Regular Girl

On today's episode: "Soon enough, Mother’s Day arrived and that white-blonde haired boy came stomping into my room, shouting “Happy Mother’s Day!”, and practically bounded onto the bed, gift in hand. The day had come. I carefully unwrapped and uncovered a precious treasure clearly selected by him."

On today's episode: "Last year, he’d literally be pulling his hair out as we sat to complete frustrating homework assignments. The shortest of blonde hairs collecting on the seat and floor beneath as he pulled them out handfuls at a time. The year before that? We could barely sit long enough to do anything. Years before that, when I wanted nothing more than to just sit and read to him, it...

On today's episode: "That purpose you’re looking for? That fulfillment? Satisfaction? Happiness? You can keep searching for it in things, relationships, activities, accolades, and achievements, but you will always come back to empty. Nothing in this world will give you what you’re looking for like He can."

On today's episode: "There’s a different heart stance when we simply show up and look for all of the ways we can help and serve. We stop keeping a tally of the things we’ve done for others in hopes they might one day pay us back. We get excited about outdoing one another in honor (Romans 12:10) and we begin to actually become this manifestation of love."

On today's episode: "So I decided to read my Bible. Every day. Old Testament to New Testament. Cover to cover. Chapters at a time. More than a daily verse. I’d put the whole thing in context. Everyday, I committed to reading and through that small act of discipline, everything changed. People keep asking me what happened. Am I a new Believer? Well, honestly, there’s never really been a ti...

On today's episode: "You know them well enough that when you hit bumps in the road with your relationship and misunderstandings come up, they’ve shown you enough of who they really are so that you can more easily see their intentions behind it all. You’ve hopefully learned enough about their history that you understand why they do the things they do. If you base your assumptions on what y...

On today's episode: "You lead with love and grace. That’s the stuff that makes people curious enough about Jesus that they want to learn more. When people get around Him, He’ll do the heavy lifting to bring correction. That’s why we enter into a personal relationship with Him. He is the only one that can bring true transformation. And it’s funny, when you’re more concerned about the log i...

On today's episode: "Which is, you were never intended to carry around all of that burden. Those very feelings causing you to pause are a reminder that absent His authority in your life, you’ll never be enough. We were not created to live in isolation with a do it all attitude."

On today's episode: "What I’ve learned is that the more authentic I’ve been in who He created me to be, the less I feel like I’m struggling. Awkward and too much for people, sure, and that’s a hard feeling to combat at times, but it’s certainly less tiresome to just feel that way, instead of feeling that way and still pretending to be someone I’m not."

On today's episode: "But consider what it would be like to step into a space with a warm and gentle reminder that “it is finished.” When that veil was torn, our need to do very specific and actionable atonement tasks was squashed. When He took His final breath, He made a way for His Spirit to take over that dark space that shame says you’ll never be removed from."

On today's episode: "So then, if you have accepted salvation, are the words you are about to speak or write teeing you up to speak life? To disciple? To guide the lost and lonely? The tongue has the capacity to speak the sweetest words of life and encouragement to the lost and suffering."

On today's episode: "Just as my children have no reason to doubt that I am their mother, we should have no reason to doubt that God is our Father. If we want what is best for our children, how much more does He want what’s best for us? Instead of doubting and questioning and being angry at God, why not simply choose to believe that He knows better than you?"

On today's episode: "If those things are true, it steals the beautiful and insane nature of the gift of salvation. It makes zero sense to us, but it’s not supposed to. This is a case where love truly wins."

On today's episode: "If I had been more concerned with making sure he knew how right I was and how wrong he was in his opinions, would that have opened up the moment in time for discipleship? Would it have put me in a character stance to present a life and eternity changing faith that was in line with who I am in Jesus?"

On today's episode: "I’ll just come right out and say it. We are arrogant. We really believe that we can navigate this life and do a sufficient enough job by simply believing in the name of Jesus and not actually pursuing Jesus in the ways that Romans 12:2 suggests."

On today's episode: "Consider then, if the absence you feel from God, is actually absence. Maybe it’s more like patience and is but another tactic of our great Father to bring more of His children into His embrace? Your unique story was meant to speak to others in a specific way that no one else could."

On today's episode: "It is no small thing, this royalty we possess through our salvation. I look at Christ and the example He gave us in walking through the same hardships of life as a man. The way He loved people, even in death as He asked God’s forgiveness for the people who’d been shouting for the very suffering and death he sustained."

On today's episode: "When we feel weak and powerless against the world and against our flesh, let us cling to this truth. Lift your head and broaden your chest. You are equipped with the tools to fight against the things of this world that pull you back into slavery. The Spirit Himself testifies on our behalf!"

On today's episode: "To be honest, it caught me off guard. I felt confident that He’d led me to the exact place where I was because He had work for me to do. I couldn’t answer, because I didn’t want to tell God no, but it was all so confusing. And it scared me. Who would I be if I wasn’t Zumba Kellye?"

On today's episode: "He had and still has no idea I was at the door the entire time. Nor, does he know I kissed his sweaty head and tucked him in when he finally surrendered. I never left him. I had enough patience to wait it out because for my baby, I have the time to wait for that. For all he knows, I walked away completely, because he couldn’t see me, hear me, or feel me. But I was the...

On today's episode: "And let me start by saying that I am not that girl. I am not that kind of Christian…the devoted disciple of Christ that is compelled to pursue Jesus at every turn and talk about Him incessantly. Or at least my idea of who that type of person is and what they look and sound like."

On today's episode: "In our lives, this same question can apply to the area we compare most often. Who told you that you had to throw a Pinterest party? Who told you that you had to wear a size 4? Who told you that you had to make homemade, organic anything? Who told you your house had to look a certain way? Or my favorite...Who told you that you had to get your life cleaned up before Jes...

On today's episode: "And it seems that in our own lives, less big sinful offenses, we walk around with a great deal of shame surrounding things that aren’t at all shameful. You ate the indulgence that wasn’t on your diet plan. Shame. You can’t fit into the dress or the pants or the bathing suit and look the way you think you should look. Shame. You said no to the thing someone expected yo...

On today's episode: "Towards the end of the year, I’m tempted to get really distracted. A to-do list of lots of fun and fulfilling things, quickly becomes a deep well of anxiety. Feeling overly anxious leads to an inability to rationally pursue any other conflict in my life with the peace and calm that I normally might be able to. And where one conflict rises, it sure feels like others ar...

On today's episode: "Is the question you’re asking, “why did God put me through that?” Perhaps, instead, the statement is “Look at all the Lord has brought me through.”"