 Hello there! It's been a while, but I wanted to share some favorite finds with all of you. Dwell AppThe Dwell Scripture listening app has been a game changer for me as I dwell on the Scriptures. I received a subscription through winning a giveaway last year, but I loved it so much that I paid for an annual subscription for this year. If you're looking for a way to spice up your time with God and reading the Bible, then this app might be helpful to you. The thing that I love the most is that I can easily change between different translations, voices, and what music plays in the background. Google KeepI've been on the hunt for an app or a means to collect all of the articles, random photos, screenshots, recipes, and save for late things that I acquire on the interwebs regularly. I finally found something that works well for me - Google Keep! I use the Google Suite for a lot of things already, but I'm new to Keep, and it has been such a help. Now, I can easily add articles that I read, enjoy, and want to find again to one place. I can add random screenshots that I take of things that I don't want to forget and so much more. If you need a place to store lots of links or screenshots other than your phone photo album, this might work well for you too! Clean MamaI recently learned about Clean Mama and her weekly cleaning routine. I started using the routine in my own life a few weeks ago, and it has been a huge help in having a rotation of which areas I clean each day. My house feels more regularly cleaned now, because the rotation makes cleaning not feel so overwhelming. Here is her list of weekly tasks. Habits of the HouseholdI just finished reading this book, and it has a number of really helpful nuggets that I'm already implementing in my daily life. Justin Earley offers a lot of hard won wisdom in the realm of building helpful habits and rhythms as a family with a focus on shaping the family spiritually. I've enjoyed other books on building habits, but this book is particularly helpful in thinking through the habits of a family as a whole. These are just a few of my favorite finds from the past few weeks. Let me know in the comments below if you have any favorite finds lately.  (P.S. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and purchase a product, this blog will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for helping to support She Laughs Without Fear!)
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 I love sharing things that I find around the interwebs and I haven't shared many finds lately. So here are five favorite finds from June 2022 1. Jesus Is Not Ashamed of Those with an Embarrassing PastAn article from Crossway.org - such an encouraging article/video connected to the story of Tamar and how Jesus is not ashamed of those with embarrassing pasts. 2. Don't Make Me Count to ThreeA book by Ginger Hubbard - this is a book on heart-oriented discipline of children. I've been reading this book lately as I growing in mothering my daughter Thea, and it has been a big encouragement to me. 3. Honey in the RockA song by Brooke Lightwood - I've been loving this song lately and worshipping to it. 4. The Fruit of DiscipleshipAn Article by Glenna Marshall about discipleship and how discipleship happens in the ordinary everyday moments of life. 5. Hello FreshA meal delivery service - Okay, this wasn't a new find, but I received a great deal for Hello Fresh in June, and I looked forward to our meal delivery each week that we used it. I fully plan on using it again when they send me more deals in the future. If you'd like to try Hello Fresh, you can get $120 by using my referral link. What are some of your favorite finds lately? Let me know in the comments below. (P.S. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and purchase a product, this blog will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for helping to support She Laughs Without Fear!)
Hello friends! It has been a while since I've inhabited this space, and I've missed it. Almost three years ago, I became a first time mom and it changed (obviously) a lot about my life, including how much time I had for this space. But I never lost the nudge in the back of my mind compelling me to write and talk about growing by grace through faith in Christ. So... I'm eager to begin writing and sharing thoughts with all of you again. I'm convinced now more than ever that followers of Christ need spaces on the interwebs where other believers share what it looks like to walk with Christ day to day. And I hope that this space accomplishes that goal. I want this space to be a place where we talk about what it looks like to grow by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, and I hope you'll join me on the ever-continuing journey. Look forward to more regular content again moving forward. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite posts from the archives. Enjoy. The Mingling of Grief and Joy Our Crumbling Kingdoms The Discipline of Reading Free of Charge Climb Every Mountain (for Pierogi)  As we enter December it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle that often accompanies Christmastime. I don't know about you, but if I'm not intentional this month, it's easy to get to December 31 and wonder where the time went, and I often regret not slowing down to really enjoy the Christmas season. Over the years, I've found resources that help to prepare my heart for Christmas and the joy of Jesus' birth. I thought I would share some of these resources with those of you looking for reminders of the true meaning of Christmas. Here are my favorites organized by categories: BooksWaiting Here For You: An Advent Journey of Hope An Advent Devotional by Louie Giglio - as the title says it's is definitely a journey of hope. My mom and I read this together a few years ago, and we enjoyed it. The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name Every Christmas I read the Nativity Story in the Jesus Storybook Bible, and I'm eager to read it to Thea this year. We read this Storybook Bible year round but I particularly love reading it at Christmas and Easter. Repeat the Sounding Joy: A Daily Advent Devotional on Luke 1-2 This is a devotional written by Christopher Ash. I love that he breaks down Luke 1-2 into bite sized readings for 25 days. VideosThe Weary World Rejoices by Girl in Calico A short Youtube video reminding us of the hope of Christmas. The Nativity Story This is a live action movie that depicts that Nativity story. It's very well done, and it always reminds me of the true meaning of Christmas. The Star A cute animated film about the Nativity story but told from the perspective of a donkey. AudioThe Quiet Collection I listen to Emily P. Freeman's Quiet Collection every Christmas. It's a short audio devotional. I love to listen to it when it's dark outside and with a few candles lit inside. These are just a few of my favorite resources to remind me of the true meaning of Christmas. Do you have any books, videos, or podcasts that you enjoy during Christmastime? Let me know in the comments below.  (P.S. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and purchase a product, this blog will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for helping to support She Laughs Without Fear!)
My aunt died this summer. A dear friend got married. Our basement flooded...twice. We finally bought a van that is exactly what we've been asking God to provide. If I could sum up the summer of 2021 for my family into a phrase, it would be the mingling of grief and joy. This phrase hit a mark the week that my aunt died and one of my dearest friends got married. I was standing alongside my dear friend as she made vows to love the man she married. We sang "Amazing Grace" in the sanctuary, and the sounds of a hundred or more voices mingled. The words to "Amazing Grace" left my mouth with the utmost joy over God's grace towards my friend and her husband. Three days later the words to "Amazing Grace" left my mouth again. This time it was at the funeral for my dear aunt, but the words were sung with tears. One week. Two life events. One song. Two very different emotions mingling in the singing of it. I've been thinking a lot about this lately, the mingling of grief and joy. It has never felt more at hand to me than the summer of 2021. While the summer began with the mingling between a wedding and a funeral, the summer ended with a mingling between God's amazing provision and the curse of sin's destruction. In one day, God provided a much prayed for van, and then an hour after returning home with said van, a torrential rain flooded our basement. In the morning I felt immense joy, and in the evening I felt utter despair. But even in the midst of my despair (and honestly I had a panic attack while working with my husband to remove the water as quickly as possible), joy mingled again. You see, while my husband and I panicked and worked desperately to get the water up and out, our daughter joyfully played in it, not seeing a flooded basement as an issue at all. The mingling of grief and joy. I don't know about you, but I sense that the mingling of grief and joy has been a theme for many over the past year and a half as well. The lost lives of love ones, but also time with the ones we love (albeit stuck together at home). The loss of jobs and careers, but also a clearer vision for the future. Loss and gain. Grief and joy. This is the stuff of life, or as the Preacher puts it in God's Word: "For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Seasons and matters mingle. Even right now in the norther part of the United States, summer is still lingering, but fall is just beginning. I hope to enter this fall with the lesson of the summer: that emotions mingle, and it's how God made it. I hope this encourages you if you're walking through a similar season of mingling emotions, to know that you're not alone and that it is normal and a part of life this side of heaven. But I want to also leave you with this promise, which has been an encouragement to me in the harder things. In the same chapter of Ecclesiastes we are given this reminder: "He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) God has made everything beautiful in its time. The joy and the grief - made beautiful by God in its time. May we learn to see it the way that he sees it and hope that if we can't see the beauty in it today, that we may see it and understand it one day.   For this month's formative finds, I thought it would be fun to share previous articles from She Laughs Without Fear, specifically articles that were fun and formative (see what I did there) for me to write. So here are a few fun and formative finds from the SLWF archives. Beauty and The Beast and The Greatest Tale As Old As TimeHave you ever noticed how certain movies remind you of the gospel or Biblical truths? I think about these things all of the time while watching films, and I was particularly reminded of it while watching the live action Beauty and The Beast a few years ago. Lay It All On ChristJust like I find glimpses of the gospel in films, I also love finding them in songs. Ed Sheeran's song "Lay It All On Me" is another example of a glimpse of the need for the gospel. When Humility Brings PeaceThis post was written after reading the book Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson. I really appreciated this book and how humility brings peace in the life of an anxious person's life. Seeking the Kingdom SeriesI once wrote 31 day series every October, but this was my all time favorite series that I've written so far. America's Largest Home to God's House in HeavenOne of my very first posts and my first time sharing publicly about something I was learning about God and His kingdom.
There's been a lot going on in my life between some personal health struggles, the death of a loved one, a friend's wedding and my husband's and my five year anniversary. It has been a lot at times, and so I haven't had as much time to be present in this space. However, I wanted to share a few finds from May. There You'll Find MeI've been getting back into reading fiction and this is the first fiction book that I've read in a few months. I really enjoyed it. They actually made it into a film, which is how I heard about it and what enticed me to read it. It's focused on a teenage girl named Finley and her journey of processing through grief over the loss of her brother and how that has affected her relationship with God. ChatbooksI recently discovered Chatbooks, which is an app/website, that allows you to easily and quickly create photo books for printing. I've creating three family yearbooks through the app just on my phone, and it saved me the hours it would have taken to create them on a different website. If you would like to try it, here's a code for a free photo book or a $10 credit for a book. Favorable Conditions Never ComeI appreciated this article from Cal Newport. The essence of the article explains the title - favorable conditions never come when it comes to building new habits or making changes in your life. This applies to these areas, but even to spiritual matters. We need the Lord the most in unfavorable conditions and so it makes sense to work at building habits that help us to draw near to him and to grow spiritually even when the conditions are not favorable. I really appreciated this article in the midst of mothering a toddler. Favorable conditions from time with Jesus are difficult when you have a toddler desiring time with you all day, but I'm working at guarding and carving out that time when my current condition is not favorable to studying the Bible and time in prayer. I'm Not Languishing, I'm DormantAnother helpful article in this month's round up. I thought it was particularly helpful in thinking through the tug and pull of a pandemic forcing people to slow down, but then our culture's proclivity to productivity. It's okay if this season is one in which you've been dormant. Self-Denial Leads to HappinessA timely reminder of a truth that Jesus made clear - if you want to gain your life, you need to lose it. These are a few of my favorite finds from May. Let me know if you've found any formative finds as well!
(P.S. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and purchase a product, this blog will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for helping to support She Laughs Without Fear!)  Hello friends! It has been a busy few weeks over here, and I'm thankful for a slower pace after a busy start to spring. If you're new around here, I love sharing fun and formative things that I find around the interwebs in the hopes that they might be fun and formative for you too! Here is a list of a few finds from April. Subtract: Why Getting to Less Can Mean Thinking MoreAn article on how subtracting things from your life can actually add to it. The Tech-Wise FamilyThis wonderfully short book offers ten principles in thinking about a family's engagement with technology. This is something I've been thinking about lately with my toddler and I found it encouraging and helpful in thinking through what boundaries might benefit my family as we engage with technology. A Woman's Highest CallingThis quote sums up this find: "The next time you hear someone offer a prescriptive way of living, go get your Bible and look up the operative word of their prescription (wife, mother, father, shepherd, pastor, money, marriage, children, etc.). Read every verse on it just so you can see the array of stories God's people lived out." Worth the read. Access The GameThis is a fun find. It's the website for the social strategy game that my husband Brandon created, and full disclosure, I won the second season of this game. He's now taking applications for the third season 😉. Whether you're interested in playing or not, you might find the website amusing, especially the reviews. Promises by Maverick CityThis worship song has been reverberating in my head for the past month! A helpful reminder of the faithfulness of God. Let me know If you have any fun or formative finds from this month! (P.S. Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and purchase a product, this blog will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for helping to support She Laughs Without Fear!)
 It's Tuesday, but I made the above graphic on Sunday and wrote something for the caption on Instagram. I wanted to write more about it here, but I thought I would share what I wrote: On this Palm Sunday, I’ve been thinking of the passage from John 12. The crowds that praised Jesus as he entered Jerusalem triumphantly were the same crowds that would shout “Crucify him” a week later. The sad reality is that apart from God’s grace, we are just like that crowd. I’d like to think that I would be different, but I know in my heart that apart from God leading me to faith in Jesus, I would be like the crowds yelling “Crucify him” and that’s sadly the cry of our hearts when we rebel against God. But the amazing thing is that Jesus is the King - he came to save sinners. He came to save the crowd and as he hung on the cross he even said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” That’s just how gracious and compassionate Jesus is as our mediator. I’m dwelling on that today, and I want to invite you to join me in taking time to repent of the ways that we are like that crowd at times and thank and praise God for his grace and mercy despite our rebellion and sin. The funny thing about this post is that a few hours later my heart must have needed to be reminded of it again, because Matt Maher (a Christian musician) shared similar thoughts in a video. This is the video: Matt Maher - Palm Sunday, Breathing Through Lent.
Something that he said struck a cord with me. He talked about how the crowd was expecting Jesus to be the Messiah they thought he would be and for God to do what they expected or thought he would do. And it many ways we are like that crowd, expecting God to work how we want him to work, and often we can get upset when he doesn't do what we want him to do. Oof. My soul needed to hear that. I often expect God to work how I want him to work. Anyway, I appreciated Matt Maher's thoughts in relation to how we are like the crowds that praise Jesus on Sunday, but then yell for him to be crucified on Friday. And just like the crowds, we need God's forgiveness for the ways that we rebel and sin. These are just some thoughts for your Tuesday. Take a listen to Matt Maher's video, and let me know what God is teaching you right now.  This verse has been on my mind a lot lately. Trouble. Trouble never seems to be far away these days. I don't know about you, but my mind often seems to be thinking and churning about the troubles in our world, and right now there are a lot of troubles.
I recently found out that my friend's niece has cancer. Trouble. I'm trying to teach Thea how to properly use a spoon, and now food often ends up everywhere. Trouble. A friend of mine no longer wants anything to do with God. Trouble. These are just a few of mine, and I'm sure that your life has its own trouble as well. One thing that I have been reminded of lately is what Jesus said in this verse: "in this world you WILL have trouble." Jesus was speaking to the disciples before his crucifixion. It was the night that he was betrayed by Judas, and he took the time to serve and then exhort and encourage his closest disciples. And he told them this: they WILL have trouble. Not that they might have trouble or they could have trouble but that in this world they will have trouble. That statement is a promise, and what is true for the disciples is true for us. In this world, we will have trouble. It's inevitable. It's gonna come. It's not going to wait until we're in a good place to handle it either. Trouble will come. Well that's depressing. But Jesus doesn't leave the disciples there and he doesn't leave us there either. Yes, trouble will come, but take heart! Why? Because Jesus has overcome the world. I wonder what the disciples thought when Jesus said that last part. I wonder if they were confused or if they heard Jesus say those words and wondered the same thing I wonder at times, "How??" How does Jesus overcoming the world give us comfort and hope when we face trouble? What does it mean that Jesus overcame the world? Well, we could spend a lot of time talking about that, but what we do know is that after the evening in which Jesus spoke this to his disciples, he was brutally crucified on a cross. He was crucified and he died. In this world he had trouble. But that was not the end of the story, because on the third day he rose again and defeated sin and death. Jesus overcame the world. Life this side of heaven, always leads to death, but Jesus overcame death. He overcame the curse over this world. Most of the troubles that we face in this life are caused by the curse of sin on this world as a result of Adam and Eve's original sin. We see the curse at work everyday. Your computer refuses to connect to the internet. You try to repair a broken relationship, but the other person wants no part of it. Your child disobeys you and lies about it. Your family member or friend gets Covid. This world is full of trouble caused by the curse of sin. And ultimately the curse leads to death literally and figuratively. BUT Jesus was able to overcome the curse. Death could not hold him. He rose from the dead to a new resurrected life. And the amazing thing is that those that believe in Jesus for salvation from the curse of sin can experience resurrected life as well. If we believe in Jesus, troubles can no longer affect us the same way. When our computer has issues, it still has issues, but we can patiently work to fix it knowing that one day we will live in a kingdom with Jesus where things will never break. When we experience broken relationships, we can work to repair those relationships but also remember that one day we will live in a kingdom where no relationship will ever be broken again. When our loved ones get sick and maybe even die, we can mourn their death, but also remind ourselves that there is a resurrected world waiting where sickness and death will be no more. We can have hope when troubles come (and they will come), but we can take heart when we face them knowing that Jesus has already overcome the world. And he offers us a new resurrected world where troubles will be no more. I hope this reminder encourages you today with whatever troubles you may face. Take heart, my friend. Jesus overcame the world. |
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