December 2014 Link Love

It’s been nearly three months since sharing some link love, so this post is well overdue. This month, I have a whole library of posts on a variety of different topics from other great writers around the blogosphere! Enjoy the link love!

5 Things Christians Must Remember When Sharing Their Story

Abiding in Christ–when reading the Bible isn’t an option

6 Quick Preschool Conversation Starters

3 Questions to Ask Your Child Every Night

31 Days of Learning Differently (my favorites from this amazing series are listed below)

• The Need for More Margin in Families with Differently-Wired Children
• My Child Hates Busy Bags (and Other Differently-Wired Child Realities)
• Transitions and Your Differently-Wired Child
• Getting Spirited Children to Sleep and Related Challenges

Stop Thanking Veterans For Their Service
Thank a veteran that you don’t have to be one.

How Many Followers Are Enough?
Focus on your subscribers, those little Avatars or pen names, as people. Because there is someone behind that computer reading what you have to say, because for them, it matters.

FOR THE ONE WHO MARRIED YOUNG
When you marry young, you’ll change and he’ll change, and in the midst of all of this growth you’ll realize that you can’t change each other. There will be moments and days and seasons that are really hard. And you’ll be tempted to think it’s because you got married young, but really, it’s just because you got married.

WHAT MILLENNIALS REALLY WANT FROM CHURCH
What pushes us away? We are repulsed by dry traditions and lack of intimacy with the Father.

To Those Who Doubt
It doesn’t take long to learn that your questions make people uneasy. It takes only a few raised eyebrows, pat answers, or disapproving tones to learn that asking questions isn’t safe.

WHY ARE WE HERE? (THE ISLAND OF MISFIT FAITH)
Maybe being misfit is more normal than we could ever know. Maybe the church of the misfits could simply be called “The Church” and maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Getting Off the Crazy Train
If the wounds could’ve been prayed away, given away to Jesus, studied away, prophesied away, or forgiven away, they would’ve been healed by now because I’ve tried them all, repeatedly.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHURCH: HOW TO LOVE THE CYNICS
We need you to sit with us in the mad season for as long as it takes. We need to hear your stories – the messy ones, the hard parts. We need you to tell us the pain of it without skipping ahead to the happy ending. Maybe we can face our darkness if you are honest about yours.

Why We Don’t Need “Women’s” Ministry
Some of us are drowning, suffocating, dying of thirst for want of the cold water of real community. We’re trying really hard–after all, we keep showing up to your lady events, and we leave feeling just a bit empty.

When You Are Not Fine
But I wonder, what if we didn’t grow so tired of admitting where we’re truly at? What if the church threw arms around the unfine? What if we learned that church just might be the best place to be not fine for a bit? Or for a good long while if that’s what it takes.

No Longer Waiting
It’s an effective way to numb my mind and heart, to escape the constant questions about faith, to forget about broken and abandoned dreams.

To the people in the church pews.
I walk into church on a Sunday morning hoping to be welcomed into community, for guidance to find the answers of who I am and who my God is. Hoping for someone to see the vacancy in my eyes and guide me out of this darkness.

Sharing Secrets About our Spouse
Concealers struggle in utterly isolation, self-deprecation, a deeply hellish belief that God is ashamed of their struggles. Concealers believe that their struggles don’t deserve a voice, that their suffering doesn’t matter to anyone. Their failures in marriage feel too deep to share, even with closest friends or family, even (especially?) with their church community for fear that they’ll be demoted, disciplined or excommunicated. Do you see the stage set for spiritual abuse?

Embracing the Hidden Joy of an Upside Down Christmas
What is squeezing and lurching and shifting you now is actually building a new mountain top for you to praise Him from. The very thing that is draining the heart and soul out of you is creating a high point for the future.

Week 3: Why You Really Are Prepared for Christmas. Even if You’re Not.
Because even if the tree never went up and the cookies never got made and the advent readings never got read, Christmas would still come because Christ still comes.