The Acadian deportation of 1755 reminds us to extend welcome and love to our neighbors today, to those who may feel like strangers in a strange land.

What does it mean to trust God when it seems he’s dealt scarcely with us? In my scarcity mindset, I became much like the dwarf, Thorin Oakenshield, in Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Searching for “peace” about a decision. Listening for God’s direction. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Waiting for a word from the Lord. All of these and more often lead to Christian Decision Paralysis. What if we could make decisions without Christian Decision Paralysis taking a hold of us? What if discovering God’s will wasn’t such a mystical, mysterious hunt?

As writers, we endure many deaths in order to grow. Our “darlings” fall before our eyes as editors cut them from our work—from beloved words to entire paragraphs we labored over. This is the process of the outer bark and old leaves wilting away. But as writers, we can trust these deaths will sprout growth too—not just in our writing, but in our lives too.

We don’t like to think of our cute, tiny children as being sinful. As moms, we may feel uncomfortable even telling our children they’re sinners. Why do we want our children to feel guilty? But what if the uncomfortable, bad news is necessary before our kids (or anyone) can truly understand the good news of the gospel at all?

Don’t buy the lie that you don’t have time for fiction and poetry and pleasure reading. Yes, biblical literacy is important. It’s valuable for Christians to spend time in theology books, commentaries, and Bible studies. However, we shouldn’t pit them against the beautiful and true writing found in novels and poems.

You’ve been told all your life that God’s Word will put your mind at peace and calm your fears, yet they still rage no matter what you do. Even as you repeat Bible verses to yourself, your heart stamps in your chest. You try to focus on the text before you, but anxiety fogs and clouds your brain. How do we stay in God’s Word while anxiety fills us?

Being a mother has humbled me. Weekly I’m faced with my own questions and failures. Yet our Heavenly Father is the perfect parent to us all the time. And being our perfect parent, we can look to him and image his love to our children. In her latest book, Christina Fox reminds us of how God cares for us as his beloved children and how we can reflect such care to our children through our parenting.

Can a friendship last even if you strongly disagree on theological points? Yes, and it should—because it will sharpen both of you.

I’ve known for a long time that I don’t like change. Over the past few years, I’ve recognized my unhealthy grasping for control over people, weather, health, and other realities I can’t possibly sway to my liking. But it wasn’t until the past year or so that I reckoned how much changes of mind rattled me—both in others and in myself.

Rather than dealing with the grief of your situation, do you project unnecessary judgments about yourself, your situation, or others? To help us better cope with our suffering, therapists have created a coping skill known as radical acceptance. As believers, we can use radical acceptance paired with our hope in Christ to help us through our suffering.

As I sat next to Daniel at his grandmother’s funeral, I couldn’t help but marvel at what a legacy she left. Sitting at the front was her youngest daughter, Daniel’s mother, who she had raised in the faith. Behind her and Daniel’s dad sat me and Daniel, followed by Daniel’s sister and brother and his wife and children. Each of us, spouses and all, clinging to that same faith she taught her daughter who then taught it to them.

We all have stories. Some are meant to be shared to encourage and give voice to others’ stories. But some are not meant to be proclaimed on the internet. There is power in a picture and strength behind a story, but sometimes it’s more important to protect those I love, including myself. Here’s how we can discern the difference.

Growing up, I always craved the intimate relationship I saw that others had with God. But it seemed like this intimate relationship was always out of reach. What I didn’t realize is that in Christ, God has provided the way for me to have an intimate relationship with him—one of speaking and listening, of learning and growing in love.

After the birth of our twins, my husband suffered and need my care. And many times I failed. Often, watching someone else suffer makes us feel so helpless. We come before our husbands empty-handed and often wordless. How can we be their helper when we feel so helpless?

In Christian spheres, people paint curiosity a few different ways. In some circles, it’s praised almost as a spiritual discipline that we should partake in if we wish to know God and grow in holiness. In other circles it’s a dangerous practice. But what if the faithful Christian can be both curious and discerning?

I say my husband and I found healing in an unexpected place to us—because in our pride, we assumed real healing could only come from those who agreed with us.

As the Christmas season approaches, memories around my twins’ traumatic birth start to tumble in my heart. How do we quiet our hearts to enjoy Christmas this year? How do we find the peace that was announced on Christ’s birth? I think of Mary, the mother of our Savior, and the example she left us.

Every baby, every mother, every family is different to some degree. What works for one mom or one baby might not work for another; but in both my pregnancies and postpartum experiences I’ve found these six things to be true each time.

Sometimes, suffering will be a reckoning with our doctrine. It will appear as hopeless laments. Sometimes there may even be questions and doubts. But God is still there.