Category: Bethany’s Guest Posts
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Shutting Down Over-Productivity
Lord knows I’m a planner and producer. Productivity could be my middle name. I’ve got files and folders physical and digital stretching my future hopes into step-by-step endeavors. If you’ve got a topic to talk about, I’ve got a project you’re contributing to. The most visited destination in my mind is my idea mill. It’s…
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What The Millennial Generation Needs to Know About the Goal of Faith
For many millennials entering adulthood, the truth that we all compete for a prize is a shock. Painted high on the concrete wall of my elementary school gym, next to a friendly cartoon character, were the words, If you had fun, you won. It was as simple as that. We received participation trophies whether we failed…
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A Tale of Two Men (And Their Riches)
Two men, many years apart in history, were blessed with abundance. With more riches than they could enjoy at the time of harvest, the men stored up the excess in granaries. They heaped up God’s provision and saved it for another time. There was a significant difference between the two, though. One man was generous…
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When Resumes Don’t Match Dreams
Call me weird, but I love helping people with their resumes. It reminds me of those fun matching worksheets we’d fill out in school. Maybe you remember them too? One column might list dates. The other would outline events. We would draw a line between those that matched. Similarly, good resumes tend to align with…
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A Time to Search: Cease Striving, Start Seeking
Reconciling the Biblical call to cease striving with the command to continually seek is tricky when you’re in the midst of searching out God’s will for your life. You know that sitting on your hands doing nothing isn’t what God asks of any one. At the same time, you know that moving ahead without his…
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Tips for Educators of Students With Incarcerated Parents
When teachers receive their roster each school year, they are handed more than a list of names—they receive an opportunity to invest in lives. It‘s likely that some of these lives are impacted by crime and incarceration. 2.7 million children in the United States have a parent behind bars. Teachers and school administrators play a significant…
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A Time to Love: A Simple Equation to Keep You From Quitting
I didn’t want to like him. He was too silly, too sincere, too serious about his faith in Christ. That’s almost exactly what I said to him the day I begrudgingly confessed to him that I liked him. He told me he liked me too- but offered to try to quit liking me if I’d…
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Watch for the Bait and Switch
Pauls’ words in Romans 7:15 about struggling with sin nature echo in our ears: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” What gets us to do what we hate? Why do we sin when we know sin stinks? One…
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Don’t Spoil the Surprise!
A few weeks ago, two boxes arrived in the mail with my husband’s name stamped on top. He hasn’t opened them. They are in the closet. If they could speak, they’d be whispering temptation to me. I’m going a little crazy wondering what’s up with them. Our hearts don’t tend to need much help with…
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The Treasure of Finished
What happens when your fears come true before your dreams do? I faced this question recently when the very reason I’d avoided obeying the Lord in pursuit of my dreams became a reality. Spread out before me, my big scary reason for reluctance made the truth plain. There is no way around hurt and hardship…