Undated vs. Dated Christian Planners: Which One Actually Serves You
He bought a beautiful dated planner in early January, the kind with a ribbon marker and a full year mapped out week by week, and it worked wonderfully for exactly six weeks. Then a hard stretch hit, a work trip followed by a sick child followed by a…
How to Plan When You Do Not Feel in Control of Your Life
She sat down to plan her week the way she always did, pen in hand, calendar open, and found herself staring at the page unable to write anything down. Not because nothing needed to be scheduled. But because underneath the actual tasks sat a diagnosis…
How to Keep a House That Feels Like Peace When You Work Full-Time
He got home most nights around six, and by the time he walked through the door, the dishes from breakfast were still in the sink, a load of laundry sat half finished in the dryer, and his daughter wanted him to look at a drawing before he had even set…
What Does It Mean to Be a Good Steward of Your Time? A Practical Answer
She learned the phrase in Sunday school as a child, drawn on a board with a picture of a servant burying a coin in the dirt. Be a good steward, the teacher said, and everyone nodded, and nobody, as far as she remembers, ever explained what that actually…
Christian Financial Stewardship for People Who Feel Behind
He did the math on a Sunday night, the way he always seemed to, and the numbers came out worse than he had hoped, again. Rent, a car payment, a stack of student loans that never appeared to shrink no matter how much he sent toward them, and a savings…
Decluttering as a Spiritual Discipline, Not Just a Trend
She opened the hall closet looking for a coat and found, instead, three unopened boxes she could not remember buying, a stack of clothes that had not fit in years, and a tangle of cords for devices she no longer owned. She stood there for a long moment,…
Why Saying No Might Be the Most Faithful Thing You Do This Year
He said yes to the committee before he had even finished reading the email. It was a small thing, he told himself, just one more meeting a month, and besides, someone needed to do it, and he did not want to be the person who let the church down. Six…
Christian Homemaking Is Not What You Think It Is
She heard the word for the first time at a women’s retreat, spoken from a stage with real warmth, and something in her chest tightened immediately. Homemaker. The word landed on her like a costume she had never agreed to wear, tied up with images…
How to Actually Practice a Sabbath When You Have Kids or a Full Life
He tried it once, a full Sabbath, the kind he had read about in a book that made it sound so peaceful. No screens, no work, just rest and worship and stillness from sundown to sundown. By ten in the morning, one child had thrown up on the couch, another…
Burnout in Ministry and Church Life: What Nobody Says Out Loud
She led worship on Sunday morning with her hands raised and her voice steady, and by Sunday afternoon she was sitting in her car in the church parking lot, unable to make herself turn the key, wondering how much longer she could keep doing this before…