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My Upcoming Book(let) on Taming the Tongue

Today has been a good day. It is the twentieth anniversary of my marriage to my wonderful husband Aaron (yay!!!), I’m still caught up in the excitement of the release of Don’t Hide Your Light Under a Laundry Basket, and I had a wonderful interview for a writing project that is coming down the pike. […]

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The Best Things to Give Up for Lent

So, what are you giving up for Lent? Not sure yet? I have a few suggestions. Growing up, my family didn’t celebrate Lent. It wasn’t part of our faith tradition. But the older I get, the more I think Lent is a good idea—and not just because it provides us with a religious-sounding excuse to […]

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Loneliness, Community, and Loving the Common Enemy

I've been reading The Connecting Church by Randy Frazee for one of my classes. It talks about the epidemic of loneliness in the United States, the impact individualism has had on the American psyche, and how strong, cohesive groups, from the Crips to the Amish, the military to the Benedictines, create a sense of true […]

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Love Should Never Include Disclaimers: Why Christians Need to Stop Trying to “Fix” People

There was a time when I thought it was my Christian duty to point out anything I thought someone was doing wrong. I called out teachers for being too hard on other kids. If the pastor said something I disagreed with in a sermon, I informed him of it afterward. I made sure people on […]

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Where is the Hope? In Which I am “Peddling Pop Pollyanna Ecclesiology,” and Refuse to Back Down

So, my last post about Christian unity. Most people seemed to like it, but a few took issue with it. This is nothing new. I try to be diplomatic in my writing, and people typically respond with grace. Still, there are always a few detractors, and oftentimes they have good reasons for saying the things […]

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The Gospel is Never at Stake. A Few Words on Orthodoxy, Christian Unity, and Not Being a Big Jerk

I saw a quote from a Christian leader yesterday, one who I respect despite disagreeing with some of his doctrine. It contained the words “At stake is the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Whoa, hold up. I’m not a scholar or a theologian, but I can tell you one thing: The gospel of Jesus Christ is […]

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I am Unikitty, hear me roar! Insights from the Lego Movie

So, Aaron and I took the kids to see the Lego Movie the other day. It was a cute film, full of giggles, snickers, and inside jokes for anyone who has ever played with Legos. But my favorite moment had to be when Princess Unikitty, the precious pink regent of Cloud Cuckoo Land, snapped during […]

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Surviving in a Difficult Christian Marriage: Excerpt from a New Book

One of the things I love about Elisabeth Klein Corcoran is her willingness to write honestly about a taboo topic: brokenness in Christian marriages. Like, the kind no amount of praying or pleading or marriage seminars or counseling has seemed to make a dent in. Her new book, Survivingin a Difficult Christian Marriage, released on […]

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Internet Outrage; Or, why we need to refuse to sit in the seat of the scornful.

I haven't been blogging much for the last several months, and there are a few reasons for that. Sure, I've been busy. Between school stuff, interning at my church, and being part of a family whose M.O. resembles pedaling a bicycle downhill fast (we take our share of tumbles, but we get places!), there's always […]

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Dripping Faucet Wives and Internet (Re)Activism: A Defense of Mark Driscoll (Sort Of)

Last week, in a sermon on marriage, Mark Driscoll made a comment that launched him to internet infamy (again). Buckle up, here we go: “And some women – you’re a nag. You’re disrespectful. You’re quarrelsome. Being married to you is like a life sentence, and the guy’s just scratching on his wall every day, ‘One […]

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The Importance of Careful Communication: A Confession and a Commitment

I have a confession to make. I haven’t been communicating very carefully for the last couple weeks. And whether or not anyone but me has noticed that (I think some people have), I feel like I need to come clean, apologize, and change. Here’s the thing. Careful communication is very, very important to me. Avoid […]

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Watch Your Mouth! My Commitment to Mercy, and New Comments Policy.

The internet can be a brutal place. Some days, the Christian blogosphere feels more like the Roman Colosseum than Athen’s Mars Hill, a gladiatorial circus where Christian Soldiers wield sharp words against their brothers and sisters in Christ, pitting the strength of their platforms to character assassination. I’m quite certain Satan (whose very name means […]

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Stop Saying Stupid Things: An Open Letter To Incorrigible Loudmouths, Myself Included.

Is it just me, or have instances of men running for public office saying outrageous things about women’s reproductive systems hit an all-time high? It’s possible I just never noticed it before. In my mid-thirties, I’ve lived through a blessedly limited number of election cycles. My aversion to television and talk radio has kept my […]

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A Self-Indulgent Post About Blogging and Being Misunderstood

The blogosphere can be a bizarre place, a bubbling cauldron of controversy, rhetoric, and vitriol. Sometimes, I’m not too fond of it. I haven’t been blogging a lot lately. Yes, I’m still tired from a whirlwind summer. Yes, I needed to get the kids into their school routines. But mostly, I’ve needed to think. I’ve […]

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Acid Attacks on a Woman’s Soul

Yesterday, a friend forwarded me a link about the rise of acid attacks in Colombia. I was appalled. I had heard of acid attacks in places like India and Afghanistan, but South America? It got me thinking once again about the horror of these sorts of attacks, the hatefulness. While acid is sometimes used against […]

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