by Maddie

You wouldn't know it, but I'm writing this from abroad. Not in my office like normal, but at my gym. Bright and early. As I await my turn on a machine.  Which is perfect because I wanted to talk about straying from the routine, from the norm. You  see, God's been doing some cool stuff in the past 14 hours (yes, I’m being that exact). Yesterday, while I was rereading my latest Fear Fighting   chapter, I realized that I needed to cite my sources. So, I went back to my commentar

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who wanted to write stories about mermaids and princesses. And of course, since no one else could get the details  just right , she had to draw them too. Thus began her writing career. It was slow, at first, just little manuscripts crafted with marker and crayon. But gradually, her ideas shifted—magical tree houses and friends’ adventures and puppies galore—and then shifted again—essays and analytics and studying, studying, studying—a

If you've been here a while, then you'll know that I really like studying God's Word. So, today we're gonna talk about Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Oh, and did you know that she was previously called Sarai, but God renamed her Sarah , or Princess . So we have Abraham, the father of many nations , which might as well make him a king, and Sarah the princess. Look how God renames as He redeems! Nevertheless, although Abraham and Sarah are well aware of the Lord’s promise of desce

Did you know I write both fiction and nonfiction? While a lot of this blog is spent studying the Word, my fictional pieces also have Christ embedded in them. Take this excerpt, for example... Before all the negative thoughts swirling around her head could take over, movement from a radiant rainbow of light caught her attention.  It took her eyes a second to adjust, but once they did, Mari stared: it was the prince. He was the light. And she knew it because all the glowing gl

This week I wanna talk about interruptions. Surprises. Shockers. Stressors. None of which I am very fond of (and I don't think I'm alone in this). But thanks to a handy dandy devotional by Max Lucado, the Lord has shown me another perspective on interruptions. He writes…   “We seldom, if ever, allow the Holy Spirit to interrupt our plans and lead us to worship so that we might see Jesus.”   Friends, I don’t know about you, but I want to be interrupted by Jesus. When my plans

What do you know about Sodom and Gomorrah, aka the salty cities of the Bible? Abraham's nephew Lot (who is the focal point of this blog) lived there, and well, let's just say that these two cities were extremely messed up. Wickedness prevailed in every way imaginable, so much so, that not even ten people in the cities were considered righteous ( Gen 18:22-33 ). As such, God decided to rain down destruction… on everyone except Lot. This man was  deemed righteous (because he be

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 painting, 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 circumstances that inspired this piece are forgotten to me?   Isn’t it odd how we fret and flare and fear… when in all likelihood, the source of our terror

How does a bee pollinate a flower ... If said flower is closed tight? It can’t. So why do we expect God to work miracles in our lives … Without opening ourselves up to Him? Since we've had some lengthy blog posts as of late, this one's short and (maybe not so) sweet: Don’t view God as some distanced, far-off, holier-than-thou figure, when Jesus is proof that He’d rather descend into the dirtiest stable, sink to a humiliating death, and dive into the pits of Hell … Than be sep

Gardeners cut and prune their plants… so they can grow more.   Construction workers have to break down the old… before they can build the new.   Blacksmiths have to hammer and mar… shaping the metal to fit the mold.   Potters have to cut and smash and use brute force… for the clay to yield to their hands.   Christ had to be crucified and killed… in order for us to live with Him again.   There’s an interesting pain/growth symbiosis found in life, isn’t there? The end results c

I wanna start with a quote today: “Act not on the mere strength of what you have, but in expectation of that which you have asked.” -...

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...

Fun fact: I’ve learned to write … with only nine functional fingers! You see, this morning, I accidently sliced open my finger (sorry for...

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Maddie. Now, this Maddie girl was seven months into a bizarre "break" with a guy, and well, she...

This is for all you introverts out there. And for you extroverts … I bet you get sick of people too. It might take a lot more peopling...

Readers, guess what... I'm officially writing my LAST book for my fantasy series! I wrote the first two pages a couple days ago (not only...

This design was birthed in my journal, bright and early on a random Bible-studying morning. I start each day that way, in fact—open my...

A couple weeks ago, I bought a hamster. Her name is Annalise. I don’t know why I named her that; I just liked it. But I digress. You see,...

Sometimes people ask me what my favorite part about writing is. My answer always seems to shock them, for it's not about concocting...

When tasked with the responsibility of writing about this painting , my mind came up empty. In truth, this piece was a commission for my...

You wouldn't know it, but I'm writing this from abroad. Not in my office like normal, but at my gym. Bright and early. As I await my turn on a machine.  Which is perfect because I wanted to talk about straying from the routine, from the norm. You see, God's been doing some cool stuff in the past 14 hours (yes, I’m being that exact). Yesterday, while I was rereading my latest Fear Fighting chapter, I realized that I needed to cite my sources. So, I went back to my commentar