I had two loves growing up: youth group and softball. I got a high from both of those activities that nothing else gave me.

My church friends were my closest friends. Plus, I thought a few of the older boys in the youth group hung the moon. (Now I married one and I realize he doesn’t even hang up his towel but that’s a different blog…)

But more than all of that, I can truly say that I had an unquenchable fire for the Lord that was growing inside of me at a very fast rate. And church fed that. I even wanted to be a missionary one day thanks to the influence I was gaining at church.

I also loved softball. Scraped knees, dirt under the nails, and horrible tan lines were my fashion statement. I had dreams of playing ball in college, but I quickly realized playing high school ball three months out of the year wouldn’t get me there. It became a year-round effort that required me to play on a travel team as well.

There was one problem: Travel ball meant playing on Sundays in the summers.

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No woman dreams of marrying a man that struggles with lust, but the sad truth is a lot of us do. It’s a truth that many “church-grown” women neglect to understand or acknowledge until a serious relationship arises. Sometimes it even takes years into a marriage before it comes to the surface.

But for the large majority of us, we eventually have to confront the reality of our husband’s very real temptation to lust after another woman.

My little brother used to close one eye, hold his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart from each other up to his open eye and “smush” me. I probably deserved it most of the time.

Isn’t distance perception a funny thing, though? That a nearly 5’9” person can seemingly fit between two tiny fingers?

Big things can seem really small sometimes.

When it comes to present issues in our lives though, doesn’t it seem to feel just the opposite?

Small things seem mammoth.

And most of the time we don’t even realize they are small until we are farther away from them. Then, we glance over our shoulder, hold our thumb and pointer finger an inch a part, and easily “smush” them.

It’s World Adoption Day, and although I haven’t yet been able to adopt as a parent, I was adopted as a child. So today is a happy day for me.

My father adopted me when I was ten.

I’ve written a blog before telling my whole adoption story, so that’s not what this is about.
This is just a quick thank you to the parents that have chosen to adopt.

My entire life abortion has been a topic I’ve worked hard to avoid. Because my entire life abortions have happened, people have argued, and abortions just keep happening.

I distinctly remember being in debate class my junior year of high school when the topic of abortion was announced. I sat and listened as the “right wing” and “left wing” of the classroom yelled back and forth about women’s rights and the definition of life.

Usually a very outspoken member of the class, I didn’t say one word that day. I put my head down to join the “sleepers” in the classroom, giving me an automatic zero.

But I wasn’t sleeping. I was crying.