Tag: family
-
Life’s Lessons: Power Under Control
There is a moment in every heated exchange when you can feel it rising. Your pulse quickens. Your thoughts sharpen. Words gather at the edge of your tongue, fully formed and ready. In those moments, using language can feel like swordplay. We parry. We defend. We anticipate the next move. We prepare to strike before…
-
Tea Time with Mandy: Trusting God With the Outcome
Before we begin, let’s slow the moment. Put the kettle on and make yourself a cozy cup of tea. I recommend Twinings Orange & Cinnamon Spice, mixed with a bit of English Breakfast for warmth and a gentle lift. If you can, slice a piece of warm lemon cake or prepare a small snack, then…
-
Life’s Lessons: Assume Nothing, Know Everything
I have always lived by a simple phrase: “Assume nothing. Know everything.” Not because I believe it is possible—or even wise to know everything. Scripture warns us plainly against becoming arrogant in knowledge. But because the prideful assumptions of mankind have always been man’s greatest folly. Time and again, it is not ignorance that wounds…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
🔔 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 