I looked in the mirror, brow furrowed, taking in my brand-new, freshly unpregnant form. I had just spent nine months carrying an absolutely enormous baby boy, and it showed. Purple stretch marks crisscrossed my abdomen like lightning bolts. My soft, saggy stomach had a new squishy, spongy quality. My breasts tingled and swelled, preparing for…
Lord, increase our faith! Not long before Peter was accosted by the collectors of the temple tax in Capernaum, Jesus told his disciple, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you”…
I thought it was a bunch of trash at first, just a pile of papers and rags lying on the sidewalk. People walked past, stepping carefully around it. As we got closer, I saw the curve of a head, dark hair spinning out like a hurricane around a cowlick at the crown. It was a…
Every two years, my husband has one of two conversations with me—either about the place we’re all moving to next or the location of his upcoming deployment. Not one to readily send my husband off to war, the deployment discussions aren’t my favorite pastime. Recently, though, we talked about our next move. Contrary to widespread…
I stood at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, saltwater burning my throat, sand between my teeth, my wild curls wet and windswept. I was squinting because I had just lost my favorite pair of sunglasses among the waves. This was my first real encounter with the ocean, and I didn’t know it had so…
I hate winter. I grew up in the southern part of Florida, just a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean. My childhood was drenched in endless sunshine, flowers that never faded, and clear, turquoise ocean waves. My surroundings were, in a word, idyllic. My home was green and warm all year long, without a season…