WOMEN'S MINISTRIES BLOG

Recently I took my five year old to Discovery Cube. On this particular day, many schools brought their students for a field trip. Naturally a wait formed for the activities, so we got in line for our first one. In front of us were two students who seemed to be really close friends. As they waited, I could feel their anticipation for what was to come. They shared excitement of…

Having a child seven months ago really changed me. As it should, you may say. But can we pause for a moment to think of how crazy it is, that within a single day, the birth of your first child, all of your priorities can shift and realign around this tiny human? For someone who finds her identity in work—reaching milestones and achieving goals—this was a massive change. If I…

I’ve always been a little wary of the exalted lists of “Spiritual Gifts” we hear about at church. I’ve even taken those spiritual gift tests and come up dry. I see those people out there—the preachers, the evangelists, the prophets. Big gifts, but that’s not me. I have the feeling my “Gift” is inviting people over for cake or a pot of soup. Does that count? And as for spiritual…

I’ve been thinking about seasons a lot recently. We’ve enjoyed a long summer and now we’re entering the slide into the rest of the year: colder weather (hopefully!), school and sports, and the holidays, one after another, each following more quickly than the last—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. In the thick of things, it’s easy to let the individual days slip by and not see them collecting behind us, a…

There are a few scents that instantly transport me from the here and now to a place in my past. One whiff of spearmint and I’m standing at my grandma’s dresser where she hid her stash of chewing gum. It was right where she kept her denture supplies, but we can save that for another time. Warm cinnamon rolls remind me of my husband’s grandma. Even now I can picture…

You know how it is when you hear a new word—an interesting, elegant, nuanced or unusual word—for the first time? It seems that suddenly everything you read and everyone you listen to is speaking or writing that word. And you don’t know how you got along without that word! “Egregious” [outrageously bad] was that way for me. Besides, there truly is so much these days that is egregious. Years ago,…

As a child raised in the city, I absolutely LOVED going to my grandparents’ farm each summer. Along with catching fireflies and holding baby pigs, a true highlight was riding the ol’ John Deere tractor with my grandpa. When I had three small children of my own, I wanted them to experience the same things I did. Since Grandpa was long gone, I arranged a time to meet my grandpa’s…

In a few weeks, our women’s Bible studies at Fullerton Free will be studying the Gospel of Luke. I’ve been reading through this book over the summer, and the other day I was struck by something. If you have read any of the Gospels, you’ve met the Pharisees, those noxious religious leaders so intent on following every letter of the law that they would rather someone remain crippled than be…

Asking God to break our hearts for what breaks His is what one might deem a dangerous prayer. Early this year, I asked God to do this, which brought me on an unexpected journey of grief and grace. I am a teacher and have, on occasion, found myself considering my students as more of a burden than a blessing. With still-developing frontal lobes, pre-teens can be challenging to interact with…

The year we lived in Costa Rica, each Sunday morning, we would board an old city bus with our two toddlers and travel 30 minutes south. Then we walked a kilometer into the small town of San Lorenzo to attend the tin-roofed church. There were loud enthusiastic praise songs as we swayed and clapped our hands. The preacher held up God’s Word. The church people brought offerings — a small…