JoaS

Originally published February 25, 2013: I was having a conversation with someone the other day and it taught me something important about love. It's something God has been trying to teach me for a long time. My husband and I chatted about it more on a car trip back from spending some time with my family, and that conversation and opportunity to talk through it with someone who knows the love of Christ and demonstrates it with me daily really drove the point home. (We also talked about this in my bible study, it was the sermon on Sunday, and my brother just sent me a link to some profound thoughts from another woman on the subject. Coincidence? I think not. God's serious about this one, guys.) So here's what I'm learning: have you ever been in a disagreement with someone and they try to win you to their side by putting yours down?  It may be that it's the other way around. Does it work? Truly? Or is it more likely that the most promising end we can expect

Some of you may know that back in the day I had a blog called Emily Posting. It's still there, you can still peruse it, if you dare. I thought I might share some of those early musings here, in case there is any tidbit worth revisiting. Turns out, there might be just a few. This post was originally published March 20, 2013: I would argue that the best tip Michael and I got to start our marriage off on the right track (besides reading tons of Dave Ramsey's work and chatting about our future goals) was to listen to Senior Pastor Tommy Nelson of Denton Bible Church in Texas speak on Song of Solomon.  Michael and I downloaded and listened to the series on our honeymoon, actually, and I can say with all confidence that it made our honeymoon a success.  Anyone looking to get married, already married, or who happens to know and interact with other people should definitely hear this guy speak. Obviously we two honeymooners were intently focused on nuggets of wisdom Nelson h

Not to be a downer or anything, but bad things happen. If you're reading this, I assume you're an adult with a computer who reads blogs and articles about real life, so chances are good you already know this tidbit. You may even understand it better than I do, myself. I grew up in a very loving home, with a nice family, a great dog, I got along with my brother, and I saw all the Disney movies. I have wonderful memories of fun family vacations. I had plenty of friends and I always did well in school. I didn't have to try hard and I thought I was very fortunate. Un fortunately, you don't get a lot of opportunity to develop a mature character when you don't have to try hard, right? Smooth seas and whatnot. I feel like I was catapulted straight from adolescence into adulthood. I had a great college experience and my parents were terribly supportive and I was comfortable. Then I got engaged. I talked about moving to a different state, to a big city. I had to find