Suggested reading from the Editor's personal library.

I love America! The land of the free, the home of the brave, and the amazing freedoms She offers. As this great land of ours celebrates 250 years of independence, I’d be remiss not to express my heartfelt gratitude for the untethered freedom to accomplish God’s holy calling on my life—to publish Living Real Magazine.

Have you ever experienced the magic of taking an adventure to faraway places simply through the pages of a book?

While I’m very concerned about what is and what isn’t happening regarding Iran, what keeps me up at night, and often on my face before the Lord, is the apostasy within the visible church. I ache for the souls of those who hear the Word of God but don’t intend to obey it. 

Every believer in Christ faces the same predicament— how to stay strong in difficult times. Living real in Christ carries the demand to live out the reality of who we are as Christians in a world where wars and rumors of wars seem to be the order of the day. 

Our window of time is closing fast. The Church Age is coming to an end.

One morning before dawn, my oldest son, Matthew, and my youngest son, Joel, crawled  into my lap during my daily Bible reading time. Joel, in kindergarten at the time, declared with excitement, “I see sight words, Mommy.” “Which ones?” I asked. He proudly replied, “Lord, God, Jesus, Savior.” Matthew interjected, “Those aren’t sight words!” This ignited an argument between them. Matthew’s final score was announcing, “Those words aren’t on any of our teachers’ sight words lists.”

After years of prayer, planning, perseverance, and faith, we are humbled and overjoyed to finally share this long-awaited news: the doors of Karis Home are officially open!

As a therapist for a little over a decade, I have had the pleasure of working with many individuals, couples, and families. The results of these encounters have varied based on where, when, and how the sequencing of patterns have reached fertile hearts. I can objectively say that the moment I allowed my faith to infiltrate the room is the moment I began to see more healing in the lives of the people I counseled. As a result, I continue to speak about faith and belief in therapy due to the underlying spiritual struggle that presents itself with each encounter. To understand why, allow me to share some of my story.

I thought I was prepared to speak to a group of teenage girls for our Youth Girls’ Friendsgiving. I mapped out and rehearsed exactly what I was going to say. However, the night before I was to speak, I was almost involved in a car accident. My mind immediately rushed back to the car crash I was in with my sister the year before. Due to that accident, we both acquired permanent injuries and conditions which continue to affect our everyday lives.

Spring arrives like a gentle invitation. The days grow longer, the air softens, and something stirs within us as the heaviness of winter subsides. As warmer months arrive, we beg for small, sustainable shifts in how we eat and how we care for ourselves.

In the last issue of Living Real, I shared a shift in my thinking about financial peace. I used to view financial peace as an accumulation of wealth. But with each financial goal reached, I set another and another. As I found myself treating the accumulation of money as the source of my peace and not God, my mindset changed.

Suggested reading from the Editor's personal library.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “I’m living my best life”? Maybe it was said by someone who’s retired, traveling, living at the beach, or whose life responsibilities have greatly diminished. It could also be someone with a new home, job, spouse, or empty nesters. But, what do all of these “best lives” have in common?

It’s easy to get an attitude these days. 

Especially the American Christian. You know what I’m saying.

We’re so greatly misunderstood, misrepresented, mischaracterized, and mistaken for others posing as Jesus-followers that we’re becoming Gordian knots searching for some new label for our relationship with Jesus.

My daughter recently started running and training for her first half marathon. At first, she struggled to find the right shoes. Despite trying several pairs, the pain persisted. After consulting with a professional, the cause of her pain was identified. The professional recommended the appropriate footwear which, thankfully, alleviated her discomfort. 

I didn’t need an alarm. The howling wind outside made the early morning hours difficult to sleep. Throwing back the sheets, I begrudgingly rolled out of bed. 

My morning routine felt as chaotic as the winds outside. Even my quiet time was harried. The demands on my calendar vied for my attention, and the weight of responsibilities taunted me like a schoolyard bully hiding in the shadows.

At Lighthouse for Life, we believe in the power of truth, hope, and education to transform lives. That’s why we’re excited to introduce The Light, a new blog dedicated to bringing awareness to the realities of sex trafficking and inspiring our community to stand together against it.

Did you marry your best friend, or do you just like to say you married your best friend?

It's very popular to declare some version of “My spouse is my best friend” or “I’m so blessed I got to marry my best friend.” I fully believe that those who claim it really think they mean it. But, for so many husbands and wives who want it to be true, it’s likely to be less of a reality than they may think.

As the first day of school approached, I began seeing Facebook posts for an event called DayONE—a women’s prayer event for all Lexington One moms. This event was scheduled for the first day of school at a local church. I decided to take a step of faith and attend after I dropped off my kids. 

That one hour of prayer changed my life.