Category Archives: Guest Post

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3 Ways You Can Make Food a Place of Healing and Wholeness

It’s time to whet your appetite, tease your taste buds, and get you inspired! In a few weeks, I have a guest on the 4:13 Podcast who you will love, but before she joins us, I asked her to share some good stuff about food for the new year. I knew that if I was impacted by this, you will be too.

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My friend, Margaret Feinberg, has been uncovering delicious insights in her new book and Bible study, Taste and See: Discovering God Among Bakers, Butchers, and Fresh Food Makers, and I asked her to share a few with you here. I hope you enjoy her as much as I do!

Pull up a chair … take it away, Margaret!

The dawn of the new year often stirs dreams and hopes and resolutions, but it can expose places of brokenness and pain too. For me, one of those spaces is food and my weight.

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When It Feels Like God Is Not Good to You

Do you ever wonder if God has dropped the pen and stopped writing your life story? You know, when your life doesn’t happen like you wanted or seems less important or interesting than someone else’s life, you can question what God is up to. My friend, author Ashleigh Slater knows exactly how that feels and that’s why I’ve asked her to join us for Java today.

So, if you, like me, battle the tendency and temptation to compare your story with others’ stories, you’ll really benefit from these three truths Ashleigh reminds us to be purposeful to tell ourselves. I just love this and I know you will too.

Pour your coffee and settle in. Take it away Ashleigh!

“No matter what happens today,” I gently reminded my two daughters, “God is writing your individual stories, and you can trust Him.”

Both girls were about to audition in New York City for the national tour of a Tony-Award winning musical. It was an audition we’d spent weeks preparing for—not only vocally, but also emotionally.

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How to Live Loved

Today I’m welcoming my friend, Wendy Blight, to have coffee with us and share from her new Bible study on 1 John, I Am Loved: Walking in the Fullness of God’s Love. Plus, she’s giving away a copy to one of you wonderful women below! See why I love her? You will too, sister, so get ready, get set, and let’s go … let’s learn how to live loved.

In 1 John 3:16, John tells us to love one another.

Easy to say, but, oh, so hard to do.

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Yet God clearly calls us to this. Why?

Because God knows there are people in this world who’ll never walk through the doors of a church, join a neighborhood Bible study, or attend a Christian conference. But, they will encounter His people, women like you and me. And through us, they’ll experience God’s love. His beautiful, pure, unconditional love.

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How to Escape a Boring Life and Live a Better Story

In case you missed it, I’m officially a GiGi! I am just beside myself with joy, and I have no time to write because I am holding a sweet baby boy. So I asked my smart, fun, lovely friend Margaret Feinberg to help me out — she’s going to share with you on the blog today. She’s hung out with us before, and I know you love her as much as I do. 

But, girl, today, she is going to share with you how to not only live the life you long for, but write about it, too. I have met so many of you who say you want to write a book or a blog and my girl, Margaret, can help you do just that — in the most brilliant way. So, enjoy what she has to say and let me know what you think! 

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My husband, Leif, is from Alaska. We spent the first five years of marriage living in his hometown of Sitka as well as the capital, Juneau. In each of these towns, cruise ships arrived throughout the summer.

On the busiest days, more than 20,000 people would disembark those ships and fill the tiny towns. The majority of visitors were in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Many were barely able to walk. Some dragged an oxygen tank behind them.

I found myself welling with admiration for these feisty travelers. They fought hard to realize their lifelong dream of visiting Alaska. Way to be courageous. Way to overcome obstacles.

But the longer we stayed in Alaska, the more I heard these amazing visitors repeat the same story: They had lived their whole lives with a bucket list. Alaska was always in the top five things they wanted to do, but it never reached number one.

By the time they arrived, they physically couldn’t participate in the activities, tours, and hikes that reveal Alaska’s most splendid beauty. They couldn’t hike into the ice caves of Mendenhall glacier to see the mesmerizing sapphires of ancient winters’ beauty. They were unable to kayak along the shore with seals splashing alongside. They couldn’t hike the mountains’ crest to behold Alaska’s rugged coastline while munching on sweet wild salmonberries.

Why do I share that?

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A Rational Guide to Valentine’s Day

My daughter-in-law Caroline is joining us for Java today! And even though I’ve posted this before, it’s too good not to share it again today. She’s talking about Valentine’s Day – the expectations and the reality. She’s a 20-something with a great perspective that will encourage and challenge you.

guest post by Caroline Rothschild

Today is Valentine’s Day. In the middle school world, it’s the day that roses are delivered to classrooms and kids walk around with giant teddy bears bought from the grocery store. In the adult world, it can easily move from being about chocolate to something far more complex; the day can too often become about feeling loved.

I wrote the post below about 4 years ago, and I find myself publishing it again each year because, somehow, it stays relevant. Regardless of age or stage of life or relationship status, the post stays relevant because it’s really not about Valentine’s Day; it’s about expectations. And, so often, our expectations are set so high that they are bound to let us down.

Valentine’s Day in elementary school rocked. Back then the only downside was creating the Valentine’s box. Every year I tried to make these outlandish boxes that inevitably failed, and then my dad would come to the rescue and do damage control on my box super-late the night before Valentine’s Day.

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Want a Kinder Culture? Start with a Kinder You

Oh girl! I’ve been doing something you’ll love – it’s called the kindness challenge, and I learned it from Shaunti Feldhahn. She’s an author friend of mine who’s done a ton of research and has discovered how kindness can improve any relationship. I asked her to join us for coffee to tell us all about it. I just know you’re going to love it like I do.

guest post by Shaunti Feldhahn

Our culture has been taken over by millions of mean girls!

It’s not just girls, of course. Everyone with a heartbeat and an ability to type on Facebook seems to think social media sneers and political pettiness is the way to go.

And it has filtered into our personal relationships. How many of you have winced as someone spoke to their spouse in a tone they would never use with a friend? How many of you have seen friendships strained by political disagreements or trivial offenses?

How many of you have wished there was a way to solve this?