Brave Heart, Brave Soul. She who is brave is free.

“As a mom I go to bed every night promising myself that I will do better. Most days I stumble, some days I am down right ashamed of my behavior. I wish I was perfect for you, but I am human and sometimes I will fail. But I promise to never ever give up!” ~ Unknown Growing up an only child with a rather big imagination I kept my mama on her toes. I had dreams as big and wide as the open skies of Texas. By now I shouldn’t have to tell you my dreams were equally as big as my imagination. I’d spend hours dreaming up adventures in far off places, I spent most of my afternoons daydreaming about kings and queens,  knights, dragons, the Jedi and of course superheroes. I wanted to grow up and be a teacher, writer, singer, dancer and even a soldier like my daddy. Contrary to popular opinion at the height of the late 70's and early 80's becoming a mom was at the top of my list too. I told you I had dreams...big ones. Now I won’t candy coat the truth, life made a fairl...

“I would not wish for any other companion in the world but you. “~William Shakespeare Marriage like any other relationship takes work and lots and lots of it. Sometimes no matter how hard we try, or how many tears we cry over our marriages, they simply fall short and then apart. I know because mine did five years ago. Now I’m not gonna mince words or sugar coat things, life was off the rails in the wrong direction for a long time. Words were said, things were done, and hearts were broken. To tell the truth we didn’t much like each other either. The blame doesn’t matter. After 18 years of marriage, ours was failing. Did either one of us set out to harm the other? No, not at all. No one plans to intentionally hurt those they love, not unless they’re callous, heartless or cold-blooded that is. This is the thing about life though. It happens whether we like it or not. Prepared or caught off guard it can get sticky pretty quickly and end up downright muddled before we know it. An...

"Pray so big and so often that when God meets you at Heaven's gate, He says, Kid, you kept me very busy."  ~ Unknown The year was 1977. I had just turned four years old. We were living in Germany at the time. Frankfurt to be precise. Back then going to a movie was a real treat. And not one you took for granted either. Disney had just released 'The Rescuers'  and we were on our way to see it. After all back then going to the movies on post was a big deal. I remember being so excited reaching for the container full of popcorn in my dad's hands before leaning over to grab a sip of soda from my mom. My daddy, he was just as excited as I was. As the lights dimmed mama, held my hand, whispering in my ear, "Christie, it's about to start honey." I sat there seated right between my mama and daddy, smiling ear to ear just like a Cheshire cat as the opening credits began. I stayed awake for the whole 77 minutes as the Rescue Aide Society chose B...

"Trust that an ending is followed by a beginning." ~ Unknown Ya it sucks, but keep calm. It's not the end of the world! How many times have you heard that one? But honestly isn't it some pretty good advice? If we react to everything life topples down on us, then we'd never get out from under anything. We'd always be digging ourselves out of a mess or running around like Chicken Little, warning the sky is falling continually. Now that said, life can get out of hand and absolutely feel like the world is ending. Life just has this way of crashing down suddenly, without notice and sending you your very own dancing Chicken Little. It's not the fear inside us that messes us up but what we do with Mr. Little's echo , "the sky is falling." It's our own version of the chicken dance which ultimately defines each and every particular chapter in our story. I think we tend to forget we have a choice in how we respond and react to adversity ...

"Christ is the head of our house, The unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation."  ~ Unknown When you think of leadership what comes to mind? The leader of a country, a sports figure, maybe it's a job title or a position? So how often does the word family come to mind when we think of leadership? Probably not as much as it should right?. I mean someone has to be the leader, guiding and steering our families through adversity and hardship right? What about our dreams or our efforts and accomplishments, who spearheads those endeavors? There's usually someone behind us or beside us rallying, lifting us up and motivating each of us to push past what we see as our limits right? In every family there's at least one person who takes the reins.  That's leadership...where the buck stops, the fault lands and the liability for all decisions good or bad when push comes to shove. ...

"Everything has changed and yet, I am more me than I've ever been." ~ Iain Thomas If my life were a book it would start something like this...There once was a little girl. She was kind, and good. She loved Jesus and her Mama. She was her daddy's little girl and had his grit to boot too. This little girl loved to sing and dance, to laugh, to play and to jump on beds. She was a bit of an oddball, wearing tiaras and capes, always full of spirit and adventures running wild through her own imagination. She loved silly thingys, nonesensey dodads, fantasy thingamajigs and make-believe whatchamacalits. She liked to read, write and create. And she loved to quote the great Dr. Seuss in such ways as this,"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, which is what I do, and that enables  you to laugh at life's realities." Birthdays, partie...

Love, it’s almost indescribable. Love can hurt but then love can heal. Love can drive us bat crazy and then sooth our insane madness.  Some days we may be at our wits end and the next in blissful euphoria. It’s just how love is. Bonkers at times, yes but mostly we are one another’s happy place are we not? The truth is, we laugh a lot, maybe fuss a bit but when Johnny puts his fingers through mine I melt. As the day begins and ends, our love always leads us to each other. After over 20 years of marriage we’ve learned above all, we’re as human as it gets. We’ve seen each other’s worst, believe me.  The bottom of the barrel kind of bad and we’ve stayed.  Why? Well the storms of life, they will come there’s no doubt. The cracks of uncertainty will spread across your walls, maybe even throughout your foundation but “there is no challenge strong enough to destroy your marriage as long as you are both willing to stop fighting against each other and start fighting for each o...

I remember a while back, I asked my counselor why God was allowing so many hurts to pile up so close together in my life. Do you know what she told me? "Boundaries Christina, it's all about boundaries." Let's just let that sink in for a moment. I know I had to. The truth is I have lived my entire life trying to please everyone. The reality, it is clearly impossible, and simply never ends well. Honestly, this is probably the hardest, most miserable life lesson I have ever had to learn. A lesson you can be certain inevitably pushed me through a barrier, over a cliff and to the bottom of a ravine.  The moment leading up to my hallelujah, come to Jesus meeting got it's first start some 19 months ago. Life at the time wasn't bad; in fact it seemed pretty good to me. As with any typical month in our household, we had our ups and downs. Sure I knew life wasn't full of gumdrops and lollipops, but life wasn't exactly sinkholes and tar pits either. I ha...