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A Spring Clean At Home

A Spring Clean At Home

Welcome to the third installment of our Spring Clean series! This article series is designed to focus on ways to refresh our spirits, bodies, emotions and homes.  These areas often work together in our lives as a whole and all are worth examining as we press reset and...

A Physical Spring Clean

A Physical Spring Clean

Welcome to the second installment of our Spring Clean series! This article series is designed to focus on ways to refresh our spirits, bodies, emotions and homes.  These areas often work together in our lives as a whole and all are worth examining as we press reset...

A Spiritual Spring Clean

A Spiritual Spring Clean

Welcome to the Spring Clean series! This article series is designed to help us renew ourselves after a long winter (and even longer year.)  Over the next four weeks, this series will focus on ways to refresh our spirits, bodies, emotions and homes.  These areas often...

Marriage By The Book

Marriage By The Book

Marriage By The Bookhen I think back on my wedding eleven years ago, I can remember the exact date.  The place, of course.  The people in our wedding party.  What we served at the reception and what song we chose for our first dance. But when I...

21 Ways to Refresh Your Relationship in 2021

21 Ways to Refresh Your Relationship in 2021

21 Ways to Refresh Your Relationship in 2021 y husband and I began dating in our early twenties, just as we were turning the curve into true adulthood.  We both worked hard at new careers and each had our own apartment.  Our days had a rhythm. ...

Common Cents Part Four: Giving It All To God

Common Cents Part Four: Giving It All To God

CONTRIBUTORS Larry and Linda: Owners of a successful private dental practice turned career missionaries in West Africa and then Papua New Guinea. Currently reside in Owings Mills nearby to their grandchildren and daughter Kristen, who is the Nursery Coordinator here...

Common Cents Part Three: Managing Dollars with Sense

Common Cents Part Three: Managing Dollars with Sense

CONTRIBUTORS Rob and Cora: A couple whose debt nearly caused the demise of their marriage before discovering Dave Ramsey’s program.  They’ve dedicated themselves as teachers of Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (FPU) and head up this ministry at LifePoint. Dave and...

Common Cents Part Two: Delivered from Debt

Common Cents Part Two: Delivered from Debt

CONTRIBUTORS Rich and Stephanie: A financially comfortable couple who decided to get serious about overcoming their debt and changing their spending habits as their children approached college age. . Rob and Cora: A couple whose debt nearly caused the demise of their...

Common Cents Part One: Finances and Faith

Common Cents Part One: Finances and Faith

CONTRIBUTORS Rob and Cora: A couple whose debt nearly caused the demise of their marriage before discovering Dave Ramsey’s program.  They’ve dedicated themselves as teachers of Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (FPU) and head up this ministry at LifePoint. Abang and...

A Traditional Christmas

A Traditional Christmas

A Traditional Christmasvery year when I pull out our personalized Christmas ornament from 2009, I laugh.  Instead of reading “Staggers Family—First Year of Homeschooling,” it reads “Straggers Family—First Year of Homeshooling.”  Thankfully, I had...

Family: A Holiday Balancing Act

Family: A Holiday Balancing Act

Family: A Holiday Balancing Act friend and I were recently discussing our plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I mentioned that in years past, we would typically spend it at home, with an open invite to my husband’s extended family (mother,...

Parenting (Barely) Adult Children

Parenting (Barely) Adult Children

Parenting (Barely) Adult Childrenhen my kids were small, I dreaded the teenage years, much like one dreads going to the dentist. I viewed them as a painful but necessary season, one that I’d hopefully weather with as little bodily harm as possible....

Living with a Full House

Living with a Full House

Living with a Full House owards the end of 2019, I started a new position that required that I work from home.  A difficult adjustment on its own, this was also during the public school’s holiday break, and all three of my small children were also...

What Would Jesus Do?

What Would Jesus Do?

What Would Jesus Do?One day, early in our marriage, my husband came home from work frustrated. His supervisor was calling the black men he worked with “boy.” My husband recalled standing there shocked and offended. It was clear his colleagues were offended. Yet, no...

When a Loved One is Struggling

When a Loved One is Struggling

When a Loved One is StrugglingWe are blessed to live in a time and society where conversations about mental health are not only accepted but supported. The open conversations in our culture surrounding mental health have created an environment in society where people...

When To Seek Professional Help

When To Seek Professional Help

When to Seek Professional Help  A counselor I know once described therapy like this: There are the things about ourselves that we know we know. How much sleep we need to be able to function in the morning or what foods will make us sick. There are also things...

What We Can Learn From Loneliness

What We Can Learn From Loneliness

What We Can Learn From Loneliness   hen I feel lonely, I usually want that feeling to go away as quickly as possible. I might get coffee with a friend, binge watch Parks & Rec on Netflix, or do anything else that will distract me from the...

Lament: The Freedom to Feel

Lament: The Freedom to Feel

Lament: The Freedom to Feel  e are wired to avoid physical pain. Just watch any toddler touch a hot candle after being told not to. Chances are, he won’t be in a hurry to do it again. Yet physical pain serves a purpose, helping us to focus on...

Setting Healthy Boundaries

Setting Healthy Boundaries

Setting Healthy Boundaries   y mother is mentally ill. (Full disclosure: I was in my twenties before I was able to say this sentence aloud).   She suffers from a personality disorder that cannot be treated medically and that makes it near...

Isolation vs. Solitude

Isolation vs. Solitude

Isolation vs. Solitude  solation is an evil twin of solitude. Because they’re twins, they often get mistaken for one another. It’s only when you see how they affect the world around them that you can begin to tell them apart. It’s crucial to...

Life in the Desert

Life in the Desert

Life in the Desert  he desert is not a common vacation destination for good reason – it’s not a place that most people want to visit. We long for beaches and mountains, for valleys and lakes. We want beauty and life abounding. We don’t seek...