Tag: inspiration
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The Healing Arts: Stress Weaving
I haven’t painted since January. For someone who has spent much of her life creating, that feels almost strange to say. Art has always been part of me. I learned to paint when I was young, along with sewing, crocheting, knitting, and weaving. Creating things with my hands was simply part of childhood, and those…
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Peace in the Storm: Overwhelmed by the Blessing
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”—Psalm 127:3 Sometimes the very thing we prayed for can overwhelm us when it finally arrives. That may sound ungrateful, but I do not believe it is. A blessing can be beautiful, long-awaited, and unquestionably given by God—and still…
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Help and Hope: Stop Walking Around the Furnace
Most people pray for God to remove the furnace. Few stop to consider that sometimes God is waiting for us to walk toward it. And if we’re being honest, most of us spend a great deal of our lives trying to avoid discomfort. We avoid difficult conversations, grief, doctor’s appointments, forgiveness, change, we even avoid…
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The Healing Arts: When Creativity Becomes a Lifeline
Some of the most creative people I have ever met… were also carrying some of the heaviest burdens. Not always visibly. Not always in ways the world immediately recognized. But quietly, beneath the surface, many of them were navigating things most people around them never fully understood. Things like chronic illness, rare diseases, disability, grief,…
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Peace in the Storm: The Voice That Came at the Right Time
The rain had been falling most of the afternoon, though from inside the hospital it was difficult to tell where one hour ended and the next began. Everything there seemed suspended in artificial light and exhaustion. The halls were too cold, the chairs too stiff, and the silence somehow never truly quiet. Machines hummed. Elevator…
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Tea Time with Mandy: The Quiet Between Words
The room was quiet, but not peaceful. It was the kind of quiet that settles in slowly, almost unnoticed at first, until you realize it is not absence… but restraint. Three of us sat at the small round table near the window, the late afternoon light stretching long across the polished wood floor. The tea…
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Help and Hope: Learning to Stand After the Storm
When Life Doesn’t Pause After the Storm The storm ends… but life doesn’t slow down. That may be one of the most disorienting parts of walking through a difficult season, because somewhere in us, we expect a pause. We expect a moment to sit, to breathe, to gather ourselves before stepping forward again. But life…
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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…
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Peace in the Storm: He Wasn’t Panicking, So Why Was I?
The rain started gently, almost rhythmically, tapping against the windshield as the road stretched out ahead of us. It was late—the kind of night when the world feels smaller and quieter, as if everything important has narrowed down to the stretch of road in front of you. At first, my hands rested easily on the…
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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…
Country Girl Gone City 