“My one hope is that sharing my story will have some value to somebody who is still carrying their own secrets, because we all have them, and that whoever they are, they find the courage and the strength and love for themselves to get help. None of us gets through this life alone. Certainly not me.” – Ginger Zee This past week we all watched as Florence rolled in. Hurricane Florence is being called the “storm of a lifetime” for the region it hit. Between August 30 and September 9, Florence ...
Forgotten Classics That Deserve a Second Look
Photo by Betsy Blue | Instagram | website This post first appeared on Darling Magazine. For many of us, summer is a time to catch up on our overgrown reading lists and search for new treasures to read. We scour the tables in our local bookstores for the newest, most popular reads and place holds on the recently purchased books at our libraries. While wanting to get our hands on hot-off-the-press works is never a bad thing, we need not forget the classics, those which have stood the test ...
The Bitterness You May Not See But Need to Release
You don’t have to go far to run into someone who is angry. Have you ever had a driver behind you throw their hands up because you let someone pull out in front of you? Or because you aren’t going 85 in a 30? Or because you didn’t zoom through a yellow light? Some people seem to be aggravated no matter how good things are going for them. Others are angry because they’re dealing with difficult situations—whether by their own doing or someone else’s. What we want is to be extra careful that we ...
Think You Can’t Make a Tough Decision? Think Again.
I’m a decision maker. But it takes me a long time to make a decision. I like to pick out the outfit I’m going to wear the next day the night before because if I don’t, I’ll likely stand before my closet in morning, staring at my clothes for too long, paralyzed by indecision. I joke that I waste a decent portion of my life on the cereal aisle because I’m trying to choose between Frosted Flakes or Cinnamon Toast Crunch on any given grocery store trip. And my week’s schedule is carefully thought ...
This Life I Live by Rory Feek
My life is very ordinary. On the surface, it is not very special. If you looked at it day to day it wouldn’t seem like much. But when you look at it in a bigger context, as part of a larger story, you start to see the magic that is on the pages of the book that is my life. And the more you look, the more you see. Or at least, I do. Rory Feek Rory Feek is a musician, a songwriter, a filmmaker, an author, and a believer. He is husband to the late Joey Feek and father to three girls. ...
Puckett’s Boat House
I’ve yet to post a restaurant review, but since one of the categories on the blog is Culture & Travel, posts about food are a must! So this post is meant to be a helpful review of a local restaurant, whether you're a Nashville native or a tourist on vacation. Puckett’s Boat House is a popular restaurant here in Franklin, Tennessee. In fact, Puckett’s is well-known all over Tennessee, with restaurants in Columbia, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, and Franklin. But their multiple ...
You’re a Role Model and You Don’t Even Know It
I wrote an article for LifeWay Young Adults in November 2016 after taking a short writing hiatus. I was excited to be writing again and thankful to LifeWay for publishing me. Since then, I've been writing a ton! This article marked another beginning for me; after it, I started this blog! With graduations wrapping up for this year, I thought now would be an appropriate time to re-post this little jewel. Some of the details have changed, like the fact that I'm not teaching ninth grade English ...
Why Study the Scriptures?
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. Numbers 21:6 You’ve probably never considered plastering the above verse on your living room wall no matter how pretty a frame you could find for it. But why not? It’s in the Bible! The truth is, this verse comes from a rather disturbing passage of Scripture when the Israelites doubted God (not their first go-round with this), so God sent snakes to His people. (And in case you're wondering, this is ...
The Kid Who Didn’t Care
Handlettering and design by Sincerely, Hope Designs This is not a tale about a kid who was apathetic. It’s a story about a boy who was not worried about what everyone else thought. As a teacher, it always took me a little while to really get to know my students, to get to know things like their work ethic, how much they cared about their grades, and their homework habits. Further into the first semester, I'd also start to pick up on other things, like how friendly they'd be when we'd pass ...