There are times that I wish that I didn’t find correlating messages so frequently, because it generally means there is more reading ahead. And as much as I love reading and learning, I had really expected an Expiration Date for this flourishing topic; instead, it keeps going and going like that one battery company’s mascot! …
Prayers Don’t Expire
If you aren’t a regular reader here or if you are and just didn’t notice, most of the blog titles are one to three words. At first this intentionality was because the blogging software creates the web address using the title, the longer the title, the longer the link. However, as God continued to provide …
Expiration Dates
When teaching about food safety in nutrition, it is not uncommon for me to educate students on the differences between “buy by,” “use by,” or Expiration Dates. Although I do not advise it, the reality is that sometimes I allow these to be mere suggestions, not necessarily a hard line. There are exceptions though, most …
Sober-Minded
Whether shaped by culture or my experience teaching drug education, the first definition that comes to mind when I hear the word sober almost always relates to alcohol or drugs. Because of this, I find myself momentarily distracted when encountering the word in Scripture—particularly in passages like 1 Peter 5:8. Even across translations, the Greek …
Good or God
Perhaps I am not alone in the struggle to discern what is a Good or God thing. As I try to steward my time, talents, and treasures well, I sometimes wish for a flashing neon arrow pointing me clearly toward the “God” choices instead of the merely “good” ones. I mean, Moses got a burning …
Beyond Windshield Glass
Evidently, I am “in love with the mountains,” according to a friend’s recent description of me to her son after a trip to British Columbia. I mean… I’d prefer to be known for being in love with Jesus—or at the very least my husband (still waiting for him to make himself known!)—but I can’t exactly …
What’s Going Right
As I browsed the new books section of the local library, one title immediately caught my attention: What’s Going Right? As someone continually searching for appreciative frameworks, I was intrigued. The author’s name, Paul Conti, seemed familiar, so I picked it up and began reading. Before I even made it out of the introduction, I …
Eyes and Ears
Have you ever paused to consider how often you take your senses for granted? Perhaps it happened during a power outage—one of those moments when darkness becomes more than an inconvenience. The kind of darkness where there is no glow, no flicker, no ambient light at all. The kind where the phrase “you can’t see …
Six Strings
As we consider what it truly means to flourish together, a compelling cultural voice echoes what both Scripture and research have already revealed. In a May 2026 commencement address at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, musician Eric Church described a defining tension of this generation in his speech about the Six Strings …
Table in the Back
Overhearing a colleague on campus the other day, I couldn’t help but laugh. Someone had asked her where she bought her sandwich. Her answer came quickly: “Jeff’s. It’s the Mad Shepp!” The reply was immediate and teasing: “I didn’t know they let women in there.” After the laughter subsided—and the tears from laughing so hard …
Flourishing @ Life 