Kim Breuninger | The Grit and Grace Project

Kim Breuninger

Kim recently retired from 30 years of full-time ministry to women and currently serves as a team writer for Grit and Grace Life, a faith-based online magazine for women. She also enjoys teaching dance fitness and is a volunteer counselor with training from Respero.org and the Townsend Leadership Program. Kim is a personal growth enthusiast who enjoys encouraging others as they move toward spiritual and emotional development. She believes everyone has a story, we’re all looking for something more, and everyone needs help to get there. Kim and her husband, Dave, joyfully raised their blended family of five and are overly attached to their 11 grandchildren. They live in the Pacific Northwest and enjoy all the biking, hiking, and year-round sports the outdoors offers. Kim loves deep conversations over tea and cannot resist a chocolate chip cookie.

mother-in-law and daughter sitting next to eachother on the couch drinking coffee and smiling and trying to build peaceful relationships

The Joy Series: 6 Traits of a Mother-in-Law Who Wants to Build Peaceful Relationships

By Kim Breuninger / Relationships

Yes, the joy! I’m not trying to sweeten up the truth. Being a mother-in-law is not for sissies. And if you feel drawn to whine about how it’s going for you, Google can point you to more than two billion sites telling you how to improve your approach. Or, if you want that pity party (and some days we need one), look up mother-in-law jokes. My search came up with 61,800,000 sites touting mother-in-law jokes, with only about half that amount about fathers-in-law! 1. Lawyer to his client: “Your mother-in-law passed away in her sleep. Shall we order a burial, embalming, or cremation?” The son-in-law replied, “Let’s not take chances. Order all three.” 2. How many Mothers-in-law does it take to change […]

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The 3-Day Rule: My Mother-in-Law’s Secret to a Happy Marriage

By Kim Breuninger / Relationships

After a quick check over her shoulder, my mother-in-law lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in to share her secret to a happy marriage. Her playful grin told me this was something I would want to hear, so, with a swirl of my iced tea, I turned my attention from my sons and their grandfather as they played on the rope swing under the shade of their giant oak tree. Her eyes sparkled as she said, “I call it, The 3-Day Rule.” Her top-secret rule came up as we discussed a home improvement project my husband and I were at odds over, and I was thankful for the treasure of an experienced woman’s wisdom. My marriage dilemma was that I

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You Don’t Have to Carry Your Failures Anymore

By Kim Breuninger / Faith

A friend still cleans her adult son’s car when he stops by, and I can’t say I blame her. She always finds a stash of used lunch bags and backpacks culturing food, dirty laundry, and oodles of cash! And it got me thinking, haven’t we all found a bit of ‘yuck’ in our packs? I’ve heard the analogy that each of us carries an emotional backpack on our life’s journey. Our pack holds the essentials of living a meaningful life, kind of like the ‘All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten’ idea. What’s In Your Life Backpack? Unlike the kindergarten credo, our backpack also carries memories, failures, burdens, and misconceptions we’ve picked up along the way. Our experiences, emotions,

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