Carried Along

A blog about the light of the gospel in our everyday lives.

No Widgets found in the Sidebar Alt!

Christian Living

Reflections on an #Unproductive #Garden: Facing #disappointment in our everyday lives

Now, Lord willing, I will have a thriving pumpkin plant soon (they always surprise me), but I hate waiting. I want immediate satisfaction, no snags (or slugs), immediate success. I…

read more
July 2, 2021
Christian Living

Count It All Joy? Embracing God’s Promise to Bring Beauty Instead of Ashes

As an English teacher, I give many different writing prompts to provide writing practice for my students. One of the most interesting prompts of late asked them to retell a…

read more
June 16, 2020
Christian Living

What do we need in a world that’s upside down? How about an upside down gospel?

It really is hard to believe. Who could have believed the barrage of change we have seen since last Christmas? Sure, we knew it might be a bit crazy with…

read more
December 20, 2020

Archives

  • Christian Living

    Why #MercyMe is the Most Influential Band in My Life

    October 3, 2024 /

    It’s funny how our senses imprint memories subconsciously.  A certain sound, smell, or feeling can come flooding back without our knowledge.  Deja Vous?  Maybe, but for me, my MercyMe journey started in 1999.  I was a first year English teacher at Greenville High School in Greenville, TX.  I did have family close, but I was living completely on my own for the first time, navigating a new job, a new town, a new church, and new independence (coupled with some loneliness and bouts of depression).  I had never heard the name Bart Millard before, but it wasn’t long before I was being given MercyMe CDs.  These were independently produced albums…

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    The Cure for “Facebook Envy”: Be Thankful

    November 4, 2021 /

    If I admit it, I’ve always been this way-the coveting type.  I envy others’ sense of style, popularity, fun personality, job, or life in general.  You’d think I’d have outgrown this ridiculous habit.  It’s not like I don’t know that there isn’t a single person who hasn’t been touched by this fallen world.  Time and time again, I have idolized a person's life just to learn of a heart break they’ve endured, usually something much more tragic than I’ve never even come close to experiencing.  Broken relationships, wayward children, contentious relationships, debt, discontentment-dysfunction is rampant, even in the lives of those who have the most convincing Facebook photos.

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    Reflections on an #Unproductive #Garden: Facing #disappointment in our everyday lives

    July 2, 2021 /

    Now, Lord willing, I will have a thriving pumpkin plant soon (they always surprise me), but I hate waiting. I want immediate satisfaction, no snags (or slugs), immediate success. I don’t know about you, but I feel the same extreme impatience in many areas of my life. I want immediate results in my relationship with my husband, my prayers for my children, my mentoring relationships, and my educational and professional goals. I know, I know, we live in a fallen world ruled by God’s purposes, not mine. But when I pray, I want an answer, when I make an effort in a relationship, I want results, when I make a…

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    Light in the Darkness

    March 6, 2025 /

    Like the disciples, we are easily frightened.  While we have the Holy Spirit, something they didn’t yet have, we don’t always know what to do with the people around us who think and live differently than us.  The truth?  The world around us lacks hope. As a public school teacher, I see it every day. They are struggling to find purpose in a world that just “happened” without a creator.  As a result, the only significance they have is what they can accomplish.  No wonder they are so easily swayed by any myriad of identities and ideologies floating around.  The truth? They desperately need a light we often withhold because…

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    My Own Unexpected Journal

    November 13, 2024 /

    I’m surprised I even recognized the name.  It had been years: more than ten, if my calculations are correct.  Not to mention the number of students I had taught since I had him: hundreds? Nevertheless, I recognized the last name and clicked on it.  Sure enough, this girl had married him, my former student. We weren’t particularly close: I don’t “friend” my former students, and I have zero idea what mutual contacts this girl and I had, but there she was, nonetheless.  One click revealed a breath-taking wedding photograph behind the font reading “Jesus is King”! This detail was particularly important because, while I had a few outspoken Chritian students…

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    One Voice, One Hope

    October 8, 2024 /

    www.facebook.com/share/p/hzzT6PJp4Pi1Ye1k/ My latest post for encourage about unity in the body of Christ

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    A Reminder to “Look up” instead of at the world around us.

    July 4, 2024 /

    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/UwWsB8B6H6XaECz4/?mibextid=K35XfP

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    My latest post encourage on being available to what God has for us each day

    March 5, 2024 /

    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/272Gf5aHLkeq7vGY/?mibextid=K35XfP

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    The Quest for Peace

    January 8, 2024 /

    www.facebook.com/share/p/XzMj927Rv76w5Cj5/ My latest post for enCourage on peace.

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    For those who struggle with #prayer like I do

    November 16, 2023 /

    https://www.facebook.com/share/1WPtuM9KvaoYLzBW/?mibextid=K35XfP

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    My latest post for enCourage on parenting boys

    June 26, 2023 /

    m.facebook.com/groups/connect.pca.women/permalink/6276695289080377/

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
  • Christian Living

    Raising Children in a Success Obsessed World

    May 11, 2023 /

    read more
    JLR 0 Comments
 Older Posts
Ashe Theme by WP Royal.