Our tenth anniversary kicked off a season of unprecedented strife, most of which was circumstantial. My husband and I were homeschooling our three young sons, navigating multiple part-time jobs and trying to manage my health crisis. Both of us lacked sleep, energy, and patience. Prior to this season, conflicts had not been an issue for…
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, boastful, proud, rude, or irritable. I’m curious—does anyone actually loves like this because I don’t. The notion of being loved by someone who never gives up on us, never loses faith in us, always exudes hope and stands by our side through cancer, job loss, seasons…
During church several weeks ago, I sat behind a husband and wife who never looked at each other during the entire ninety minute service. They seemed to be straining to prevent their bodies from touching. While I certainly can’t claim to understand what was going on for them, I know that space. On more than…
When my boyfriend of seven years proposed to me, I said No, mostly because I feared making an intractable mistake. Five years later, I was slightly more courageous and said Yes to the second man who proposed; He pulled the plug four months later. Confused and raw, I determined to create a criterion that could…
“Love is an earthquake meant to relocate the center of our universe,” writes Mike Mason in his brilliant book, The Mystery of Marriage. I wish I had known that this was to be expected. During our first decade of marriage, the tectonic plates shifted and pitched me off balance so frequently that I assumed I…
