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 adventure. Like any good
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 about eliminating the
By Loryn Purvis If you were to ask me what my greatest discovery in food has been while living in Southern California, you might be surprised at my answer. I would unequivocally declare that the one food I have come to love like never before ... wait for it ... is the taco. Yes, there
By Steve McIlwain Hubs here. Ephesians 5:22-25: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their
By Ashley McIlwain “So, when are you guys going to have some babies?!” This was a question posed to my husband and me … at our wedding reception. We hadn’t been married but an hour, and the baby question was already being asked. I remember being dumbfounded wondering if it was some sort of odd
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 of it. This
By Ashley McIlwain You’re sitting at a restaurant and can’t help but notice the family sitting at a table nearby. The kids are playing games on their iPads and gaming devices oblivious to the world around them. The mom and dad are completely engrossed in something on their phones not paying attention to their kids
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 is something that
By Ashley McIlwain From across the room I watch him. There’s a gentleness in his eyes and an ease in his movements that bring me comfort. The concentration on his handsome face puts a smile on mine. Somehow he embodies strength and tenderness all at the same time. As he strums away at his guitar,
By Ashley McIlwain It’s that time of year where many of us roll up our sleeves to do some serious spring cleaning. We dig our way to the backs of closets ridding them of items we forgot even existed. Things that have gone unnoticed get packed up or tossed out. Corners that haven’t seen a
