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Last Thursday was a really bad day. I’m talking about a horrible, terrible, miserable, no good, very bad day. After work, I drove home to take one of my children to an appointment . . . but we ...

https://www.incourage.me/2024/03/when-youd-rather-hide-reach-out-instead.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-youd-rather-hide-reach-out-instead

Tables. Let’s talk about tables. There has been a lot of talk about tables. It seems that everywhere I turn there is a sermon, a podcast, or a song mentioning tables. Why do you suppose that is...

https://www.incourage.me/2024/03/new-friends-and-a-table-for-12.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-friends-and-a-table-for-12

I walked through our front door and my husband tentatively inquired, “Well, how did your evening go?” An astounded grin spread across my face, “Won’t He do it! This was the craziest exper...

https://www.incourage.me/2024/02/when-the-stranger-danger-bunch-shows-up.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-the-stranger-danger-bunch-shows-up

A few days before Labor Day we got new neighbors — eight young adults to be exact. Four young men and four young women in their twenties moved in next door. My husband and I launched a new mini...

https://www.incourage.me/2024/01/how-love-can-meet-all-your-pent-up-pain.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-love-can-meet-all-your-pent-up-pain

Last month, I found out that my friend, Jeanette, was going to be in town staying with our other friend, Susy. As much as I wanted to see Jeanette, I had decided to shut down any plans because my...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/12/why-you-wont-ask-for-help.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-you-wont-ask-for-help

From an early age, I knew how to party. Birthdays? I show up with a present I know you’ll love. I can bake you a cake and decorate it in your favorite colors. Weddings? My bad dancing does not ...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/11/ministry-of-presence-showing-up-for-the-grieving-person-in-your-life.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ministry-of-presence-showing-up-for-the-grieving-person-in-your-life

As tears streamed down my face, I tried reminding myself, “Jen, you’re only saying goodbye to a table.” I understood the reality of that statement. Yet… while it’s an inanimate object, ...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/07/its-not-just-a-table.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-not-just-a-table

I do love God’s timing. I do love a new friend. And I do love learning something new. This is one such story in which the Lord recently showed me just how good He is and how much He loves me th...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/06/on-divine-timing-new-friendships-and-learning-something-new.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=on-divine-timing-new-friendships-and-learning-something-new

In the corner of my hairline, right at my part, little white hairs sprout like dandelion weeds after a rainstorm. They’re a reminder that I’m not as young as I used to be and how the last few...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/06/let-love-be-the-through-line.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=let-love-be-the-through-line

Whenever someone offered to help me with anything, my automatic response used to be, “Oh, you’re so sweet! No, I’m good.” Whether the roots were pride or fear, my brain automatically Goog...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/03/jesus-accepted-help-so-you-can-too-2.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jesus-accepted-help-so-you-can-too-2

When my brother John was a baby, and I was three, Mom decided she wanted to have a professional portrait taken of the two of us. We didn’t have a photography studio in the little town where we ...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/03/where-did-all-the-empathy-go.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=where-did-all-the-empathy-go

I am really good about asserting my love on others when they’re having a hard time. I like to fill baskets with coping mechanisms like chocolate, books, or bath bombs, and drop them at their do...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/03/when-the-dark-is-too-dark.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=when-the-dark-is-too-dark

On Christmas Day, as we sat in our living room and opened presents with immediate and extended family, one of our daughters called out to my husband from the garage. Initially, she sounded calm; ...

https://www.incourage.me/2023/02/love-thy-neighbor.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=love-thy-neighbor

“I can’t go back to church,” she confessed as we stood in my driveway. She had just dropped off her daughter for a sleepover. Before heading back to her car, we paused for an impromptu chec...

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Each year at the start of the Advent season, I find myself thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus. This teenage girl was to be a womb for God, the mother of His one and only son. That day when ...

https://www.incourage.me/2022/12/we-can-bear-witness-to-the-glory-of-god-in-each-other.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=we-can-bear-witness-to-the-glory-of-god-in-each-other

A few weeks ago, my husband and I spent a weekday morning at our local art museum, Newfields. The museum was hosting a series called “Artful Conversations,” and we signed up to attend without...

https://www.incourage.me/2022/12/a-new-kind-of-artful-conversation.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-kind-of-artful-conversation