To the girl whose stomach sinks when she thinks too much about life… You are seen. You are loved. You are held.
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In Philippians 4, the apostle Paul gives exhortations to the church. He encourages them to stand fast and to have peace and joy in all circumstances, an exhortation that remains relevant for us as believers today. But what about when we are faced with very real and, sometimes, debilitating anxiety? How do we stand fast to God’s peace and continue to rejoice when an anxiety attack urges us to take flight? These are two questions I’ve asked myself and am still pursuing day-to-day.
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Have you ever felt tired and worn out, but nothing seems to quench your thirst for rest? Imagine, you are in a desert and your mouth is aching for a drop of water. You see an oasis in the distance, but as you move closer, you realize your mind was playing a trick on you--a hallucination. Something looked like your solution (and for a bit it was) but your thirst was never satisfied. Sometimes we can feel this way about rest. We continue to look for long term solutions, but become disappointed with the momentary idea of satisfaction as we realize our coping mechanism was only giving us an illusion of rest.
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I wrote My Inner Child two years ago. Poetry is an outlet for my pain. Writing, although difficult, helps get pieces of my brain onto the page so that I have more clarity on my struggles. Little did I know that this is where I would continually meet with our God. Jehovah has used this poem as a place holder in my life. He has been whispering gently to me, “Darling, we are coming back to this place of pain and I will go through it with you.”
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Ruthie Allen is a friend, wife, mother, entrepreneur, and photographer. She began the Return to Rest Retreat in 2014, understanding that her many titles complimented her, but that they were not what her identity was built on. Return to Rest is a retreat for ALL women rooted in finding true rest through Jesus Christ. Ruthie is excited to continue to share this message of rest with others as she facilitates this retreat in a cozy cabin in New Hampshire.
When I was in high school, one of my friends gave me a beautiful pink mug with the words from Philippians 4:8 written on it. I loved it as soon as I saw it. This gift has turned out to be one of my absolute favorite mugs. It traveled with me to college and, later on, to my first solo apartment. The pink mug has survived countless moves, and I still drink out of it at least once a week.
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I love fall! The minute I feel that slight chill in the air and I start seeing pumpkin everything, I can’t help but get excited. Sweaters, boots, chili, bonfires, apple cider--I love it all! But there’s something more significant about this season that draws me in every year. Fall can actually be a great reminder of God’s goodness, even in the toughest times.
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Podcasts have grown increasingly popular over the years and it seems like you can find one on just about any topic. Today, we’re sharing with you some of the best Christian podcasts that are sure to fill you with positivity and encouragement as you go through your day.
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In college, I bought a puppy. A really cute Golden Retriever puppy to be exact. It was a dark season for me and I was so tired of being there. I just wanted to be happy. So I looked at what made other people “happy.”
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Hustle. It’s become the buzzword of our time - along with similar words like grind and productivity. It seems like everyone is managing a job, plus a side project, a full social life, an intense workout routine, and an Instagram-worthy home with a fridge arranged in rainbow order. There are hundreds of articles with advice for getting more things done in less time so you can then do even more things.
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Anxiety has become a buzzword in society. Everywhere we look we see people openly admitting that they have anxiety, followed by their recommendations on how to alleviate it. It’s almost becoming a normal thing to have some sort of mental illness and declare it across social media. Let’s not forget the jokes suggesting things like needing a Xanax to calm down from a day.
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A trip to the grocery store this time of year is an opportunity to witness balance at its finest; families are often seen roaming the aisles together, putting boxes of crayons and boxes of graham crackers into their shopping carts in equal quantities. The start of the school year is right around the corner, but that doesn't mean that there still isn't time for one more camping trip, one more opportunity for quiet and reflective family time, and one more new memory of summer before the dinner table becomes a site for homework help and weeknights get busier with the start of after-school sports and clubs.
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I’m sick, and it’s late. I came home and my room is still a wreck. I manage to hang up my jacket. This is fine. I’ve been so jetlagged and tired the last week and a half, I haven’t worked out. The mirror shows awkward curves reforming. I force myself through a short workout, but my sore throat reminds me that I need rest. This is fine. I have a meeting in the morning, an article due tomorrow, a presentation to create, and a stack of thank you notes to write. There are so many hats on my head, I’m no longer certain which hat was there in the first place. This is fine.
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As women, many of us fall into the trap of believing that we can multitask our way through life. It’s easy for us to finish up some work with the TV humming in the background, talk to our friends while scrolling through social media, and workout while listening to the latest audiobook. For a lot of areas of life, multitasking seems like a great solution. It enables us to be able to get a lot done in a short amount of time and to cross more and more tasks off our never-ending to-do lists.
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My plane had just landed, and I was already quoting lines from ‘Dumb and Dumber.’ I was in Colorado and ready to explore. Rocky Mountain National Park was at the top of my list of things to do. When I arrived at the park, I had my hike to Sky Pond all mapped out and was ready to go.
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If years of watching HGTV shows has taught me anything, it's that our society perpetuates an expectation of getting more than we are willing to work for. So many future homeowners set out on their way to finding the house of their dreams with a long list of the features that they believe to be non-negotiable (open floor plan, granite countertops, a large backyard for the dogs to play...), and confidently smile at their real estate agent when they announce that the amount of money they would like to pay for their new space is not much more than the total of an average grocery receipt.
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For many of us this question might be one we ask after completing a task, like when we graduate, finish a work project, finally move, or maybe when we land our dream job. But how do we answer it? How do we know when or how we take the next step? How do any of us even know what the next step is? I guess the simple answer is, we don’t know. No one, not one of us really knows what the next part of our lives looks like. We don’t even know what tomorrow looks like. And maybe, just maybe, that is a beautiful thing.
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As I grow up, some of the parts of my faith that seemed so simple and clear at first have turned out to be more complex than I initially realized. If you, like me, grew up in a Christian church environment, you probably remember some of the messages and stories that were directed towards children. One that I particularly remember was based on Matthew 5:13, which my very young brain at the time paraphrased as meaning that as “the salt of the earth,” Christians were meant to stand out from the crowd and make the world better. Of course, to a child this seems like such an easy task, but it turns out that standing out from society as a Christian does not happen without intention.
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Some days we feel like we have it all together, and other days we live life moment to moment. For a teacher, like myself, the end of the year is always an overwhelming time. The only thing I can really compare it to is the last week of college finals. Maybe you’re not a teacher or college student but you probably still have to work around deadlines, work obligations, home life, and maintaining your relationships. All of this can become extremely demanding and approaching these hectic periods is never easy.
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The weather is warming, and it is time to kick off our shoes, throw our hands in the air, and celebrate summer, right? For some, that may be the case, for others — specifically those struggling with mental health challenges — the season of sun may not be bringing increased feelings of happiness; the opposition of our minds does not take a summer vacation. You may be one of those people. If so, fear not, because you are never alone (Matthew 28:20).
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