There has been a consistent theme written throughout my life. A theme only the Lord could weave throughout my story. 

Redemption. I am drawn to stories of redemption. I read stories of redemption. I long to be a part of stories of redemption. My very life is a story of redemption. 

I love a story of a former alcoholic who was led through brokenness to recovery and into a life singing glory to God. 
I love stories of weight loss transformation - freedom, health, hope, all wrapped up in someone's journey. 
I love stories of homes - formerly beat up and broken, restored and given new life. 
I love antiques in all of their imperfections - restored or reused, made beautiful all over again. 

Beauty to ashes. Hope from the brokenness. 

My very own story is one full of brokenness; one that is laden with pain, fear, and mistakes. One that was redeemed at the age of twenty when I met my best friend and Savior. And His work wasn't done there on that day when He captured my heart. His redemptive work has continued on in my heart each day since. Sanctification truly is a redemptive work, isn't it?

He's woven within my heart a desire to live in redemption, share about redemption, and partake in other's redemptive stories. 

It's part of why I love refinishing furniture. It's part of why I've loved recovering our former-foreclosure. 
It's part of why I have a heart for the brokenness of so many third-world nations. 
It's part of why I love helping women recover their physical and emotional health through healing their gut. 
It's part of why I studied counseling, and theology, and education: because redemption occurs when those three come together. 
It's why I so purposefully see hope for all people, why I can see the beauty beneath their brokenness so very easily. 

This life, it's about redemptive hope. It's woven throughout each of our stories. Even if the redemption is yet to come, even if the redemption is still buried beneath pain and heartache. It is there. 

The Gospel is hope and redemption lived out in the flesh by our Savior. It's His story of redemption, and it becomes our story of redemption when we allow Him to captivate our hearts with it. 

Our lives are stories of renewal. Our lives are made up of little and big stories of hope. A day restored, a year restored, a relationship restored, a heart restored, a moment restored, a life restored. A world restored to Him. There is hope, no matter the situation. There is beauty in the ashes. Always.

I'm so very excited to be working on a project that will launch in just a few short weeks. One that puts my search and love of redemptive stories before the eyes of anyone who is willing to engage in it with me.  Go follow my Facebook page HERE so you won't miss a thing! 

This post was originally published over at More to Be several years ago when I was a contributing writer on that site. I'm breaking it out of the archives hoping it will bless you today. Enjoy! 

​It was one of those mornings. I was running late, my hair was frizzy from the rain and awful humidity by just 8:45am, and the voice message I received wasn’t a good one. I was already disappointing someone, I could tell.

Sigh. 
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It was a rough morning, and I could tell the day wasn’t going to get any better. I hated walking into this building, working in this space; this building, it’s where my attitude was negative, the Lord felt distant, and some of the people, well, they weren’t my favorite (just sayin’). I was about to spiral down, down, down into a place where negativity turned my perspective ugly, selfish, and tainted.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I can't help but send you off into the weekend thinking about this too...

Who do you allow to speak into your life? Who do you let pour their thoughts, words, energy into your days?

It matters. Do you realize how much it matters?

Over the last year I have spent significant time digging into the heart of who I am and what I believe about myself. I have done some deep emotional work with the Lord seeking to understand a lot of junk that swims around in my head. And one of the things that I kept coming back to as I did this deep heart work, is recognizing where these lies and limiting beliefs and fears stem from. And consistently, almost without fail, I realized a lot of these things were spoken over me, spoken to me, spoken of me. A lot of what I had come to play in my mind about myself actually came from the mouth of others. 

Somehow I allowed the world's words, the influence of others, to be louder then the Truth of who I am as an adopted daughter of the One True King. 

As much as I hate to admit this truth about myself, as much as I hate to admit it here before you, I know that a writer's job is to write out the wrestle. For it is in the wrestling out loud that other's can better grasp their own disconnect. It is in my vulnerability that other's can see. 

And so I ask you again, Who do you allow to speak into your life? Who do you let pour their thoughts, words, energy into your days?

Because it matters.

Of course we are called to have space for everyone; to love everyone, even {and especially} the broken. BUT there is a difference between serving and receiving. We are called to serve everyone, but we are not encouraged to receive from everyone. 

For far too long I have received from a few who weren't life-givers, cheerleaders, hope-dealers, truth-speakers. In fact there have been a few individuals pouring into my life who just weren't healthy at all. I didn't give them much space, but the space they took, even that was too much. Those that don't fill our cup, those that consistently drain it, our hearts need protection from them. We need healthy boundaries with those that are unhealthy. We can serve them, but we should not receive from them. You wouldn't look in a cup of gross dirty water and then knowingly drink it, would you? We need to be wise in who we allow to fill our cup, to influence our heart, to speak into our mind. 

Make note of how you feel when you leave someone's presence, especially someone who you are giving freedom to speak into your life. If you leave their presence and consistently feel drained or hurt or discouraged or insecure. This is telling you something. If you leave someone's presence and feel depressed or angry or guilty. This is telling you something.  Do a heart-check. Pray. Journal. Talk with your Lord about this person. Here are a few questions to ask the Lord in your time with Him: Is this my issue/sin making me feel this way or is this their issue/sin making me feel this way? Is this person giving me life or is this person draining life from me? Give the Lord space and time to answer you. Pray. Read His Word. Be before Him. He will show you. 

Sometimes those speaking words and feelings of pain into our life are those closest to us. This is when it gets hard, this is when it gets heavy. But I have come to accept that when we allow someone to speak into our life who isn't healthy themselves, we begin to reflect them; we soak in their words, we are pulled down into their murky water. They make us unhealthy with them. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to knowingly waste even one day of my life in an unhealthy spot. 

At the foundation of a healthy follower of Christ should stand the Word of God. The Word of God should be the most powerful influence in our days. Outside of that, wise-counsel and life-giving truth-believing godly friends and mentors should be one of the few other influencers in our days. Build friendships with people who are truth-speakers, life-givers, hope-dealers. Surround yourself with people who will cheer for you to follow God's call on your life. Surround yourself with people who are full of joy and full of light. Those are the ones who should be speaking into your life. Release those who hand you a cup of murky water. Serve them, love them, but politely hand their cup back to them, and send them on their way. Don't let them speak into your life. 

Let's boldly bring those pouring into our lives before our Lord. Let's ask Him to show us who can be granted permission to speak into our lives. May the peace and truth of Christ rule in your heart, mind, and soul this weekend, my friends. Do the hard heart-work necessary to root out the lies of the enemy placed there to hold you back. 

​I don't make my home beautiful because I want to show off or attract eyes or comments.  In fact, I often get uncomfortable when people gush over my home. The beauty I create within my walls, it has meaning, it has purpose, it is intentional. My home is a place where I desire for life to be given, hope to be formed, faith to be practiced, and love to be poured out.  I desire for our home to be a place where my children long to be. I desire that for as long as I live, my children will come and find rest and peace and love within our walls. I long for it to be a place where they can taste the goodness of their Heavenly Father and receive rest from the world on their weariest of days. A few years ago I read The Life Giving Home by Sally and Sarah Clarkson. Their words gave form to the desires of my heart. They articulated exactly how I have always desired for my home to feel, and they so very much captured how I feel when I go to visit my in-laws.

We have some big news in our home!! 

We are selling our home and MOVING.

{Locally}

We are selling our home,  downsizing to a smaller home, and choosing to rent instead of own.  And we are SO EXCITED!

Why? Well, many many reasons, here are a few....
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I have a friend that always uses the word 'intentional' to describe me. I used to carry that title around with a big fat slab of pride. I used to think I was the most intentional person I knew. Until last year.

While I know my heart's desire was to live intentionally and purposefully in all that I did, I now realize my intentions weren't much beyond plans. Without action, intentions simply remain sitting before us taking shape as a desire, a plan, a hope, a focus, a dream. 

I've learned a lot about myself in the last year. I've learned that I'm not really as intentional as I thought I was. I've learned that my intentions are good, and I'm exceptional at planning out an intentional day or an intentional activity... but I've also learned that one can't claim to be intentional unless the discipline is there to match.  I've learned that it is through our actions that intentional living is truly displayed.  Planning isn't living. Action is what births living. Intentional plans in conjunction with actions are what make an intentional life impactful. And I don't know about you, but I long for my life to be one that impacts this world for Him. 

Hi, friend. Welcome. I'm so glad you're here. 

It feels good to be back here. It feels good to be sharing my words with you again. It has been three years since I felt the Lord urging me to hide my site and privatize my words. In many ways it has been a quiet season, a private season, and in other ways, it's been a very vulnerable season.  There is no denying it has been a shaping season, one full of growth in so many ways. But above all, it has been a beautiful season. Truly.  One for the books.

For the last six months I've wrestled with my Lord regarding His gentle nudge to share my words with you again.  I've asked Him for months if this was from Him, or from my own heart. And a few weeks ago He finally answered: It's from both.