Moms who love Jesus love their children in the form of prayer. It is what we do. We pour out our hearts before God about every need we can see they have. We pray for their hearts to love Him. Our hands are laid on them as we pray over their healing. We battle the dark side ferociously in the name of Jesus when they struggle. Begging God to intervene is what many of us do for a variety of needs. There are plenty of quiet moments when we thank God for them as they are sitting there eating, sleeping, playing ball, you name it. Our intercessory prayers do more to move heaven than we even know. Th ..read more

What is your family’s identity in? Are you filling your families schedule with what is important to your values? Who is controlling your time? You or what society is telling you to do? I need to confess all of you; please don’t judge me. Just practice extending that mercy now. Are you ready for it? When the initial quarantine happened back in 2020, I was happy for the break. Yup, I was. I had no idea of the months and years to come or the freedoms that were about to be taken from us. Grateful not to have to get kids to school, doctor’s appointments, sports, activities, etc. I thought – wow, n ..read more

Nothing is more humbling than being gifted with a thorn in your side. Yes, I said that correctly. I do see the thorn in my side as a gift. Some days I don’t look at it through the rosiest of lenses, but overall, I love some of the huge blessings I have received because God allowed a chronic physical affliction in my life. Chronic pain, not so much in my side but in my lower back, has taught me so many things. It’s only best to document the lessons that can be learned only through a thorn in your side. I suppose I received my gift right after I went off to college. Back pain without a major in ..read more

Identity For New Years. Identity has been heavy on my heart for a while now. With society’s growing mental health issues and dissatisfaction in life, finding our identity seems to be hard to come by. I have even spoken publicly about finding our true identity, conveying the importance of being grounded in the Lord.  Yet People, including myself, have found their identity in various other things throughout the years. From work to sports, being a mom to where you live, the list goes on. None of these things are bad in any sense except when you don’t recognize that none of this is who you a ..read more

Merry Christmas! This year has absolutely flown by and I must say – I think the challenges of this year sped things along a bit. So much to look back on this year, good and bad, but I wanted to spend a minute giving you an update on Baylor. Most of you who have known us a long time, have been well aware of some of the challenges of her health journey. Yes, she has an autism diagnosis – but she has been struggling with Immune Deficiency, as well. This Immune Deficiency shows itself at times/flares as PANS. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsyciatric Syndrome. When she first had the symptoms of PA ..read more

. Words are such an incredibly powerful force. Words are weapons that are used to sharpen ourselves and others but they are also used to cut through our intended recipient. We use them to build each other up and we use the same tongue to tear each other down. The same mouth blesses one minute, spits fire and wrath the next. Our words spoken about ourselves start to shape how we see ourselves and who we become. Our words spoken over others can shape how they see themselves and who they become, as well. The Bible brings up our words so many times – I’ll bring up a few: ~ “Death and life are in ..read more

Trade sorrow for Joy This month has been a lot to navigate for Catherine and me. Trading sorrow for joy is no easy task sometimes. She had the death of her father, which she wrote about in the post About Dad. I had my Grandma pass a few days before that. It was a bit of a shock. I count myself as very blessed by the fact that I had all four of my grandparents in my life. I’m trying to trade my sorrow for Joy. All four of them got to feed into my life, help mold my life, and were all great examples of good God loving people. I love them all, and I miss now all four of them together and separat ..read more

About dad. Dad and I shared a love for writing – so my words about his life are here in the reading of my words rather than my spoken ones. Dad was born on Halloween – making his debut as “The Great Pumpkin,” as he so affectionately called himself. His birthday celebrations included all the candy, new costumes each year and chocolate on chocolate cake that was his all-time favorite. Celebrating dad every year was extra fun for my family. My earliest memories of my dad – Leo Blumberg – were found in bath time, coloring together, playing games, watching FSU football in the fall on Saturdays, am ..read more

Fires can be small and contained, like a campfire built for smores, but some fires can scorch acres of our souls like a wildfire in the mountains. Sometimes the fires have kerosene dumped on them over and over as they ravage our soul and test what we are made of. We have to walk through the fires to get out of them. Sometimes it would be easier to throw in the towel. It can be much less painful to not fight anymore. Fighting is hard. Fighting takes strategy and stamina, resolve and awareness. Fighting means you hold ground no matter what comes – no matter what enemy or what the enemy you know ..read more

God is with us in every valley. God is With Us. There is so much pain right now. Losing service members in Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, flooding in Waverly, TN, all those lives lost, the whole situation with our government, sicknesses, and hurricane Ida.  Everything seems too much for my heart and head to process. I can not address any one of these hurts fully and adequately. All I can do is lean into God.  Lean into and press forth.  Let Him lead me.  It stirs up this veteran’s heart something fierce when I think about the 13 empty dinner plates of the service mem ..read more