Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category


Posted on July 12, 2011 - by

Does Prayer Work?

Have you ever wondered if prayer actually “works?” Is it effective? Does it influence the outcome of the circumstances of our lives?

When you ask people about prayer, you get a range of opinions about its purpose and efficacy. Some people are intercessory prayer warriors (who certainly believe their prayers have power), while others believe that prayer-doesn’t-change-God-it-changes-us. Personally, I think God hears and responds to our prayer AND uses it to transform our hearts in the process. Here’s what I mean:

God Answers All Prayers

I know it sounds odd to say, but I think God answers all of our prayers. Sometimes he gives us what we want in the way we hope for, but those moments seem few and far between. However, he always gives us what we need, which is often quite different from what we want.

These kind of answers can be baffling, leaving us wondering if God has left the building. We find ourselves tapping on the microphone of life, wondering, “Is this thing on? Is anybody listening? Does anybody care?”

(more…)


Posted on July 8, 2011 - by

Teach Your Kids to Help Clean House Without Losing Your Mind

Recently, I realized that my kids were old enough to start helping with my weekly house cleaning routine. With two more kids on the way, I figured it was time to stop carrying the entire load of cleaning chores by myself. If I needed more motivation, I just imagined my children as adults, living in filth and squalor unless I decided to take action and train them to keep house.

At first, I went in without much of a plan. I figured it was fairly self-explanatory. Not so much. After a bit of reflection, I realized a few things were necessary to ensure my success and sanity.

1. Define the End Goal

Training kids to do anything can be an exercise in frustration. At first, it will make your life harder to teach them to clean than to just do it yourself. You need a bigger vision to carry you through the moments when it seems futile. Personally, my goal is to lighten my own load (eventually) and to send my children into the world as adults capable of caring for their own homes.  (more…)


Posted on July 7, 2011 - by

Out of Control, or Just Out of OUR Control?

Worry has always topped my list of besetting sins. I like to be in control. I like to have a plan. Real life, of course, eludes control and scoffs at our best-laid plans. Worry seems to stalk our hearts, whispering that our worst fears are moments away from being realized.

Truthfully, most of us have more reasons to worry than we can count. It often feels like everything rides on the outcome of a situation, yet we have precious little influence on how things turn out.

How can we take heart when things seem out of control?

My dad preached a sermon recently about the story of the myrrhbearing women who went to see Jesus’ tomb after his crucifiction and found it empty. He pointed out that they must have been worried as they approached the place of his burial. After all, a Roman guard had been instructed to seal the tomb, “make it as secure you know how” (Matthew 27:65) and stand watch.

Would they be barred from entry? Arrested for showing up? Killed even? If they happened to arrive when the guards were away, how on earth would they move the giant stone covering the entrance? It was anyone’s guess. (more…)


Posted on July 5, 2011 - by

A Very American Girl Birthday

On Saturday, my sister Mindy and I headed down to Atlanta with a minivan full of little girls, bound for the American Girl Store. We were supposed to travel last weekend to celebrate her oldest daughter Ellie’s birthday, but the poor girl woke up with the stomach flu, then promptly infected her entire family. So, this weekend was her birthday re-do.

The girls were giddy with excitement as they approached the [very] pink storefront. It did not disappoint. The American Girl Store is a little girl’s paradise, igniting the imagination at every turn. Museum-style display boxes presented vignettes of each doll and her accessories. A doll salon transformed tired locks into manes of princess-worthy dos. This was more than a store. It was an experience. (more…)


Posted on July 1, 2011 - by

Why Does Adoption Take So Long?

Why does adoption take so long? It’s a question I ask myself every day and the one I am asked most often by others.

It’s hard to reconcile how families could be stuck waiting to matched with a child (or wait so long to bring their children home once they have been matched) when there are hundreds of millions of orphans, desperate for families. At first glance, it doesn’t make much sense.

However, adoption is more complicated than simply connecting children in need of families with those willing to open their hearts to an orphan.

Orphan Status Must be Verified

Just because a child appears to have been abandoned, or one or both parents have relinquished that child to an orphanage, does not mean that child can or should be adopted.

In order to ascertain what is in the best interest of a child, a government must determine that:

  • the child is a true orphan
  • there are no other relatives able or willing to care for the child on a permanent basis
  • family reunification through sponsorship, mentoring, etc. is impossible
  • no indigenous families are willing to adopt the child (more…)

Posted on June 30, 2011 - by

The Work-at-Home Mom

Thanks to the availability of inexpensive technologies, a fierce entrepreneurial spirit, and a desire to call the professional shots, countless moms are staying home with their kids. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t bringing home the bacon.

Some work for employers out of the home, many run their own businesses, and others, like me, do a bit of both. However it’s done, working from home can provide an ideal solution for moms looking to relieve family financial pressures, while still maintaining a hands-on approach to caring for their families.

An Old Idea for a New Time

It turns out that working from home isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s really a return to the normal way of earning an income before the Industrial Revolution. (more…)


Posted on June 29, 2011 - by

Come Together for Adoption

On October 21-22, 2011, I will live blog the Together for Adoption Conference in Phoenix and I want to invite you to join me there.

I am so excited to share this conference with you through my blog and I hope to have the chance to meet many of you in person. It will encourage us to love boldly as we seek to serve orphans whether through adoption or other orphan care initiatives, leading us deeper into the heart of the Gospel as we do it.

Why Go to an Adoption Conference

Two reasons: education and relationships. Adoption and orphan care are amazing gifts to the families they touch, but the come with a cost. We need to be intentional about getting the kind of support we need to help us go the distance. Through speakers and workshop facilitators, this conference brings together the most helpful information available with those who need it most—us!

An adoption conference also gives us the chance to meet parents and ministry workers just like ourselves, forging meaningful relationhips that can last a lifetime. As we share our stories with those who really undestand, we leave encouraged, refreshed, and strengthened for the road ahead.

What Makes Together for Adoption Unique

As I’ve gotten to know the Together for Adoption founders Dan Cruver and Jason Kovacs, I’ve been impressed by their gospel-centered approach to the subject of adoption and orphan care. (more…)


Posted on June 27, 2011 - by

Parenting on Your Knees

Increasingly, I believe our most important role as parents is to pray for our children. Too often, I find myself so concerned with providing for basic physical and emotional needs that I forget to do battle for their hearts in prayer.

Recently, I had lunch with my friend Sunny Thomas who is the mother of eight (three biological, five adopted). As we talked about the joys and challenges of mothering, I found our conversation kept coming back to prayer. She didn’t offer helpful hints or simple solutions, just a humble admonition to get on my knees and pray fiercely for my kids.

When our children are all grown up and I’m looking back on their lives, I have a feeling I will realize my prayers mattered more than I would have ever expected.

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.—James 5:16

What am I praying for? Many things of course—protection, healing and wisdom to be sure. But, mostly, I ask God to grow our children into men and women who hunger and thirst for righteousness, people passionately in love with him, who pursue the things of the Kingdom with all their hearts.

I don’t know about you, but my best parenting days are insufficient toward that end, and the worst ones—well, we don’t even go there. Joel and I are not smart enough, patient enough or holy enough to accomplish so lofty a goal. We need to have the mind of Christ in us, be strengthened by his might, and be made effectual by his power. In other words, we can’t do it alone.

Here are a few ways to be more purposeful about prayer:

1. Pray with Them

Make regular prayer a part of your family life. We have had great success praying on the way to school, as well as in the evening before bed. Normally, we have a time of more liturgical prayer which the kids know by heart, followed by each person bringing their daily needs before God.

As our children hear us pray for them and have the chance to offer their own prayers, they learn how to pray. They learn to invite God into their day and remember him as the hours go by. In short, they learn to live in his presence.

2. Stop, Drop and Pray

Don’t confine prayer to morning and evenings though. When you or your children find yourselves in a situation where you don’t know how to proceed, stop and pray out loud.

Whether you ask God to release a child in the grip of a night terror or one struggling to be obedient, stop and ask God to intervene. This affirms to your child that we depend on God to lead and guide us in every moment of our lives.

3. Pray in Community

Historically, the church required children who were to be baptized to have godparents. Godparents become part of a child’s spiritual family, tasked primarily with praying on their behalf.

Even if your child doesn’t have godparents, ask those who love God and love them—grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends—to commit to pray for them. When spiritual concerns, attacks of the enemy, or difficult circumstances arise in their lives, call in the troops. You can’t do this alone.

4. Don’t Rely on Your Own Words

What do you do when your words run out and your wisdom fails? Pray the old prayers. The oldest Christian churches have beautiful prayers written for parents and children. Don’t worry if the slightly more elevated language isn’t what you are used to. Instead, rest in fact that you are agreeing with parents throughout time who have used those words to bring their children to the feet of Christ.

Click here to see a sampling of prayers for families.

Perhaps our most powerful parenting moments are the ones spent on our knees. How have you seen prayer transform your parenting?


Posted on June 24, 2011 - by

The Joys of a Slow Summer

I started the summer with a long list of things I wanted to accomplish. I had activities planned for the kids—art exhibits to see, day trips to take and projects to craft. I envisioned day after day spent with friends at the pool punctuated by the completion of numerous household projects like painting the upstairs bathroom and refinishing my dresser. We were going to “make the most of our time.”

After nearly a month of summer, my perspective has shifted. Almost by default, we have done very little. A few days in, I found I didn’t have the energy for anymore busyness. I was tired.

The school year is like being on a treadmill that never stops. Homework, special events, class projects and sports pack our calendars until the seams are ready to burst. Summer is our chance to slow-down rediscover the joy of just being home. (more…)


Posted on June 22, 2011 - by

How to Make Marriage Last

I’ve been pondering lately what it takes to to make a marriage last and avoid the pitfalls of adultery, apathy, or complacency. Whether in the news or down the street, it seems like marriages are dropping like flies all around us. It’s easy to feel hopeless and wonder if a couple has a fighting chance to make it anymore.

At first, I wondered if the answer was to just be intentional about your marriage—date your spouse forever and that kind of thing.

As I dreamt about date nights, ways to nurture shared hobbies, or special trips Joel and I could take together, I realized those things weren’t enough, though certainly helpful in their own ways.

The successful, lasting marriages I knew of all had one thing in common: both spouses were sold out to following Jesus Christ, committed to sacrificing for one another, dying to their own selfish wants and needs and purposefully learning how to love and serve as Christ does.

(more…)


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