Everything started here
I started writing on a blog called 29 Lincoln Avenue sixteen years ago. The name for my first blog came from the street address of the home I grew up in a small town in Southern Indiana. I loved the idea of inviting you into my “blog home” every week.
It was through learning to write and create content there (and then here) that I discovered my love for words and my voice as a writer. When I started, Twitter and Facebook were the rage and blogging found a unique place that would be writers (like me) were able to practice publishing more than a handful of words at at time.
Through blogging I started writing books. I am eternally grateful for that opportunity to put something more of my heart in the hands of those who are bookish by nature.
But even with Instagram, youTube, and every other social media option out there—I still love to add a few words here.
And I suspect I always will.
Unraveled: Hope for the Mom at the End of Her Rope
Hope is my favorite story. I have been telling it through my writing for the past 10 years. Why? Because God keeps asking me to. About a year ago, Harvest House Publishers invited Brooke and I to share Hope with a brand new generation of moms. We took our book Hope...
Wholehearted Writing
Last week I did something I have never done in my 12 years of writing. I went to the beach for a writing retreat. I had been praying this past winter about being wholehearted in all areas of my life. (Wholehearted is my word of the year for 2022.) I have felt weary...
A Prayer for Wholehearted Peace
LORD, I have not been at peace. I have been at war. My own personal war is crippling fear. Lord you tell me your desire for me is that I be at peace. You conquered death and fear. And in you peace is your plan. I confess Lord to letting fear win. I'm so tired of this...
What’s Been Keeping me from Being Wholehearted
This week God has shown me what has been taking up a large piece of real estate in my heart. It is something that is quite at home there. I have even been known to encourage it, feed it, and give it more credit than it deserves. It is fear. The sad part is, that it is...
This Love
"Every heart-stabbing poem, every story of rescue, every novel that evokes longings, every reading of Tolkien and Wendell Berry and John Donne and a thousand others who make the tears flow—all are an echo of the love behind all of human history. This love is the power...
Lent and Lesser Loves
Wholehearted Lent (Week 2) I saw a question this week on Social Media that made me stop and think. It said, *"How has giving up your lesser love this lenten season practically changed your week?" First of all, compared to Jesus, everything should be a lesser love....
Wholehearted Lent
Tradition has a way of forming us. I didn't come from a tradition that focused on or even defined Lent. Growing up, I remember our neighbors coming home on Ash Wednesday with crosses on their foreheads and wondering what that meant. These same neighbors went to a...
Come Out of Hiding
Recently I found myself sitting in a meeting unsure of what to expect. I had been nervous for the weeks leading up to the meeting because I honestly had no idea what was on the agenda. And so, I did what any normal person would do. I thought through several different...
What Breaks and What Holds
Note: Originally posted April 24, 2017. You can also find a slightly longer version in Threadbare Prayer on pages 151-155. __________________________ My youngest daughter dropped my iPad just before I hurried out the door to go to church. With huge tears streaming...
The Whole Story
Being a good Christian girl has not been a problem for me. What I mean by that is that I haven’t struggled with wild things or been particularly unruly. Ever. It just isn’t who I am. I like rules. I like to know what is expected of me. I want to know the right way to...