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Grace is Messy

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Select a Category Anxiety Best of Messy Grace Current Events Depression Faith Family Featured Fiction lgbtq Marriage Mental Health Messy Grace Millennials Parenting Recovery Recovery from a Suicide Attempt Recovery from Abuse Recovery from Porn Addiction Religious Recovery Self Care The Struggle With Church This is My Story (series) Uncategorized Writing Help

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 June 2015 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 June 2013 April 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 September 2011 August 2011 May 2011 July 2010

May 2016

May 12, 2016

Advice to a Younger Me: Life Gets Better!

What would you tell your twenty-year-old self? Here's some wisdom and grace from Sarah. To...

May 11, 2016

How to Trust God Through Your Worst Nightmare

We pulled up to our new little cottage and just stared. This was it —...

May 09, 2016

A Snapshot of the Daily Struggle with Mental Illness

After two days of panic attacks and a scary spike in my blood pressure, I...

May 07, 2016

To Those with Less-than-Perfect Moms on Mother’s Day

Do you have a less-than-perfect mother? Is she deceased and your memory of her doesn't...

May 02, 2016

Why I am Teaching My Children to Make Friends with Fear

How and what are you teaching your children about fear? When you make friends with...

April 2016

April 28, 2016

Was it Abuse? I Think So. Because it Left a Scar.

It happened at a church basketball team lock-in. Coach Mills had made us shower one...

April 21, 2016

Pornography Addiction is an Island

I love the stories of a mogul who’s purchased a private island in a remote...

April 12, 2016

How God’s Grace is Like a Waterfall

And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains. William Cowper, 1772 I...

April 07, 2016

A Stoplight, Depression, and Words that Changed Me

When I shared glimpses of my darkness, well-meaning Christians said things they didn’t understand. Choose...

April 06, 2016

Tangled in the Web of Postpartum Depression

Ben was born September 22. When he was placed in my arms the first time,...

April 05, 2016

Was Judas Mentally Ill?

I used to wonder what caused Judas to sell-out; but in the days immediately following...

March 2016

March 31, 2016

What a Crumbled Cake and a Broken Bottle of Wine Taught Me about Faith

I’ve not felt very spiritual lately. I’ve just felt busy. The Easter season is supposed...

March 27, 2016

Easter Baskets or Butter Bowls?

The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them...

March 25, 2016

Where the Hell was Joseph?

I don't know where Joseph was, but where do I find myself? Hiding outside the...

March 24, 2016

What if….

Because the sinless Savior died My sinful soul is counted free For God the just...

March 17, 2016

Finding Hope in the Now and Not Yet

Together, we are living in the gaps. With the tension of unfulfilled dreams. With the...

March 17, 2016

Setting the Record Straight about Gay Christians

For years, I have said my struggle is not knowing what I believe about homosexuality...

March 10, 2016

Dear God, Thanks for Letting Me Cuss at You

Why don’t you fix me? Why don’t you just wave that *%#$ing magic wand I...

March 09, 2016

Some Things You Keep: A Book Recommendation

Reading a book about a friend who lost her mom to suicide would probably be...

March 04, 2016

Finding Light and Love in the Notre-Dame

I wanted the experience of a communion - the drinking of spicy red wine and...

February 2016

February 29, 2016

Finding Grace Where I Least Expected

The past year was exhausting for Lindsey and me. We needed some space to breathe....

February 25, 2016

Choosing to Forgive My Parents

What do you do when those who are supposed to raise you, care for you,...

February 18, 2016

I'm Not Mad at God.

I was supposed to be pregnant. After years of waiting, I’d carried a baby just...

February 16, 2016

God has Always Loved the Girl With the Ponytail

I was at a friend's house watching American Idol when I got a text message...

February 15, 2016

The Psych Ward and The Church

As the nurse wheeled me down the long and lonely corridor and through the locked...

February 14, 2016

I Saw What Love Does

A True Story about what Love Does...

February 11, 2016

Cancer's Unlikely Gift

Do you remember the iconic scene from Forrest Gump, when Forrest tells the woman on...

February 05, 2016

Eggshells and Jesus

In times when I see someone I care about struggling, my default is to revert...

February 04, 2016

Living Through the Aftermath of My Mom's Suicide

I was twelve when my mom killed herself. My parents were divorced. My dad was...

February 01, 2016

Struggling in the Spotlight

The struggle with anyone who chooses a more public life is that the fishbowl concept...