Encouraging women to live in faith and joy
lauren gaskill
encouraging women to
go deeper in faith and live in joy
After a long night of traveling with Alex through a winter storm and trying to stay on the road for our dear lives, I was reminded of and thought to share these words with you. Can they ever be said enough?
1 Corinthians 3:7. When we think we can’t make it through, God truly does keep us safe, and his love sets us free.
Illustration | Lauren Hardy
To-do lists have a way of never ending.
The completion of one task is only the signal of another’s start. After weeks and weeks of round the clock activity like this, a simple day, where I don’t have to do anything but whatever I please, sounds like paradise. I just want to lie in bed all day and think about nothing. I will say. But the funny thing is, when that day of freedom finally comes, I often don’t know what to do with it.
Even now on my Spring Break, at my childhood home, I feel this need to have something to do every day. It’s quite the contradiction: I dread being busy, but I also don’t like the idea of of having nothing to do.
Time is valuable to me, and so I feel guilty if I’m not doing anything with it. Instead of relaxing when my to-do list runs out, I turn around and fill it up with stuff again. I wouldn’t call myself a workaholic, but I can be preoccupied by making sure I hit each day’s targets and goals.Read More
Granola is one of those things that I like to have on hand 24/7.
You can eat it plain, use it in baked desserts (like fruit crisps), or sprinkle it over yogurt, ice cream, pancakes, baked breads or even salads!
I use it for all of the above, which is why I go through so much. It rides shotgun in my grocery cart nearly every week. And yet, as delightful as Bear Naked’s Maple Pecan granola is, I’ve finally grown tired of forking over $4 each time I need another small bag of it. Because c’mon people, it’s basically a simple mixture of baked oats, honey, oils and a bunch of spices. You can buy 15 cups of rolled oats for less than $4 … it just doesn’t add up!
I’ve lost two very close friends in the last two years. Not to a disease, sudden death or an unanticipated relocation, like you might think. No, I lost these friends to something I never expected would drive a wedge between us:
Their boyfriends.
I still love these women and want the best for them, but the sad truth is I don’t know who they are anymore. Along the way, they’ve chosen to abandon themselves in the midst of their relationships.
It’s an all too familiar scene. Girl meets boy — or boy meets girl; the two become a couple. Couple spends the majority of their time together. Couple isolates themselves from the outside world. Couple becomes dependent on one another, which often leads to unhealthy personality changes.
As a woman who is in a devoted relationships of almost 3 1/2 years, I understand being in love and wanting to spend a lot of time with your significant other.
But since when did having a significant other mean you should have to completely change who you are? Or neglect setting aside time for yourself and your friends?Read More
Perseverance. In elementary school, my teachers gave out monthly certificates to honor students who they felt represented certain characteristics. February was always “perseverance month,” because, although we were hardly more than halfway through the school year, summer was already on our minds. This was when learning became a little more strenuous and a lot less interesting.
In fourth grade, I received the perseverance certificate. I thought it was a huge achievement. But only now do I realized how naive I was to to think my nine-year-old self deserved such recognition, when my journey had only just begun.
Last Sunday, our church hosted a women’s dessert outreach. While sharing sweet treats in community was nice, it was more than just the pecan pie bars and lemon meringue bites that made Sunday afternoon special. I was humbled to listen to the stories of other women of faith, whom I crossed paths with every week but never knew more than a name.
As we went around the table sharing prayer requests, I was amazed by the scope of suffering and doubt that remained a common thread among us. Though we represented about three generations of believers, it became clear to me that our need for prayer, reassurance and affirmation doesn’t disappear with age. Our need to press on doesn’t get easier with time.Read More
Last week, I promised the kids I nanny for that we would make brownies for Valentine’s Day.
We made the traditional kind, which of course were delicious. But when it came time for me to make a dessert for the women’s dessert outreach our church is having this Sunday, I wanted to do something different.
I’m not sure if I forget that I have peanut butter when I go to the store, but somehow I ended up with three jars of it in my pantry. Knowing I had plenty to use, I thought about making a peanut butter pie, but the memory of the brownies I’d had earlier in the week slipped back into my mind. So I started thinking about how I could combine the two ingredients.Read More
