Being human is hard. We often live from a storm-tossed place with noise that can feel deafening even when it isn’t audible. Walking hospital corridors towards the ICU to see my husband; rushing through afternoon traffic to get my son to the urgent care as the hives took over his neck; and getting a franticContinue reading “What does the Bible say about listening?”
Author Archives: mariel
When a Bible study habit becomes a rhythm of grace
The alarm assaults my senses as I stir from sleep. Immediately anxious thoughts flood my barely conscious mind. Concerns about the day ahead and responsibilities mingle with regret as guilt creeps in like the unwanted but familiar enemy it is. Before the hot coffee hits the bottom of the mug, I am already feeling defeatedContinue reading “When a Bible study habit becomes a rhythm of grace”
Desperate enough to know Him
I was desperate but I didn’t know what I was desperate for. I was an atheist with a new baby and new marriage that was already falling apart. I opened a borrowed Bible desperate for answers. It seemed my last resort. I had to prove this book wrong in order to shut my husband upContinue reading “Desperate enough to know Him”
Finding mercy in a new season
For the first time in nearly two decades, the school year is beginning and I am not purchasing curriculum, planning out lessons or navigating the schedule of the coming months for my boys’ education. Completing a long journey is bittersweet. After years of prayerfully homeschooling our sons, I am now left with loads of memoriesContinue reading “Finding mercy in a new season”
Pausing to refill for the season ahead
It’s been a hot summer on the coast this year, maybe every year, but this one has been peppered with less hilltop experiences and more valleys and valleys hold the heat more so. So it has been in this post-ish season of pandemics and upheavals both in our personal and cultural life. Just hot, drainingContinue reading “Pausing to refill for the season ahead”
Tending our soul by the Word
Surrounded by my dry garden at the end of a long season of trials and weariness, I am reminded to tend my own soul. We don’t get much summer rain where I live but this year the garden is drier than ever. I have drug out the hose most mornings but have brought in lessContinue reading “Tending our soul by the Word”
Prayers of peace for seasons of change
Welcome to Tending through the Seasons series, where writers from various seasons of life share how they are tending their soul by the Word of God through their current season. Dr. Chizobam Idahosa is a wife, mother to three beautiful girls, and a dentist specialized in oral medicine. At the core of her identity, she sees herselfContinue reading “Prayers of peace for seasons of change”
Tilling with gratitude
As the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon this morning, I reached first for my hot coffee and once settled into my favorite chair I opened my gratitude journal. The gratefulness poured out through my pen with increasing ease I reflected on the weekend. I felt the lightening of my heart as theContinue reading “Tilling with gratitude”
Tending through the older seasons
Welcome to Tending through the Seasons series, where writers from various seasons of life share how they are tending their soul by the Word of God through their current season. Meet Susan Chamberlain Shipe. She’s been a writer since the age of eight when she and her neighborhood friend wrote, edited, published, and distributed The Manor News.Continue reading “Tending through the older seasons”
A season of fresh entrusting
Life seasons flow through the calendar like water on the shore. We see some of them coming like gentle waves creeping in and some of them hit us from the backside, knocking the wind right out of us! We slowly built up to the season when my youngest son would graduate high school. It hadContinue reading “A season of fresh entrusting”