Marriage is worth waiting for. I understand it so much more clearly now than I did before, and each day I see how much I must learn, how unskilled I am in some areas, and how grateful I am for the chances I had to cultivate others. I treasure the advice of those who have…
Archive | July, 2010
Absence Makes the Heart Grow: Through Separation
Absence – that common cure of love. -Lord Byron From Anna: I am currently in a long distance relationship, with the intent to get married after college. We are not currently engaged. We are about 4 hours apart, and we have withstood this first year of waiting. There will be three more, possibly four more….
Grace
by Rachelle Rea “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 You want to know something? Confession makes me uncomfortable. Getting honest before God is tough for me. I’m a perfectionist. I like to have everything neat and…
Home
by Elyce Westby Where do you live? Truly live? I don’t mean your address or the part of the globe from which you hail. Where does your heart live? Where is the home of your soul? This past year, major transitions came my way. With the long awaited marriage to my beloved, I left my…
Absence Makes the Heart Grow: 15-year Perspective
My husband and I lived thousands of miles apart in the months prior to becoming engaged. It was a great experience, allowing us to take our relationship slowly and get to know each other through letters. Since I was teaching English in Japan, he sent me all kinds of things to use in my classes…
Embracing Femininity
Something Gretchen wrote recently put a new twist into my thoughts: Femininity is not something you can put on, but rather a reflection of an inner beauty. God has been teaching me a lot about femininity lately. I know I believe firmly in the truths of the quote above. But am I really feminine in…
Music Review: The Far Country
It’s been nearly a decade since anything has topped out on my list of ‘favorite albums’ that wasn’t whatever the innocence mission had just released. I don’t think I even paused to realize this until Andrew Peterson broke into the winner’s circle a few months ago with his 2005 recording, The Far Country, and spun…
Excuses
I’m tired of making excuses for God. Am I the only one who does this? I hate bad-mouthing anybody — least of all my Good Shepherd. And so I find myself saying the equivalent of this: God’s a nice guy. He means well; He just hasn’t come through for me yet. That’s ridiculous: it’s unsatisfying…
The Reflection of Femininity
Like most girls, I grew up with the dream of being a beautiful princess. Except, my image of femininity was less Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, more Queen Lucy of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables, and Josephine March. They were strong women who were far from being just ornamental: they had a passion, a calling—and…
Emotional Purity?
In the past months, as I’ve talked with different single sisters in Christ, the conversations have made me wonder about certain concepts that are being communicated to Christian young people. Concepts of what is the “best” and most Christ-honoring way to go about relationships. Though these girls were all in different situations and were doing their best to go about their romantic relationships in a way that glorified God, there was a common theme…all of them felt guilty that they supposedly weren’t remaining “emotionally pure”.
