Grace Before Peace

What is the secret to staying together? If you have been married for a couple years I am sure you have had this question posed to you. As a high school teacher I was asked this all the time, with the state of marriage in 2018 teenagers find marriages that last more than 10 years to be quite a mystery! While this makes me sad I love that they ask! So I have a lot of different things I like to talk to them about... Know who Christ is and marry someone that also knows, if someday you cannot find a single thing to agree on you can agree on Christ!   Look at how the one you are wanting to marry treats his/her opposite sex parent... are you ok with it? Because that is exactly how they will treat you someday.  Love is a daily choice, not an emotion that comes and goes. LOVE IS A CHOICE! Don't just marry the one you love, love the one you marry. If you are a very selfish person don't get married. (harsh I know but true) Those are just a few examples of things we disc...

This week I was asked to write as a guest blogger for a marriage and family blog. The topic I was asked to write about was giving up my dream job as a high school graphic design/photograph instructor to allow my husband to pursue the path God had been putting on his heart. I was excited to share and as I began rough drafting my thoughts I felt a rush of overwhelming thankfulness at God's provision and active involvement in our lives over the past year. I encourage you to head over to https://marriageandfamilytulsa.org/blog/ to read my story. I hope you find it encouraging and challenging! At the very end of my article I mentioned very briefly I felt like this was my "Abraham/Isaac" moment. No not to the extreme of laying one of my kids on an alter... don't get crazy ideas of this 35 year lady who moves to the woods and looses her sanity! HA Sometimes I do feel like I have lost my mind though when I think of all we left behind in Centerton, AR... Here is a brief desc...

Path - a word I have read so many times throughout scripture. Recently I have been drawn to this word. I see it everywhere! In my quiet time, in my sweet mother-in-laws shared Facebook devotional, in my summer reading text. All pointing me to questions about my path. Recently my path has taken a hairpin turn and even though I took it eagerly and in faith I am still not sure where it is taking me. July 1st marks a significant change for me. To some people it probably is not a big deal, to some it would probably seem scary, if I am honest its a big ball of emotions for me all tangled in 35 years of God's truth hidden in my heart. That truth is the only thing holding me together most days, otherwise that big ball of emotions would unravel into a mess that makes me cringe. The kind of cringe I felt when I came across a box of neckless', that in a moment of weariness during our move a couple months ago I threw in a box, that are so tangled and matted it will take hours of tedious wo...

Not all college assignments were dreaded, for the most part I actually loved college, loved learning, loved being given a challenge to overcome. However, something I hated in my college education classes was the reflections! Literally hundreds of them that I have written over the course of 4 years and 14 years of various teaching roles. Answering the same questions over and over with each lesson prepared and lesson taught. What was your objective? How do you plan to meet that objective? How does it tie to previous learning yet build knowledge for the next lesson to be learned (scaffolding 😝)? Did you meet your objective? How did you adjust your objective and lesson to accommodate for various learners or unexpected situations?? Reflect, reflect, reflect Fast forward 14 years from college graduation, almost cried out loud typing that out!! 😢 Pretty sure a new wrinkle just popped out on my forehead too.😰 Anyway, today I find myself longing for more time to just reflect! I don’...