When The Flames of Love Become Ashes
By Ashley McIlwain
It had been nearly 24 hours since there was any sign of life. All that was left were ashes. Gray. Cold. It never crossed my mind that anything could become of it.
Yet, as I piled some newspaper and kindling wood together carefully in my usual teepee formation, before …
Put On Your Big Kid Pants
By Ashley McIlwain
We’ve all witnessed it … the meltdown of a random child. You’re trying to enjoy a quiet dinner for two, but instead you’re being served a big plateful of wailing child with a side of yelling, desperate parent. Perhaps you’re pushing your cart along in the grocery store …
The Adventure of Marriage
By Ashley McIlwain
Married life is an adventure. There’s always something to learn, explore, and overcome. You laugh, cry, fight, make-up, grow up, speak up, and shut up. It’s epic, memorable, fun, exciting, and worth it. Marriage is everything it’s cracked up to be and more, but it’s definitely a lifelong …
A Desperate Need
By Ashley McIlwain
Life is tough. There’s no way around it; it’s just full of valleys and mountaintops, ups and downs, highs and lows. At one time or another for one reason or another, we all experience pain, heartache, brokenness, sadness, and sickness. It’s inevitable and unavoidable.
Since we can’t do anything …
It’s Not You, It’s Me
By Ashley McIlwain
It’s not you, it’s me.
We’ve all heard this cliché line often associated with a break-up. Men and women everywhere use it as a means of ending a relationship that is less than desirable for one reason or another. Maybe you’ve used it or been on the receiving end …
The Power of Forgiveness
By Ashley McIlwain
Forgiveness. It’s such a simple word, but behind it lays an abyss of layers. Layers that many of us struggle with. Layers that all too often we can’t understand or put into practice. It’s just one word, but within its context is a world of freedom or bondage.
Forgiveness …
When All Else Fails, Bake A Cake
By Loryn Purvis
I learned early on in my marriage that a well-fed husband is a happy husband. If I have some important news I need to deliver to BJ, or when there is a serious decision we need to make together, things always go more smoothly when we both have …
Leap of Faith
By Ashley McIlwain
Many times falling in love is equated with a leap of faith, and with good reason.
It can be scary jumping head first into a relationship let alone a marriage. After all, you are about to make yourself completely vulnerable, which also means leaving yourself completely open to getting …
We All Stand on Something
By Jeffrey A. Klick, Ph.D.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3)
The Psalmist David asks this question, and it is worth exploring. Most of us do not have to think too hard to realize that our society is in big trouble. Marriages are being destroyed, all …
Improving the Silence
By Coleen York
There’s no denying our lives revolve around relationships. It’s the way we were created: to be in relationship first with God, and then with others. There’s something circuited into the heart of every one of us that yearns for fellowship, for communication and understanding.
But for years I thought …
