by Maddie

In honor of Mother's Day, it seems only fitting that we talk about one of the many moms in the Bible: Hannah. Her story is found in 1 Samuel 1-2:11 but basically, after years of infertility, she goes to the temple and pleads with the Lord to give her a son. If He does, she promises to dedicate him to God, meaning that he'll live and work at the temple. Lo and behold, He opens her womb and she gives birth to Samuel ... who she gives over to God as soon as he's weaned. This chi

For those of us who’ve asked Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, we’re privy to a whole host of amazing Truths about our newfound, adopted-into-the-family-of-God identity. Unfortunately, most of us don’t know them. This explains why we tend to live in defeat and despair, instead of freedom and triumph. A couple weeks ago, the Lord led me to a wonderful book called Victory Over the Darkness (by Niel T. Anderson, since I gotta cite my sources) and in it, there’s a list of statemen

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Maddie. Now, this girl was seven months into a bizarre "break" with a guy, and well, she wasn't handling it well. But truth be told, her struggles had started lonnngggg before that guy was even in the picture; the past year had been rough, made her mental health not-so healthy. However, things had started to get better... thanks to God permeating her life with so much Scripture, that she began to fall in love. Not with a boy, but with

This week is different, special. Because yesterday was different and oh-so special. In honor of Easter and our Savior's sacrifice, I thought it would be nice to share a poem... About the beginning. When all was pure. Until it wasn't. As you read, think about God's master plan, His redemption plan, rescue mission. And thank Jesus, our ultimate Rescuer, for becoming our way home. "Eve” Eve Is what I am He says I used to be Nothing Enshrouded in darkness Cool and c

The days before Easter are a time of great emotion, reflection, sorrow, and triumph. As such, I made this little graphic for us to think about. Moreso, this blog's not gonna be centered around my words, but His perfect Word, because no matter how I try to describe the story of our Savior, I'll never be able to match Scripture's beauty. Thus, please ponder with me... "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you

What do you do when God doesn’t do what you want? When the relationship hasn’t been remedied, the job hasn’t appeared, the sickness hasn’t left? When you know that He can change things—it’s certainly within the power of the All-Powerful Almighty—but when it doesn’t seem that He’s willing to answer your prayers with yes right now. When He’s making you wait, saying either not yet or I have something better ? Friends, none of us like waiting. We’re used to instant gratificat

Welcome to a blog that probably won't make much sense! You see, I've been writing the third installment of my fantasy series , and without my knowing it, the Lord inspired me to write a scene based off of Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Sooooo, I thought I'd share it. The details (like why Mari and her elderly sidekick - Miss Lili - are on a

You ever have one of those days where it seems like everything is going wrong? Just in the less-than-six hours since I woke up today, I’ve had three impatient drivers ride my tail (when suffering from road rage, I suggest praying for those who annoy you), a super long wait at the gym because someone was hogging a machine (and on their phone 90% of the time instead of actually using said machine; praying for those who annoy you doesn’t just apply to road rage), an unexpected v

I know this sticker's called Faith over Fear , but today I wanna talk about trust. Because really, putting our faith in God demands that we trust Him too. I've been studying one of the most famous verses on this subject, and boy, is it fascinating ... "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths” ( Prov 3:5-6, HCSB ). Although, technically speaking, before we can

In honor of the three little blue birds I saw swirling and twirling in the morning sky today, we are going to revisit this work from last spring... Pretty little blue bird In a little branch, Has life got you down? Pretty little blue bird, Don’t fret or flare, God will keep you Safe and sound. I wrote this poem on the back of this piece, and truly, I don’t remember why I did. What issue I was fretting over or what stressor I was enduring. Isn’t it odd how the circumstan

Sometimes people ask me what my favorite part about writing is. My answer always seems to shock them, for it's not about concocting fantasy realms or creating my own schedule or being able to work in my pajamas. It's this: being able to share the Good News with those who may never pick up a Bible. Hopefully, you'll see what I'm talking about (or rather Who I'm talking about) in this next Mission: A Creator Story excerpt: The wind whipped Mari’s hair across her face, splicin

For the past few days, the Lord’s been inspiring me to doodle—again and again—this image of a swan. I didn’t know why exactly, besides the obvious symbolism of peace and purity and pretty tranquility (gotta love my alliterative tendencies. And technically-not-grammatically-correct-but-oh-well sentence structures). However, He has since redirected me back to a long-enjoyed verse … “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee”

Guys, I did something practically unheard of for me: I took a week-long break from writing my Fear Fighting series. In the past, I’d periodically mention writing all the time—on holidays, vacations, basically every single day—because I was so desperate to be deep in His Word. But after a of couple weeks where the Lord worked insanely fast—miraculously healing from the chemical imbalances associated with anxiety, delivering me from the spiritual bondage that went along with

Yes, this is the weirdest blog title ever. It foreshadows the end of this Bible story, which centers around a sun. And this sun is special because it shines much longer than it should. For a full day, in fact, until the Israelites’ latest battle is won ( Josh 10:13 ). Ultimately, God’s the one responsible for this high-in-the-night-sky sun, since He’s answering the prayer of Joshua, His once-again-faith-filled servant. You see, the Jews have a plethora of enemies, and once t

Do you ever get nervous when God starts answering prayers? It seems counterintuitive, I know, but after an eventful few weeks and studying what happens after Jericho falls , I’m thinking that angst is a pretty common response to the Lord’s work. Can you relate to that? Any times where God’s done something monumental … and you’re left panicking? Not gonna lie, I feel that way right now. But as our studies are about to show us, this panic is brought about because our eyes str

I'm gonna be honest with you guys - I don't know when or why I wrote this mini's quote. All I know is that it proves true for what I'm going through right now. What do you do when you don't know where God's leading you? For me, that's a question pertaining to my books... specifically, how to publish them. For the last two years, I've relied upon self-publishing to share my works; however, I can count on one hand the number of copies I've sold. A couple weeks ago, I was able t

A couple months ago, my pastor gave a fascinating sermon about a common phenomenon found in Christian's lives. He called it Jesus plus . To sum it up, he was saying how we have a tendency to not be content with Christ alone, but to take up idols to serve in addition to Him. For the Israelites in the Old Testament, they often sacrificed on altars for both God and gods, of the literal, statue variety. However, Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament reveal that idols don’t have

I just spent three hours sorting through five year's worth of old blog posts. Ranging from 2020 to now, I went into all 195 documents and categorized them - for your reading pleasure - into five, easily-to-navigate groups: Artwork, Writing Excerpts, Mental Health, Faith, and Bible Studies (you're welcome). My brain's kinda fried, so we're not going to have a new post this week. However, with New Year's approaching, it seems like the perfect time to take a trip down Handiworks

You’d think a post right before Christmas would be full of well wishes and holiday cheer, right? Wrong. Considering that 89% of Americans find this time of year to be overwhelmingly stressful —with 41% naming it t he most stressful time of the year —I think there’s something more important to talk about. One of the main reasons why most of us have a hard time around Christmas—and I’ll be honest, I’m definitely in that 41% group who dreads holidays—is that we think about

Today's topic is about sheep ... partially because I discovered this picture from my Ireland excursion and couldn't resist sharing such cute little lambs ... and partially because I've been studying Psalm 23. It goes like this: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside … still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness [for] His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley