I saw hints of purity and transparency when I began dating my husband. The invitation to an authentic relationship—to be known and loved, to create beauty on the clean white paper of marriage—was what I’d longed for all my life. I eagerly said, “I do.” buff.ly/3Np9nHG

Thousands of times I’ve scolded myself as a wife, a mother, a Christian because I failed to live up to this phantom image of what a godly Christian wife and mother should be like. Does this sound at all familiar to you? Read more - buff.ly/4e7LEH1

Adopted children deal with a wide range of challenges...When they reach adolescence there is the added challenge of identity. They ask questions like, “Who am I in this family that isn’t really mine? Why wasn’t I wanted?” Read more - buff.ly/3Yx22uK

To have our best efforts rejected, and to have my love be unwanted and unappreciated, was deeply hurtful. I felt like a failure as do many parents. I recognized and felt the heart of God in my own experience of great loss. Read more - buff.ly/3YZ7mbS

A lesson I’m still learning, but understand more clearly with each decade of life, is that fixing my circumstances is rarely the answer to reducing stress. Read more - buff.ly/3CwhK23

You may be facing difficult situations in your life. So how do you face the rapidly approaching holidays this year when your world has been turned upside down? Read more - buff.ly/4155nUC

In the first year of our marriage, Dennis and I made an unintentional and yet very serious mistake, one that inflicted profound disappointment on two very important people. Read more - buff.ly/3ZVsBfj

My sweet precious granddaughter, Molly Ann Mutz, was born full-term with congestive heart failure, due to a serious malformation of blood vessels in her brain. Molly, who was beautiful and perfectly normal on the outside, lived only 7 days. Read more - buff.ly/49P1hSY

For believers in Christ there is a certainty in our future, even if it doesn’t happen in 2025. It’s not a frequent topic in our daily conversations. But it once was. Read more - buff.ly/42m99Kj

It is not surprising to know that none of us loves well. Frankly, it’s just easier to be selfish. And that is the root of what’s wrong with our world. Read more - buff.ly/4gKNSOI

Most people who make resolutions are deadly serious when they begin. But after a few weeks, after they’ve failed a few times in cutting calories or reading the Bible daily, they give up. Read more - buff.ly/4ae2oMn

One of our jobs as a parent is teaching our kids how to love and respect any person in their lives—their siblings, their friends, the people they encounter. Every human being is made in the image of God - every person has innate value. Read more - buff.ly/3WGeY1u

It was a warm, early summer day when Dennis invited me to go to lunch. We’d known each other as friends for three years in college, but we hadn’t seen each other in a year since graduation. So we had a lot to catch up on. Read more - buff.ly/3CxuNAK

Have you ever tried to solve a mystery? Or have you read a detective novel or two where you have no idea how it will end? Read more - buff.ly/4hXRwoT

Dear Barbara: Where is God when our marriage fails? We tried everything. Is every marriage meant to be saved? Read more - buff.ly/lZBuN1O

Did you know Jesus never asked us to celebrate His birthday? But we do ... lavishly and extravagantly. But if we have Christmas and Easter out of proportion in our world, and we do, how can we elevate Easter this year? Read more - buff.ly/cKPWeqN

What Jesus accomplished on the cross is the pivotal moment in all of history, the greatest victory of all. As Easter approaches, here are 7 ways to make Holy Week and Easter Sunday meaningful. buff.ly/a7LdHr4

Easter is not about a birth, but a death, which begs the question: When was the last time you wanted to gaze on a bloody, mangled body? Is the thought even too much? The answer: yes. Read more - buff.ly/P4Svu2S

Years ago we had neighbors with children about the ages of our middle kids. One of them was an angry child who knew bad words and used them at times. He played rough with our kids and found kindness difficult. Read more - buff.ly/TJydEKN

One of my seminary courses, The Story of Scripture, was a high-level look at the entire Bible as God’s story to us. My professor gave us the creative assignment of writing our own interpretation of His story in any medium. Read more - buff.ly/GIkpdRV