sharp to ignore. A moment when even the strongest among us feel the ground give way beneath our feet. It is in…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: When Hate Mocks the Song
“And in despair I bowed my head: ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said, ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men.’” There comes a moment in every person’s life when the weight of the world finally breaks through the outer shell we’ve tried so hard…
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The Generation That Forgot Its Blessings
There’s a strange mindset rising among today’s under-25 generation. I see it everywhere—online, in conversations, in the cultural undertone of this era. Many believe that the Baby Boomers “had it easy,” that their childhoods were somehow freer, simpler, and better than the lives young people experience today. They envy that freedom, imagining sunlit streets, barefoot…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day: When Feelings Deceive and History Speaks
“I thought how, as the day had come, The belfries of all Christendom Had rolled along th’unbroken song Of peace on earth, good will to men.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Longfellow thought — and with that word alone, you can feel the weight of his grief bending the pen in his hand. Thoughts born out…
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🌾 The Grace of Ordinary Days: Finding Gratitude in the Weight and Wonder of Life’s Storms
This past year has taught me more about thankfulness than perhaps any other season of my life. Not the easy kind of gratitude — the one that flows naturally when everything’s going right — but the kind that aches in your chest and trembles through your prayers. The kind that whispers, “Thank You, God,” even…
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🔔 I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — The Sound of a Nation Divided
“I heard the bells on Christmas day, Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow There’s something haunting about those words — written in a time when the world had grown weary of bloodshed. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned them amid…
Country Girl Gone City 