Top 5 Posts from the Last Year
We are less than a week away from meeting our new baby boy, and I’ll be taking a break from publishing on my blog for a month or so. I’ve so enjoyed getting to share what God has been teaching me this past year, and I pray that it has been encouraging and challenging to you. I heard this quote recently from Jen Wilkin, and it reminded me the purpose of my writing, “Everything you write is either going to obscure or illuminate the character of God.” It’s always my goal when I sit down to write on my laptop (or even type on my phone) that I will love God and serve others with my words. Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing my blog posts this year, and I can’t wait to write more about what God teaches me as we transition to a family of four. In the meantime, enjoy these five most-read posts from the last 365 days on my blog!
I Have This Hope
This is one of the hardest blogs I ever wrote. It flowed out of my heart and fingertips after our miscarriage last October as I started reflecting on what God had begun to teach me about hope. Reading it now brings tears to my eyes, because I have seen how God used this season of suffering to draw me closer to himself, to his Word, and to the living hope Christ secured for me. This was just the beginning of our grief journey, but I praise God for how he used it for our good and his glory.
My consolation is not knowing the meaning of this pain but knowing that God is here with me in the midst of it.
6 Things I’ve Learned in 6 Years of Marriage
As we came upon our sixth anniversary last December, this was a fun post to share some of the lessons we’ve learned on our marital journey thus far. While I am in no way a marriage expert, it was such a good heart exercise for me to reflect on ways we have grown individually and together over our first 2,190 days. It was also good to be reminded of this list as we are about to enter the season of little sleep and lots of crying (especially my advice, “Give your spouse the same grace you received”).
I am an imperfect woman married to an imperfect man, both clinging to the grace and mercy of Christ every day.
God’s Character Changes Motherhood
I was inspired to write this post by a prompt from one of my favorite bloggers, Katie Blackburn, “Write 300-500 words on how an attribute of God influences your motherhood journey.” Once I started with one attribute, I couldn’t stop. I began to see that as I looked more at who God is, it changed who I wanted to be as a mother, wife, woman, writer, etc. I shared it on Mother’s Day this past year, but it is a good reminder for me every day to boast not in my weaknesses but in God’s strength.
While mothers are often jokingly seen as superheroes without limits, we must remember the good limits in our motherhood that point us to who God is.
Through Smudged Windows
A 2020 highlight reel wouldn’t be complete without a reference to COVID-19. While not all my blogs since March have been about the coronavirus pandemic, so much of my writing has been shaped by these unprecedented times. I wrote this blog as part of a Blog Hop with my creative group, Exhale. Time apart from my church, family, and friends reminded me how much community is a part of God’s good design for his creation. As much as I long for restored relationships now, I can look forward to being fully restored to God and one another in eternity.
As this quarantine magnifies our longings to be together, we can remind ourselves that we groan all of humanity’s broken relationships, not just those during a crisis like this.
#FridayFriends: A Lifetime of Prayer
The newest addition to my blog in 2020 is the #FridayFriends feature where I’ve asked Christian women at different stages of their spiritual walk to share how the Word of God has dwelled in their own heart and homes. By far the most popular of these guest features was a post written by my eighty-year-old grandmother about her lifetime of prayer. She walks us through her faith journey and how God has grown her prayer life in each stage.
Now just entering my 80s, I know God is continuing to take the initiative to call me to pray as I listen to my children and grandchildren share about their deepening relationship with the Father. God is still teaching me.
I pray you will enjoy (or re-enjoy) these blogs, and I can’t wait to share with you more later this fall!