If you've been around my blog a while, you know I mention chronically ill Christians... kind of a lot. That's because I've had a front row seat to the challenges that face chronically ill members of the church, since my mom struggles with adrenal fatigue (or HPA Axis Dysfunction, if you prefer the fancy term). … Continue reading Diamonds Conference Announcement!
Something that's been on my mind for several months and has just continued to build up to a crescendo over that time is the idea of roots and branches in the Church. Now, what do I mean by that? It has to do with whether our focus is outward, toward evangelism and those outside the … Continue reading Roots and Branches
Over the past month on Scribes & Archers (my author blog), I wrote a series on the importance of fiction written by Christians, how to encourage Christian authors, and why there's more than one valid style of "Christian fiction." You can check out the series here: Flavors of Christian FictionWhy Christian Fiction is ImportantEncouragement & … Continue reading Why and How to Encourage Christian Authors
Several months ago, my younger sister wrote an impromptu essay on the meaning of identity and what defines who we are. I thought it was really good, and she wanted to share it, so here it is. 🙂 It bothers me when people confuse self-expression with identity. When people talk about their clothing style as … Continue reading The Definition of “Identity” – Guest Post by Sophia R.
This is a post I wrote in February of 2018 and originally posted on the blog Our Mind Palace, which no longer exists. I still really like the post, so I'm sharing it here. 🙂 I don’t like letting go of things. Any of my close friends can back me up on this. I hate … Continue reading “Come Alive” and Christianity
Something I've seen a lot of in the past year or so and that has really annoyed me is the sugar-coating of truth. Watering down God's word to make it more acceptable to our current culture, or whitewashing evil so that it doesn't make us uncomfortable. But truth isn't meant to be sugar-coated. While there's … Continue reading Truth is Not a Donut (so stop sugar-coating it)
Recently I've been considering the ideas of dating and courtship and why I personally believe that courtship is the better option (beyond that it's what my parents taught me). I ended up with four main points. A quick summary of courtship For those who don't know, courtship is the practice of saving any sort of … Continue reading Dating vs. Courtship
I used to hate non-fiction and think it was all boring, but in the past year I've been reading a lot more on topics like youth work and education, topics that interest me, and I've gotten into non-fiction a lot more. In fact, I now have a sizable list of non-fiction books that I've enjoyed … Continue reading 12 Favorite Non-Fiction Books
For those of you who read my post on YA fiction a few weeks ago, I wrote a follow-up on Tuesday about things I'd like to see more (or less) of in YA fiction. I've talked before, in general terms, about youth, their impact on the Church and society, and the Church's habit of neglecting … Continue reading 5 Youth Ministry Improvements I’d Like to See
Shared from my writing blog, Scribes & Archers Keeping on the trend of reading habit posts inspired by conversations, I wanted to discuss the value of YA fiction. Mainstream YA can get a lot of flack in conservative Christian circles, and for good reason. It's often shallow, riddled with unnecessarily mature content, and contains little … Continue reading Why I Read YA Fiction (even though it often stinks)
