Keeping the Sabbath: rest, refreshment, and recognition

Growing up, I never really studied the meaning of the Sabbath. I knew it was on Sunday’s and that it was basically a day to relax from work and have fun. It wasn’t until I was a married adult that I began to realize and discover how much we NEEDED a day of rest together. Although I wasn’t completely off in my understanding, I’ve definitely…

Battling Fear: Words of faith for marriages on the verge of death

Being bedridden with an intense migraine all day Sunday was not my idea of a relaxing weekend. Attending church was not an option, so viewing a live stream was the next best thing. If you’ve ever heard Roger Archer (of Puyallup Foursquare Church) speak, he is not your typical pastor. He is a fierce bringer of the Word.

A Letter of Encouragement

Over the past few weeks Ryan and I have received a number of emails and Facebook messages from people reaching out to us and wanting some advice and prayer. The more we interact with our readers the more we learn how a few words of encouragement not only bless others, but bless us as well. This post is unique as it is a letter of…

Proverbs 31 Woman

These past few weeks I’ve been spending time reading and absorbing Proverbs 31. Yes, the famous chapter in the bible about how to be a Godly, virtuous woman. Growing up in the Christian community, I’ve heard sermon after sermon about how to be a “Proverbs 31” woman. Needless to say, it was a chapter that I was almost too familiar with. If you read the…

How do you respond when the pressure’s on?

This past week Ryan and I flew up to Washington for a friend’s wedding. For the past 3 weeks leading up to this trip, I had it planned that our departure time to fly home to Cali was 6:30pm Tuesday. Well, this was a first – it was 11:02am, the Tuesday of our departure and I was trying to check-in to our flight on my computer.

Handle With Care: Wives dealing with pornography in their marriage

As wives, how should we respond to this battle of pornography? More specifically, how do we deal with our husband’s struggle? First of all, it’s no longer his struggle, it’s our struggle. Being Christians and remaining abstinent until we were married, sex wasn’t an issue being newlyweds. It was frequent and awesome – our marriage was, for lack of a better term, GREAT! But as Ryan mentioned in his…

Choose Your Spouse Daily

This past weekend I had the privilege of taking my Young Life small group of girls (known as Campaigners) to a camp designed especially for Campaigners. It was quite the squeeze into my busy photography schedule, but I felt like it was something God wanted me to do.

Compassion Through Solitude

Compassion is essential to a Godly marriage. Easy to say, harder to live out. Marriage seems to be blissful for the first year or so. About 3 years into it, you may find yourselves bickering a little bit more and if you make it to the 5 year mark, it’s said to be smoother sailing (depends on who you ask I guess). For us, we…

Ministering Out of Your Marriage

Being married = inevitable challenges DAILY! One of the primary reasons we wrote this blog was to offer help to others who are also walking out this adventure called marriage. We’re not alone, and we don’t have to feel that way. God is always sharpening and growing us to become more like Him. One thing we can’t discount, as Christian married couples, is the fact…

Matters Of The Heart: Priorities and Purchasing

Glancing at any social media site today (ehm, Valentine’s Day) it’s littered with “I Love You” status updates and online gifts for you to purchase for your special someone. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoy an excuse to get dressed up and go out to a nice dinner. Or get a special gift from Ryan (hope he’s reading this!)