The second in a series of blog posts on Interpersonal Communication and Relationships. So, this happened a couple of weeks ago… I was speaking at a women’s event. A few dozen beautiful faces gazed back at me as I expounded upon the healing power of Jesus in the gospel of Mark, chapter 5. Most… Read More What Does Your Face Say?
The first in a series of blog posts on Interpersonal Communication and Relationships. As children, we all learned the little ditty: “Sticks and stones may break my bones But words can never hurt me.” Then we got older, and we realized just how ridiculous that mantra really is. We learn—too often the hard way—that… Read More Why We Need to Watch Our Words
Every semester I begin my Moody Bible Institute Speech Class with a unit on Interpersonal Communication. i.e., Relationships. To begin with, I try to impress upon my students the importance of the topic. They may think they know enough about relationships. They’ve had them all their lives, after all. And they’ve been “going all right.”… Read More Relationships 101: A New Blog Series Begins Now!
A couple of Saturdays ago I got to reconnect with a few of my favorite people—the leadership team of my writers’ group here in McHenry, Illinois. We call ourselves Kaleo Creatives—“kaleo” being a Greek verb, meaning “to call, to name, to address.” Our mission? “To encourage, equip, and tangibly support one another in our writing,… Read More Lies Writers Believe, and the Truth that Sets Us Free
Wow! The This Odd House blog turns 5 this month! Can you believe it? I sure can’t. But here we are—celebrating what-feels-to-me-to-be a significant milestone. Anniversaries are a perfect time to reflect. So if you’ll indulge me, I’ll do a bit of that… I created this space in July 2013, at the beginning of… Read More 5 Reasons to Join Us on This Journey
For our most recent date night, Peter and I went to see Darkest Hour, a movie that retells (and reinterprets) the story of the early days of Winston Churchill’s time as the British Prime Minister. (Spoiler alert.) Hitler’s army has defeated Belgium. It has almost brought France to her knees. And Hitler has his sights set on… Read More A War of Words: What the Current MBI Crisis Can Teach Us All
We are a love-thirsty people. We try so many ways to satiate those longings that we live with, but ultimately only one source—the living water—will satisfy. A couple of years ago my husband Peter and I wrote a little book called 20 Things We’d Tell Our Twentysomething Selves. It started as a blog post,… Read More Pierced and Embraced Releases Today!
I must admit. Last week was intense. It was simultaneously a little taste of heaven. Peter and I were still off of work. We gave our homeschooling kids one more week of Christmas break. (Why not?) And my writing deadline was fast approaching. Book manuscript due: January 15. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday—every day… Read More In Defense of Pork Chops & Prayer
A part of my job every semester is to teach a class called Speech Communication. It’s a required course for all of our undergraduate students, so I’m well aware that some of them arrive in my classroom with apathy, some with nervousness, some even with a measure of dread. After all, “Public Speaking” appears on… Read More Conversation Matters
2014 was my first full year of blogging. A year of finding my feet and figuring it out. And I still have a long way to go. I still write long. I still write slow. And I’m still far from regular. I still haven’t managed to fit blogging into the weekly routine of my life.… Read More Top Posts of 2014