The prosperity gospel teaches that God rewards us with health and wealth in proportion to our faith. Passages like John 16:33 lead me to deny the veracity of these claims. But, while studying Genesis, I came face-to-face with how the message of the prosperity gospel had seeped into my own theology. I had unknowingly embraced…
I’m a teacher at heart, but I didn’t stand in front of a classroom until I was forty-five years old. I’m also a confirmed introvert whose lifelong policy has been to keep quiet, shrink into the background, and observe but not be observed. This is why I so vividly remember the day—the moment—I stood in…
“No, Mom,” my son whispered. “They’re asking if we’d like to go to a late breakfast with them.” I sighed audibly, smiled, and nodded. The lightbulb of understanding was finally on. After several minutes of trying to decipher what the Spanish-speaking couple was asking me, my son had come to my rescue and translated the…
Do you ever read or hear God’s Word and brush over verses and stories you have memorized because you think you already know what they mean? This happened to me the other morning. I was praying—or rather, begging—God to deliver me from my years of sleepless nights. I wanted a cure. Or at least an…
On a car ride back from Christmas in Pensacola with our families, as fresh newlyweds, I told my husband, Bryan, that I was miserable in my career. I’d earned a master’s degree, climbed the corporate ladder, and was helping run a Women in Leadership and Philanthropy program at a large state university. The female alumni…
My tired body seemed to lift itself onto the table. I placed my head on the pillow, sank into the cushions, and released a long-needed sigh. As an act of self-care, I’d found myself in the studio of an esthetician, preparing to be pampered. As I drew a deep, slow breath, my mind wandered to…