Depression has been my constant companion since I was 16 years old. It has oppressed me with its hopelessness, its despair, its sense of futility, anger, and deceit. Yes, deceit. Depression lies to me. Depression tells me there is no life for me. Depression tells me there will be no moment better than this. Depression […]
The prayer I pray today, when my questio...
I don’t have all of the answers. I like to think I do. As a pastor and teacher of all things Bible and theology, for five years people came to me for “the answers.” But when I was referenced in a sermon or meeting, “Ask Leah,” I felt a sense of shame and embarrassment. Because […]
As I Felt Discouraged this Week :: Jesus...
Tim and I were fighting, again. I don’t remember what we were fighting about, but I do remember the feelings. I remember my gut churning because once again we were not communicating well. I remember my heart racing and palms sweating, because “what if we can’t find our way out of this one?” I remember the heaviness settle […]
Why I’m Grateful I Screw Up
The Way of Gratitude: Day 6 (originally posted here) Reading this, I remember why I’m naming our dog Gracie. Grace is amazing. In the full sense of that word. Last night, I didn’t post about gratitude. I didn’t feel it. I was worn out from lots of housework, only to find that the hose from the […]
Receiving from God when I’m so so tired
Day 5 of 31 Days of Connecting You ever have those weeks when your kids don’t let you to sleep? Yeah, that’s been my week. I’ve been woken up because of bad dreams, sickness, and the big ol’ “Hi Mommy!” Hi? It’s dark outside. Go back to bed. As my two year old says, “I […]
God doesn’t use sticker charts.
Day 3 of 31 Days of Connecting I have been potty training my kids for what seems like an eternity. They each have sticker charts and when they receive a certain number of stickers, they win a prize. The charts point towards the goal – put your waste where it needs to go. But my […]
You Did Not Kill Jesus
Day 2 of 31 Days of Connecting We are in church, worshiping, in awe and adoration of the Love God has for us when suddenly that line is there. There on the screen. And the condemnation and shame I felt as a Christian child, teenager, and young adult squeezes my throat, condemns my heart. “Ashamed I […]
Monday Moments (Words, Music, Images to ...
Mondays are hard. This should go without saying. For many of us, we must get up on time for school, work, appointments, and other responsibilities and as we hit the ground running, we find we forgot to take a moment for ourselves. We forgot to take a moment with God. We forgot to take a moment […]
I Struggle
Sometimes I struggle. Sometimes I struggle a lot. I hesitated to come back into this blog world because my life just doesn’t feel pretty and blog-like. I don’t have it all together and I feared, would people be disappointed in me? Would they look down on me? Would I fail? And then I remembered the […]
Mommy, I have a problem.
“Mommy, I have a problem.” “A problem?” I straightened up as I pulled one more weed from our overgrown backyard. Jack and I were outside, I was weeding, he was running back and forth along our sidewalk. “Problem” was a new word for Jack. “What’s your problem, Sweetie?” “It’s about Jesus.” “Jesus?” “Yeah. He died […]