Little Did She Know

Stories and reflections on faith and courage

Growing up with generalized anxiety disorder, I could never have seen where God would lead me. I pray my journey towards living courageously encourages you on your own journey.

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Prioritizing What Matters

Life should be enjoyed, and no matter how busy we are, I now believe it’s essential to choose joy through deliberately adding life-giving moments into our days.

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Using Your Imagination for Holy Week

Good Friday is here, and as I read the story of Christ’s sacrifice this morning, I tried to enter into the story in my imagination. My church even created a short meditation based on today’s Lenten reading to help us connect to each vital character, action, and emotion. I believe imagination is vital for us…

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Update: Moving, Memories, and Goals for the Future

Last week, my parents moved from my childhood home. It has been a small grief that I have been processing these past couple of months. Walking through the house and the yard the last few times brought up many memories of growing up and all of the dreams I had of the future.

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Fear of Change

“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5).

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Baby Steps

Every success adds to my list of victories that I can cling to when I try something new. I remember what it feels like to pass the finish line, full of relief and confidence, and I know that I can do hard things.

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Announcement: Choosing Courage in 2022

One of the things I have learned about courage in the past several years is that it often has to be actively pursued. We have to want to change, and we have to make conscious efforts to do hard things. My hope is to spur you (and myself) into living courageously this year.

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Update: One Year Late(r)

I know I’m late in saying it, but I hope you all have had a wonderful start to this new year. It feels strange but comfortably familiar to be back here. As a guilt-driven person, I feel the need to apologize for my lateness, and yet I have a feeling I’m not the only one…

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How Peace Surpasses Understanding

When we take our anxieties to God, we are not just asking that God takes away our fear. We are remembering that there is a God who listens and who cares about every detail of our lives, and this alone washes away our fear.

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How Suffering Produces Hope

2020 has been a reminder for many that the security systems we have trusted don’t hold up. Now that we are preparing to celebrate Christmas, let it be a reminder that God enters into our fear and brokenness.

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Fear and Faith Can Coexist

Sometimes I feel guilty about my fear. As a Christian, I have heard the declarations over fear and the claims that it is a sin. I’ve read all of the verses in scripture that say, “Do not fear.” I know that fear, like laziness or greed, is a vice. But is it opposed to faith?

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Do You Want to Be Healed?

I believe the danger in identifying with a mental disorder is that we can begin to embrace our thoughts as though they were not disordered–as thought they were a healthy, normal part of us that don’t need to be challenged.

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Practicing What I Believe 3: Waste

The problem is that waste is a part of our daily lives. We can’t go to a party or a restaurant without receiving plastics and styrofoams. This is an issue that is constantly creating cognitive dissonance in me.

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Practicing What I Believe 2: Meat

First… If you missed last week, I’m hoping to write a series on things that I have been trying to do to practice what I believe. I want to share these thoughts and ideas with you, not only to have a space to keep me accountable, but also to have a discussion about the best…

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Gardening for Hope

The Creation story begins in a garden, where humanity is seen as caretakers, and I can’t help but think that, whenever we return to the garden, we reclaim some sense of our original purpose and feel more alive in doing so.

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Anticipation Over Worry

Christian anticipation does more than look ahead–it looks behind at what Jesus has already done to save us, once and for all. Anything we could ever ask for has already been done, so we know our hopes will be fulfilled.

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You Already Know What You Need to Know

If we have been on this earth long enough, we have already heard or read many of the things we have needed to know, especially if we are actively seeking wisdom for certain areas of our lives. Yet we still keep seeking, and even when we take in advice, we don’t always follow through with…

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The Benefits of Stooping Down

I wanted to stoop down in the grass and imagine that that–the green and the soil and the sky–were all I needed to survive. Like a bird, I could live above the world that made me anxious.

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Christians, Can We Talk about Sex?

When we talk about sex as bad, we more deeply ingrain the idea that it is objectifying and vulgar, and we associate it with only shame. When we describe it only as sacred and private, we gloss the idol in gold, as if it were the communion bread that was sacred and not the remembrance. 

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Finding Confidence by Embracing God’s Power

Self-doubt turns me inward and tells me I’ll never be good enough. But the Bible is full of stories of helplessly broken people who were used for God’s glory, not because of their confidence or abilities, but because of God’s power within them.

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Why I Take Anti-Depressants

Because of the boost of medication, I have been able to try new things that I might not have tried before, like taking long hikes, kayaking, visiting friends, and more things that I love.

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The Danger of Empathy

Empathy deepens relationships, fuels understanding, inspires reconciliation, unites us in our differences, and pushes us to act in love. But it is also dangerous.

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When the News is Depressing

When I found out about the rainforest, the first thing I did was think about it long enough that I felt a hint of something. Then I researched it, found out facts, and then scrambled to find something–anything–that I could do. But what can I do about something far away that only the rich and…

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Leaning on the Faith and Hope of Others

We are not made to find all of the answers in our own individual experiences. When we share stories, we pile hope into an already vast collection of shared hopes and triumphs–stories of faith and overcoming despite all of the reasons to despair.

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Subscribe by Email for More!

Right now, email subscribers receive a free PDF of a brief nonfiction piece that I wrote in graduate school about an experience I had with debilitating anxiety. I wrote it to process this time, and it became something I hope will encourage others.

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Wonderful Christian Music You Won’t Hear on the Radio

It’s difficult at times to find Christian music with both good lyrics and a style that I like. I know I’m not the only one. I love Casting Crowns, Tenth Avenue North, and Lauren Daigle as much as any K-Love listener, but I sometimes want music that is more contemporary, folksy, ambient, or soothing. It’s taken awhile to build this list,…

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Remember to Remember

I had forgotten how God had said I was loved and looked after. I had forgotten how God had brought me to the alter to say “I do” to my husband and then to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado Springs where my breaths were short but I spoke a “thank you” prayer to…

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Choosing Joy

I think we sometimes try to make others feel guilty for their joy. When we don’t see joy in our own lives, we begin talking down the joy others are experiencing.

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True Humility

Christ, who was perfect, did not flaunt his perfection or consider it his right to stand over others, but humbled himself, becoming a servant.

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Little Did She Know: An Introduction

 I first knew I wanted to be a writer when I was nine. I dreamed of writing novels and sharing stories that would inspire people the way stories inspired me. I spent more hours writing on my desktop computer than I did doing anything else. This produced a 100 page fantasy novel that I am…

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