My All-Time Most Popular Posts Offering Christian Encouragement

I remember when, what feels like not so long ago, my husband surprised me with a ticket and all arrangements made to the She Speaks Conference hosted by Proverbs 31 Ministries. At the time, I’d all but put my pen and blog away for two years. It was a difficult season after our sweet girl came home to us through adoption from Bulgaria. The dream was different from the one we’d imagined and we found ourselves desperately searching for a new normal that would work for our family.

For years I’d mentioned the conference to my husband. I remember reading about it every year. I’d followed the Proverbs 31 Ministry since it’s beginning and somewhere deep inside a purpose to minister through writing longed to be cultivated. Whether it was finances, timing, or a season in mothering, attending the event remained merely a dream and not a reality.

Until that one day. It was only three weeks prior to the event when he surprised me. I didn’t know how it happened because the event had been sold out for a long time. But somehow an opening existed right when he logged in. I remember the mixed emotions of incredulous surprise, great big love, and nervousness. Since our daughter had come home two years before, I hadn’t spent even one night away from her or our boys.

So, off I went, and through it a new writing dream was birthed. It would be a bit before I started this blog and even longer before I actually started sharing it. Yet, today, this blog has been a conduit to sharing the hope of Jesus in ways that far surpassed my dreams.  The gift of encouraging, equipping, and inspiring others, catches my breath.  Me, someone who never dreamed herself worthy, gets to encourage others to face the challenges of life with the hope of Christ. I received the gift of writing Christian encouragement for women.

And now? On top of all that blessing, a book of our adoption story with my name on the cover, is coming out in November.

All I’ve got is this: God is good.

Would you like a sneak peek? Shhh … 🙂 It is coming out in November. Just in time for National Adoption Month!

Celebrating these last few weeks has been a joy. Giving gifts is one of my love languages. It makes me smile and fills my heart with joy. As the final week of celebration and giveaways, I thought it appropriate to share with you my all time most popular posts. The posts God used to encourage readers in not only the United States, but in several countries around the world.

Some of these go back to the first year. How fun is that? Many of you have only recently joined me, so some of these may be new to you. I pray they continue to encourage, equip, and inspire you!

My 10 All-Time Most Popular Posts Offering Christian Encouragement:

#10. A Prayer for When You Need to Get Back Up Again

When life knocks us down, sometimes it can feel nearly impossible to get back up again. One morning, as I blew it with my kids, I realized I wasn’t taking my own advice when it came to dealing the hard stuff. I forgot to cancel out every wrong thought with the truth of God’s Word? And I forgot to drop to my knees in prayer. It seems lots of struggle with the same thing and need the extra encouragement.

#9. 11 Strategies for Dumping Emotional Baggage

I have pegged away at this baggage and climbing thing most of my life. I believe it is an effort we must consciously initiate – again and again. The enemy prowls and wants nothing more than to place our baggage back into our tired hands. Hands, which, sadly enough, can find comfort in the familiarity of the very emotional baggage we want to shed.

So he works …

Knowing he has a chance with our desire for familiarity, he continuously inundates us with opportunities to retrieve the baggage. But friends, we must actively position our armor if we don’t want to find our emotional baggage weighing us down yet again.

#8. A Prayer to Receive God’s Grace

This post birthed out of another bad Mom moment! I could be embarrassed by them, but the truth is, we are all human and Mommin’ isn’t easy. We all fall short and we all need the grace of God.

So, when the moments are going downhill fast and the Mommin’ is getting rough, our best option is to simply stop mid-moment and collect our thoughts.

Step away. Turn our thoughts to Jesus and pray for Him to fill us with patience and wisdom.

#7.  7 Ways to Not Hurry God

The world we live in is fast paced and performance driven. The more we complete, the more we succeed by the world’s standards.

I believe in hard work. I believe in doing all things in excellence.

But there is an imbalance in our lives. We have a growing propensity for immediate gratification which has, in turn, caused impatience to become a viral monster.

We want to hurry God, but impatience simply doesn’t work in His world.

#6. 7 Suggestions for Raising Your Child God’s Way

It’s overwhelming. As parents, we begin to feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Even when we make a decision, we let thoughts of it being the wrong decision run rampant in our minds.

I’m right there with you, sweet mama friends! I’ve run this hamster wheel round and round.

However, I am also convicted God did not design parenthood to be this way.

#5. When Life Is Hard and Marriage Hurts

As we ached with love for the child God had gifted us, we grieved for her wholeness and for ours. We coped in the only way each of us knew how.

I think we all do that.

We develop our individual coping mechanisms to deal with unhappy times. Part of that is our unique wiring and another part is a byproduct of our upbringing.

It makes rising above the unhappy times hard to do. And it’s why so many marriages fall apart when tragedy strikes. It’s often why marriage hurts.

#4. 10 Memorable Verses for the Grateful Heart

Cultivating a grateful heart isn’t always an easy task. Life is hard. It crashes into us in waves of both good and bad. When all is good, it’s a little easier, but we all know that when life hurts, being thankful doesn’t come naturally.

Thankfully, we have the Word of God to help us, though! Today, I’ve created 10 of my favorite Bible verses for the grateful heart.

#3. Protecting Yourself from Self-Defeating Thoughts

The enemy uses the noise of the world as a distraction pulling us away from Truth. For this reason, it takes developing discipline to fight the enemy and the self-defeating thoughts he relentlessly whispers throughout our minds. Join me in this 3-part series!

#2. 63 Years of Loving Well: The Ingredients to a Lasting Marriage

As my parents celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary, I interviewed them to find out what helped their marriage last. It’s a list of 27 ingredients that got them through the hard times and the good times to a place today that is better than ever before!

And the #1 Most Popular Post is:

What I Wish My Younger Self Knew About God-Size Approval

God’s approval is something different from the rest. It’s unique – supernatural even. More powerful than any other.

It’s God-sized.

It washes over our souls bringing with it a peace for who we are and where we are going in this life. I wish I would have known that kind of approval long ago. Long before poor choices and long before I began to feel not good enough.