Life and Culture

Some of the Most Popular Ways to Exercise Right Now

When an exercise is difficult and unenjoyable, you’ll find any excuse not to do it. You’ll moan and groan and decide to skip out on your workout tonight…and tomorrow…and then the next day. When it is fun, you’re not only happier, but you’re more likely to stick with a routine. Take some time to explore what works best for you. Part of that enjoyment comes from feeling confident and comfortable in your gear. When your clothes fit well, support your movements, and keep you cool and dry, they become a positive part of your workout experience rather than something that holds you back. That’s where Built for Athletes comes in. Their training apparel is specifically designed to make every exercise, whether tough […]

This Is How to Use Your Talents to Build Your Business

Recently, I learned something that absolutely shocked me: the average American spends 90,000 hours at work over the course of their lifetime. That’s more than 10 whole years of your one and only life—at work! If you love your job, maybe that doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice. But if you’re among the 70% of Americans who report being unhappy at work, that’s a whole lot of precious time wasted. But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be that way. Imagine what it would be like to work for yourself. To set your own hours, work from home, earn an extra income for your family, and help people by using your gifts! Sound too good to be true? Well, […]

14 Things Every Woman Needs to Know Before Buying a House

Don’t we all love the idea of owning our own homes and drooling about the outlandish decor ideas we are going to execute? However, in order to make the right decisions, we need to have the right information – or at least know where to find the right information. So, the following tips have been put together to set you off on the right footing. Here are some things every woman needs to do before buying a house. 1. Know your credit score It’s one of the biggest factors that will determine what the terms of your loan will look like. So, be sure you know your credit score even before deciding to pursue any kind of housing loan. If your credit […]

Take Your Friendships to Another Level with a Heartfelt Dinner Party

My college days centered around food. Cooking with the international students on campus, I forged lifelong friendships and learned recipes for dumplings I’d use well into adulthood. Something about our conversations shared while chopping green onions and brewing hot pots strengthened both our bodies and souls. Adult life seems disconnected, busier, and less social. It’s full of instant meals and quick conversations. Nutrient- and communication-starved. A Loneliness Epidemic Hosting the occasional dinner party could be a simple and elegant way to jumpstart the well-being changes we need, injecting the benefits of close community and good food into our emotional, mental, and relational health. Dinner brings everyone together, encourages them to spend time getting into entrees and entertaining conversation that doesn’t happen anywhere […]

Faith

How My Husband and I Survived My Affair

“How did I get here? This can’t be happening,” these words raced across my mind as I sat in a room with our pastor and the seeming stranger I was married to. But there I was, a church-raised, young woman in the throes of a nasty adulterous mess… but my affair was what got us there. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I could slip so far or that divorce would seem like an obvious lifeline amidst the chaos. I so badly wanted to flee this moment of accountability, wanted to flee this marriage, and by doing so, escape the mess I had made. That summer, almost 11 years ago now, things had come to a head. But the […]

Bible Verses on Anxiety from The Grit and Grace Team

We all face anxiety, some more than others. It’s part of being human. So, what do you do when fear strikes? When a thought of the unknown future taunts even the most confident fiber of your being? The ladies at The Grit and Grace Project share some of their own worries and anxieties and the Bible verses that bring them peace. Take heart, friends, and may you be comforted to know that He’s always there. Here are some verses for comfort: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, […]

Trusting God in the Aftermath of Hurricane Helene

The Wednesday before Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend, I drove to Florida’s east coast to meet up with old college friends. Call us crazy, but we didn’t want to miss our annual beach trip–or lose the vacay dollars we’d already spent. Besides, we figured being tucked away in the most northeastern part of the state would prove to be the safest place from which to watch the weather. Turns out, we were right. Hurricane Helene Approaching Except for the shaking of storm shutters and rain throughout the night, we knew nothing of the terror that would hit those in Helene’s path during the wee hours Friday. Unlike them, we woke to blue skies and sunshine and made a day of it at […]

You Are the Biggest Influence on Your Child’s Faith

Having a newborn in your home is a marvelous thing. To look into that tiny face and realize that you have been given this gift is nearly overwhelming. Just a few short months ago this person wasn’t on the planet, and now he is in your arms. The weight of the responsibility far exceeds the little bit of effort it takes to lift him from his crib. Everything about him is life, newness, and precious. For parents who choose to raise their children to follow the teachings of their faith, it is no small undertaking. Our society is often referred to as “postmodern,” meaning, in an extremely simplified definition, that much of our world has stepped away from formerly traditional values of […]

Motherhood

Dear Daughter, as You Become a Mom

She comes around the corner of the kitchen, her belly preceding her by a scant second and quickening my heart. Even though I can’t possibly for a second forget that my daughter is pregnant with her first child and I see her every day, for some reason that tangible reminder first thing in the morning is a jolt, stimulating utter joy and also complete amazement at how fast the last 25 years flew by. My hands have a mind of their own as they reach out to touch this soon-to-be-born little boy. I have to ask the same thing every morning, “How did you sleep? And how is my grandson?” She rolls her eyes. But I know that in her heart she […]

Natural Teeth Whitening—For Your Child and You

Lately, I’ve noticed my oldest son’s permanent teeth look a bit yellow compared to my other three boys, who still have their baby teeth. Of course, my first assumption was that he wasn’t brushing correctly. Or worse yet, he’s skipping his brushing altogether. But after a few weeks of supervising and not noticing a big difference, I started to do a bit of research. Apparently, baby teeth are naturally whiter than permanent teeth. One pediatric dentist explains that “permanent teeth not only have a thicker enamel, but the layer under the enamel (dentin) is also more dense. Dentin is yellow in color. This gives the permanent teeth a color slightly more yellow than the baby teeth. And it’s perfectly normal!”(¹) There is […]

Raise Your Boy to Become a Strong Man

As a mom of four boys, I am thinking of the attack on manhood lately. It seems like I know a lot of great women and not too many great, strong men. I guess it depends on what your definition of a great man is, but I think most of us can agree on what it is not. And that’s not who you want to raise your boy to be! Unfortunately, due to cultural influences and the period we live in, I believe there is a rise in the number of passive, lazy, and entitled “boys who can shave.” Men who still live in their parent’s basements play video games for as long as possible, thus putting off such beautiful privileges such […]

Why It’s Important to Share the Woman You Used to Be

Over the years, I have been a part of several groups of women: organizations, study groups, gatherings of friends, etc. Recently, I was sitting in the audience of one such group when a mom of two stood up to share a bit about herself and her family. She mentioned she used to be a softball catcher and a trombone player and received her master’s at UF. And here she was, a stay-at-home mom with two small children whom she is currently homeschooling. That, plus her quiet disposition and love of motherhood, had pegged her in my mind as someone who must have grown up thinking that’s what she aspired to be. She was the second woman that week who surprised me with her unlikely […]

Relationships

5 Tips for Mending Fences in Your Relationships

It’s a great time to begin mending fences. Not the ones in the back 40 of the ranch where very few of us currently live; I’m talking about the fences that require repair between us. We all experience damaged or broken relationships. Admittedly, some relationships are beyond repair, but most of the time, that’s not the case. So ask yourself, do you really want to be 90 years old, comfortable in your lift chair, and remember a relationship you once had? Pondering the friend you lost because of anger over something you can no longer recall? The sibling rivalry you never outgrew? Or the parent you walked away from? Probably not. So, how do you manage this repair process before the knees give […]

To the Woman Whose Husband Is Married to His Job

I see you over there, sitting in the audience filled with families—moms and dads, grandparents and children. I see you juggling your toddler, holding your baby, and trying with all of your might to get a good video of your kindergartener on stage in his first-ever school play. I see you there. Alone. I see you at t-ball games and ballet drop-off, every time, just you. I see you making dinner in shifts, keeping a plate warm with tin foil as you eat with the kids, because you know he’ll be hungry when he comes home. I see you doing bath time, story time, breakfast, and middle of the night feedings by yourself. All alone. I see you feeling so lonely you […]

How to Know When It’s Time for a Friendship to End

We spend our lives learning how to make friends. In early childhood we learn to share and play nice. We introduce ourselves, smile big, try to do the right things, and hope they like us. In school we strive to fit in, to establish and keep friends. We do things to be cool and impress others—sometimes at the cost of our personal beliefs and feelings. In life, we all want to find our people and have a tight-knit group. I have made new friends through all phases of my life: as a child and young adult, at college, in my married life (and in my divorced life), in motherhood, in small groups at church, at work and at various events. I have […]

Combat Loneliness with Connection—Tips from a Flight Attendant

My first trip to Frankfurt as a flight attendant surprised me, an intrinsically valuable experience that taught me strategies for combatting loneliness both at home and abroad. I’d worked the flight overnight, finding myself in the German city for the first time. The rest of my crew was busy, leaving me alone for the day. This fine day in Europe, I learned that while loneliness is an epidemic in our modern era, it doesn’t have to be. Here are a few tricks I now regularly use no matter where I am in the world. 5 Tips to Avoid Loneliness 1. Talk to people. People are the greatest resource on the planet! I’d already started my “research” on the aircraft crossing the Atlantic. […]

Purpose

Pulling Out Trauma by the Roots

Every day for nearly six years, I had to walk by a line of misshapen, horribly trimmed, oblong, and funky shrubs to get to my front door. Some years, I’d take shears and gently prune the gangly branches in hopes that the new growth would sprout forth as effortlessly and symmetrically as it appeared our neighbor’s shrubs did every spring. Other years, my frustration led me to our battery-powered hedge trimmer. At first, I was a bit intimidated by it. Me? Someone who trimmed hedges? With power tools, no less? But after I got comfortable with the safety button, I was ready to cut back any unruly branch or out-of-place landscaping around our house. “What have you done?” my husband kindly asked […]

When Moving, This Is One Thing You Need to Leave Behind

I have moved both my mother as well as my father-in-law recently and landed back on my doorstep declaring, “I am cleaning out my house!” If I haven’t touched it, worn it, or even dusted it in awhile, it’s going out the door! It’s not even that they had too much stuff; they just had a house of life. When that’s the case, you end up packing more boxes than you want to load on a truck. Just when you get one box filled, you realize there is another pile you haven’t even touched yet. This exercise leaves one with the desire to never have to do it again. These moves did make me ponder… As we relocate from one home to another, it’s […]

Honduran Soles: Giving the Gift of Hope in the Form of Shoes

As we drove away down a windy road in a musty, hot van, I watched out the back window as young children began running after us over a dirt road covered in glass, garbage, and rocks. They seemed numb to the pain as they ran barefoot over rough conditions, still so full of joy and laughter. Even though we were beginning our long journey back to the United States, it was as if this moment in time was in slow motion, allowing our hearts to feel and experience things like never before. The things that we experienced; the sights, smells, and sounds of children and adults fighting for their lives will forever be ingrained in our minds. I remember coming home and […]

Overcoming Shame from Abuse in a Grit and Grace Life

If you were a victim of child abuse or neglect like me, you very likely have experienced or do experience some level of shame. In my case, it plagued me for many years, yet I had no idea what it even was. Shame from abuse is hard to pin down because it assumes many forms. But it has the same message. It tells us that we are inferior, a mistake, fundamentally flawed. Shame Is Not the Same as Guilt Shame focuses on self. Guilt focuses on behavior. Shame says that “I am bad.” Guilt says that “I did something bad.” Instead of saying “I made a mistake,” a person who experiences shame says that “I am a mistake.” Think of shame as […]

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