Carolyn Gordon | The Grit and Grace Project

Instagram Envy During the Holidays: Beware of the Pitfall

Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words; other times, they are total liars. So before we fall victim to Instagram envy during the holidays, let’s look at things a little more realistically. Yes, photos can capture the most beautiful moments in one’s life. Sometimes they are spontaneous, and sometimes they are planned with color-coordinated outfits and contoured faces. I’m reminded of how wildly popular the mall-based Glamor Shots used to be before selfies and filters made that business obsolete. One year I was gifted this experience and now have too many photos of myself in a Blossom-style denim vest and floral floppy hat. (For those of you who weren’t stylistically influenced by this 90s sitcom character, you dodged a bullet.) My point […]

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Being an Adult Child of Divorce—at the Holidays

By Carolyn Gordon / Relationships

As an adult child of divorce, there are many tricky dynamics and raw emotions that are bound to arise. Now, throw in a heaping dose of family togetherness, eye-to-eye conversations around the dinner table, and memories from the past that tend to creep in this time of year and it can make for an interesting scene. It’s a club I never anticipated being a member of, but I am learning not just to survive this time of year, but to find new ways to cherish it and embrace it even more. Here are some of the things I have slowly learned when it comes to divorce. What you need to know as an adult child of divorce (especially at the holidays) 1.

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Have You Ever Said It? “I’m Not Good Enough.”

By Carolyn Gordon / Faith

“I’m not good enough.” Chances are, you have said this to yourself. You feel inadequate in a relationship. You missed a work deadline. You’re not as put together as that other woman you see at school drop-off. You hurt someone you love. Here is the good news: You aren’t good enough. That’s probably not a line you’ll see on a greeting card, but here is why this really is good news. There is grace for us. 2 Corinthians 12:9 states, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in your weakness.” In a culture that celebrates self-reliance, we are constantly trying to prove our power, our worth, and our control over our circumstances. It may seem harmless, those

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The Hope of Easter Restores All Things

By Carolyn Gordon / Faith

It was just two weeks after Easter in 2005. My Papa was nearing the end of his long battle with cancer. Family and close friends traveled from near and far just to be in his presence one last time. The hospital room grew crowded and heavier as the time drew near. He said his final words to us, and solidified his promise to us: “I’ll see you in the morning!” The grandkids, myself included, were sent away to get lunch. When we returned and the elevator doors opened to his hospital room floor, laughter could be heard from down the hallway, a sound not unfamiliar in my family, especially in my Papa’s presence. But this time, the laughter was a result of

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The Thief I Let In: A Day in the Life of a Working Mom

By Carolyn Gordon / Work & Money, Best Of, Motherhood

It was a typical morning. The alarm went off at 6:40 a.m. Snooze was hit once. There was a sleepy, teething baby girl that took over the spot of my husband, who had left for work. Our son was already up, sitting on the couch and watching cartoons. His pleading for pre-packaged blueberry muffins woke up his sister. Ready or not, it was time to kick it into high gear and get ready for school and work. Sounds of the blender, breast pump, and electric toothbrushes filled the house. A computer charger, matching sock, and school folder couldn’t be found. Then, the realization that I didn’t have a sitter for my daughter for that afternoon’s work meeting, the lab stealing the last

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what do you do when bearing their burdens breaks you

What Can You Do When Bearing Their Burden Breaks You?

By Carolyn Gordon / Faith

We all know someone carrying a burden. A friend on Facebook who recently got divorced, a family member in a bad relationship, a coworker with a wayward child, a mom friend who lost her husband. We don’t have to look too far to find someone in need because we live in a broken world. And if you’re like me, you see a loved one in distress, and it might as well be a giant Batgirl signal blaring brightly in the dead of night. You grab your cape from your closet, ready to jump into action and bear the burden of another. You are armed with a checkbook, and a hand mixer is your sword to whip up some breakfast bread. You buy

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Dear Mom: I See Your Struggle With Depression

By Carolyn Gordon / Faith

Dear Mom, I see you. You’re fighting an invisible battle. A sickness that cannot be seen on an X-ray, no surgery to cut out the despair. You’re trying to take back what anxiety and depression have stolen. Life isn’t what we all expected it to be. Our family no longer lives under one roof. This season has been shrouded in guilt from the past, confusion for the future, and the loss of identities. This has been our family’s season in the valley, but some of us have found our way out quicker than others. The Mind Monster When I try to explain to my son what your “boo boo” is, he doesn’t understand why a superman band-aid and his kiss can’t make

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This Is What a Well-Loved Woman Feels

By Carolyn Gordon / Best Of, Relationships

My 18-year-old self perked up when the college tour guide dropped the statistic, “We are ranked number four in Most Likely To Find Your Future Spouse Here.” Say no more, sign me up! Soon, visions of walking around the ivy and brick walkways in that North Carolina college, arm in arm with my Southern gentleman quickly filled my mind. I was done with the “frogs“… the cool guy in high school who prided himself on kissing a girl from every page in the high school yearbook, the guy with the cool car and cheesy pick-up lines. I didn’t want to date for the sake of dating. I wanted to be wooed. Then it happened, I laid eyes on a Southern boy, was

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Toddlers, Tantrums & Time Out: How To Deal with Discipline

By Carolyn Gordon / Motherhood

Fresh out of the Terrible Two’s and headed straight toward the Threenage year, I’m realizing what I have gotten myself into. How little I knew (and still fail to know) about parenting, namely in the area of discipline … the essential task of guiding these little, wandering souls. The phrase, “You just don’t know ’til you know,” is a phrase tirelessly uttered many times in my mom groups. We chat about our toddlers’ most recent mischievous habits and how the rugs were once again pulled out from under us, right as we were thinking we had it figured out. Recognizing that each toddler is unique in their personalities, and each mom has their own set of parenting skills, I’ve found that we

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The Art and the Heart of Hospitality

By Carolyn Gordon / Life & Culture

I have learned a lot about the art of hospitality, not because I am a master of it, but because I have been the recipient of it. My mother in law is the very model of a gracious host. If you are fortunate enough to be welcomed into her home, chances are you will be met with a smorgasbord of food, you’ll be told to use the nicest towels, and you’ll leave feeling rested and refueled. Every time I leave her home, I find myself inspired and soon lost in a Pinterest-induced coma so that I might craft and bake my way into deserving the title of Hostess-with-the-Mostest. In these Pinterest wanderings, I found myself inundated with images of the trendy pineapple.

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