I've never been the victim of sexual abuse. But I know plenty of women who have. Women who I love. Women who have cried beside me in the dark, gripped my hands hard sharing stories from the past, and whose souls wear scars they were never meant to wear. When I saw...
Restore Book and Bible Study
Running Past Regret
Sometimes it’s easy to be full of regret – regret for doing life a certain way for so many years, regret for just now understanding or seeing something you wished you had understood so many years ago, or regret for unhealthy relational dynamics with family or friends....
Restoration between Mothers and Daughters: An Interview with My Mom
Moms sacrifice so much to make us the people we are today. It's easy for us to remember their role in our stories, but sometimes we forget (I know at least I do) to remember our moms' stories - where they have come from and what they have had to overcome. I wanted to...
When You Need Someone to Calm the Waves
Recently I had a pantry day. Not in the sense of I made my weekly run to the grocery store and unloaded a bunch of food in the pantry (that is something I still need to do this week), but a pantry day in the sense of I needed an enclosed, small space. Because if I've...
Remembering Christ Crucified
Sometimes the heart needs help to remember. I know mine does. It’s not that I don’t want to remember Christ’s death; it’s just that I need help pausing from the hectic pace of lesser things - school, sports, games, work, and deadlines – to remember the main thing –...
When You Need to Be Reminded Your Ending is Praise
For years I thought my prayers had to begin in praise. I even wrote a prayer guide where the first step in any prayer started with a “P” – Praise. But if I’m honest (and when am I not honest?), most of my days I don’t start with praise. It’s not because there aren’t a...
Dear You Who Doesn’t Want to Lament
Dear You Who Doesn’t Want to Lament, Yeah. You. I know you don’t want to because I don’t want to. And pretty much all human hearts are the same when it comes right down to it. I know you don’t want to grieve the past or sit in the sadness or lance the wound and let...
Walking Through Depression to Restoration
I know what depression feels like. It feels like waking up every day with a weight of 100 pounds pressed down on your shoulders and still being expected to manage life. It feels like standing on the outside of every circle where “normal” people live and dwell and move...
Can I Tell You Something…
Can I tell you something? I didn’t write this book because I felt so good about my life, so confident about my past, or hopeful about my future. I wrote this book because I felt so broken. Was so broken. And Jesus healed me. He made my steps secure. Even though I grew...
Reasons to Join the Restore Bible Study
Life moves so fast that rhythms and seasons of rest are hard to take hold of unless a specific invitation is given. So I did not want to let this opportunity go by without extending an invitation for you, dear reader, to come to my new seven week Bible Study series...