Personal Growth | Grit and Grace Life

Tired? Overwhelmed? 4 Guilt-Free Reasons to Say No

Are you tired and overwhelmed? Distracted? Disappointed in yourself? Feeling used and used up? There is a good chance you’re saying “yes” to too many things and people. True, you have a part to play in life. False. You have to play every part in the play of life. It seems impossible to find guilt-free reasons to say no. Too many times, we try to do it all because somewhere along the way, we fell into the trap of believing if we’re not saying “yes,” then we’re selfish or lazy or replaceable or aren’t good enough. Author, Lysa TerKeurst, stated in her book, The Best Yes: “If I want things about my life to change, if I want to change the way […]

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5 Ways to Love Your Single Life

By Darlene Brock / Relationships

So a large majority of your friends are married and you are not. Do you celebrate because you dodged the bullet or do you pine because you hate being alone? Do you dread the next plus one event or do you land at the door ready to have a good time, with or without that extra human by your side? Being single is neither a malady nor a deficiency; it’s just a place in life. And it can be a really good place. Here are 5 ways to make sure you love your single life: 1. Don’t wait for life; live life. Remove the sentence, “I will (move, travel, buy a house, change careers) when I find that perfect (whatever that may be).”

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When a Strong Woman is Quitting but not Failing

By Dr. Zoe Shaw / Purpose

You’re reading this because there is something in your life that you have an inkling you need to let go of. Whether it’s a job, a relationship, a dream, or a life path, you know you really shouldn’t be involved in it anymore. It just doesn’t feel right, but you aren’t sure what to do about it. You may be quitting but not failing. I don’t know about you, but I have a million “don’t quit” mantras in my head that make quitting feel the same as failing. They all say that if I choose to end something in my life, I am a failure. When you think of yourself as a strong woman, quitter doesn’t play into that description. Having perseverance

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How Do I Know What Defines Me?

By Darlene Brock / Purpose, Best Of

I am single. I am widowed. I am married. I am divorced. I am a mom. I have no children. I am a career woman. I stay at home. I am an artist. I am a cancer survivor. I have a doctorate. I finished high school. Are these really who we are? Or are they merely part of our journey, a title, or life experience that will demonstrate what we are made of? I, my friend, will passionately argue for the latter. In my 20s, I was a booking agent for musicians when I married my boss. No, it was not one of those torrid affairs in the workplace that you would read or hear about over your lunch break. He was

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This Is My New Exercise Regimen for My Faith

By Amy Saxby / Faith

I love new beginnings. I’m a girl who enjoys looking back, reflecting, evaluating, and dreaming for the future. For me, a new day, season or year means a new opportunity to clean out the old, purge clutter, refocus, slow down, set goals, and reflect on what God has done in my life. I’m the nerdy girl who loves to turn the calendar page to a new month. I love the newness and blank slate it brings, representing a fresh start. Recently, I felt a need to start a new exercise regime. Not a physical, let’s-get-fit exercise, but a new mental and spiritual regime I am trying to practice and embrace. I have noticed lately that I allow many of my emotions to

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5 Things You Need to Quit Right Now

By Ashley Johnson / Purpose, Health & Beauty

I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and came across a quote that said: 5 Things to Quit Right Now: 1. Trying to please everyone. 2. Fearing change. 3. Living in the past. 4. Putting yourself down. 5. Overthinking. That’s actually pretty good advice, I thought. So I took a screenshot of it and decided to take it to heart. Here’s why I think we should quit each thing on that list: 1. Trying to please everyone. It’s simply impossible, and if you live your life seriously trying to accomplish this goal, you’ll run yourself ragged… And probably feel like a failure, because it’s simply unachievable. Don’t do that to yourself. Be kind, respectful, and do your best to love your neighbor

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5 Ways I Learned to Love My Middle-Aged Body

By Meaghan Dawson / Life & Culture, Best Of

The other day, as I was participating in my daily scroll on social media, a Facebook memory popped up on my feed. It was a heartwarming throwback of me and my youngest when she was just a baby. I looked tired, yes, but also had that new-mom glow as I held my daughter in her “Baby’s First Christmas” outfit. She was three months old and this was, sadly, quite a few years ago. I remember that picture well. We were at my in-laws’ house after church, and it was the first time I had gotten “dressed up” since giving birth. And I remember being wildly insecure about my new, mom-of-three body. I felt frumpy, overweight, and gross. I didn’t want to go,

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Want to Change Your Life? Start Building Something New

By Rachel Hagstrom / Purpose

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”—Socrates (a character in Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives by Dan Millman) For the record, the words above weren’t penned by the philosopher Socrates, but rather by a character with the same name in a book I have not yet read. I stopped scrolling when I came across the quote on my Instagram, half-hoped it indeed was passed down by the Greek classic, but regardless, instantly liked it—yet with strings attached. The part of me that rebels against the meaning of the words is the same part of me that finds value in taking an honest inventory of

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I Found Freedom After Sharing My Painful Story

By Eve DeBardeleben Roebuck / Faith

What do you do when one of your best college friends moves to the beach? You round up the rest of the gang and head down to see her. This is just what we’ve done for the last several years, and it’s come in the nick of time for some whose lives are wearing thin. While we’re often in touch with updates and prayers, getting together yearly at Fernandina Beach as we’ve just done last week is the highlight. We spend evenings outside after supper, catching up as the sun goes down. One night, there was such an astonishing sunset, no one thought to snap a photo. We gaped instead. Later, when the moon rose and the clouds parted and the light

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Ask Dr. Zoe – How Can I Get a Promotion at Work?

By Dr. Zoe Shaw / Ask Dr. Zoe

‘Want a Promotion’ Asked: One of my goals for this year is to get a promotion. What’s the number one thing I can do to get noticed at work and prove to my boss he should promote me? I hate talking about myself but I know I’m good at my job and I’m valued in the workplace. Dr. Zoe Answered: I love working with women to help them get promotions! What better time than the new year to go after that promotion! There isn’t just one main thing that can lead to the promotion of your dreams. It’s a combination of things. So, I will give you the top ones: The most important thing to understand is that your value at work

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When Life Changes, Does Your Purpose Change, Too?

By Marlys Johnson Lawry / Purpose, Audio Articles

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) An old, wooden door with a torn screen and chipped paint once graced our front porch. A birch basket of pinecones sat on a red chair in front of the door, and a “Welcome” sign hung from the top corner. The screen door that once slapped happily against the frame of a tired, old farmhouse had been repurposed into porch art. It received a few comments through the years, not all of them complimentary. One friend went so far as to offer to repair the screen door. (It seems that some people don’t appreciate good art when they see it.) What if you once knew what your purpose was? And what if you

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This Mama Is Getting Her Pink Back

By Kimberly Trigo / Motherhood, Best Of

Tomorrow, I return to the working world for the first time since I left J.P. Morgan Chase in 2014 to be a stay-at home mom to my twins. I have never regretted that decision, even in the moments where I could not afford a purchase or in the tantrum-riddled days where I could not seem to catch my breath until they were fast asleep. Looking back on these last 8 years, it all went so fast. A Helpful Flamingo Analogy My niece recently shared with me a little trivia about flamingos and how they lose their pink color while taking care of their young. As the flamingos start to get more independent, the mama starts to get her pink back. I am

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It Took Losing Everything to Find Me

By Dona Middleton / Purpose

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. -E.E. Cummings At 30, I was happily married, had a great career, many friends, and lots of money. During that time, I also became deeply depressed, was put on medication for anxiety and entered what would be a very long relationship with psychotherapy. It was a real struggle for me to understand why I wasn’t happy when I had everything that I thought was important in life. Was I selfish? Were my expectations too high? I honestly couldn’t understand what was missing and how to fill this huge void that gnawed at me endlessly. When I look back at my life, more than 20 years later, I realize that I

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For Everything There Is a Season: Reflections on Turning 40

By Caroline Beidler / Purpose, Audio Articles

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) Almost to the day of me turning 40, I began receiving emails from my dermatologist with deals for $10 shots of Botox. Along with some other strange things like: silver hair appearing around my temples, thinning skin on my forearms, random jutting veins like tributaries on an old map on skin only visible when I wear shorts (which is rarely), under eyes like crinkle paper, new ridges etching into my forehead (what my daughter calls: “squigglies”), groaning when I bend down to pick something up, creaking when I wake up the morning after a workout, calling college students “kids,” and needing that overhead light to do the dishes… I also started recognizing a

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Change: How to Keep Calm and Carry On

By Marlys Johnson Lawry / Faith, Audio Articles

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) The crocuses and daffodils are stretching upward to show off their color after a long winter’s nap, and our trees are budding and leafing. It’s mid-April as I write this. With temperatures in the high 70s last week, we stored the snow-blower in the shop, uncovered the deck furniture, and set the Adirondack chairs around the firepit. During this change-of-season ritual, I commented to my husband, “You know this means it will snow again, right?” Yep. We woke up to three inches of the fluffy white stuff this morning. Of course. (Did I mention it’s mid-April?) Here at the base of central Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, seasons shift and change every which way. Now,

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How Do I Begin to Heal from Past Emotional Hurt? with Elizabeth Bristol -186

By This Grit & Grace Life Podcast / Podcast, Relationships

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | MorePart of growing older—and being human—is learning how to recognize and manage our emotions in a healthy way. Our emotions have the power to help us grow, but they can also hold us back, especially when we’ve been hurt by others in the past. Elizabeth Bristol joins Darlene Brock and Julie Bender on this week’s podcast episode to share how she overcame her past emotional hurt. Elizabeth dealt with heartache and traumatic situations, including rape and drug use. After years of feeling stagnant in her pain, God prompted her to write down her story. It was only after she faced the pain of her past

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Are the Ghosts of Your Past Still Living With You?

By Allison McCormick / Faith, Audio Articles

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) The small, blue house trimmed in bright white sits at the end of a dead-end street. Built in the late 1940s, it was taken down to the studs and thoughtfully reimagined. White tree roses line the walkway and embrace the foundation. Raised garden beds are carefully placed throughout the backyard, angled just right to catch the morning and mid-day sun. Large ceramic bowls, filled with water, and wooden feeders provide refuge for the local birds and a source of exasperation for the resident squirrels. Have You Found Freedom from Your Past, or Do You Live With It? A heart-shaped wreath invites you through the front door. Artwork and handmade quilts grace the walls.

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