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Why I Love Being Catholic: Joseph From Kansas City
I’m so excited to bring you March’s featured guy, Joseph. His wife, Chloe, was January’s female voice on why she loves being Catholic. I was listening to a podcast they did together on Chloe’s podcast “Letters To Women” and I found myself smiling the whole time listening to them share their love story. While listening,…
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How The World Gets God’s Unconditional Love Wrong
On social media there is a figure who calls himself “God.” I’m not sure who is behind this persona, but I’ll just refer to that person as “he” to make things easy. This person that presents himself as “God” is not a believer. Recently, I saw a meme by “God” that attempted to speak about God’s…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Laura of Healing Heart of Jesus
It’s so easy in this world to become jaded and think that everything is going to the dogs. The news makes us think that people are becoming worse and worse. Then you read about someone like March’s featured lady, Laura, and you feel renewed in your faith in humanity. Laura runs the website Healing Heart of Jesus…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling in Phoenix, Arizona
A big ole seguaro cactus. Native to the area. This past week, my daughter’s gymnastics meet saw us rolling down the road through the Sonoran Desert to Phoenix, Arizona. We didn’t have much time in Phoenix, but we did hit up some pretty cool spots and if you are a Catholic Pilgrim traveling there, I…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Br. Anthony Freeman a Seminarian in Rome
Update: Br. Anthony Freeman passed away on April 2, 2018, on Easter Monday. He died peacefully in his sleep. I know that I am not alone in saying that he will be missed. Thankfully, we have all gained a powerful intercessor. Please pray for the repose of his soul and for his family members and friends who…
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Believe It or Not, I Fell In Love With Going to Church
After my middle child “retired” from gymnastics, she wanted to try out different sports. She chose volleyball first and after learning the game, she was invited onto the traveling team. She was pretty excited, as was I, seeing as I played volleyball growing up. The coach set up an orientation meeting with the new parents…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Sara from To Jesus, Sincerely
This February, I want to feature one of my favorite bloggers. Sara from To Jesus, Sincerely, is the real deal. She is open, honest, vulnerable, and amazingly faithful. She encourages me in my walk of faith and I so enjoy what she brings to the table. Sara is a prayer warrior and IÂ have found much…
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A Catholic Pilgrim Traveling In San Diego
San Diego. One of my favorite places in the United States. Old Town in San Diego My family started vacationing in San Diego back when I was a teen and it immediately became one of my favorite cities. So, as a Catholic Pilgrim where should you go, what should you see, and is there any…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Todd From Massachusetts
For my featured series on “Why I Love Being Catholic,” I really wanted to express some guys’ voices on here about why they love being Catholic. So, each month, I hope to have a woman and a man answer that question for us. Men see things in differently and have different ways of conveying their experiences and perspectives.…
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Giving the World Our Best By Kicking Out Low Expectations
When I was young, I tended to be somewhat of a loner at school. I was not a cool kid, I didn’t have name-brand stuff, didn’t flirt with boys, loved playing outdoors with the boys, and just in general walked to my own tune. This caused me to be left out and made fun of…
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Why I Love Being Catholic: Chloe from Old Fashioned Girl
This year I’m featuring Catholics and asking them why they love being Catholic. The first gal up this year is Chloe. Chloe and I became connected when she interviewed me about miscarriage on her podcast “Letters to Women.” I found out she lives in Kansas, my home state. Her husband went to Kansas State University, which…
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Advent Prepares Us For The Joy Of Christmas
When I was young, my grandmother would always invite two of my cousins and me to her house right after Thanksgiving to help her decorate for Christmas. We’d go for the whole weekend and we would be busy little elves the entire time making the house beautiful. The first chore was always to dust and…
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The Seven Deadly Sins–Part 5: Lust-A Strong Desire
LUST I currently live in Vegas where lustful thinking isn’t just encouraged, it’s expected. Everywhere you look, there is a picture of some scantily clad woman luring you to some “gentleman’s club.” Years ago when we were stationed in California, my husband had to go TDY to Vegas. TDY just means business trip in military…
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Why I’ve Struggled to Call Myself a Feminist
It wasn’t until I entered college that I really heard the term feminism. My degree is in criminology which is within the sociology department. I had a few classes that were downright hostile to anyone who was more conservative in thought. Since I have always been one to speak my mind, it brought me into…
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The Seven Deadly Sins–Part 4: Greed (Don’t Be a Scrooge)
GREED When I was working at the Salvation Army Domestic Violence Program in Florida, we would often get people stopping by to give donations in the form of money, clothes, toiletries, and other useful items. They were always welcomed, because, often times, we had women leaving their abusive homes and trying to start new lives…
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My List of Things That Teens Need to Read and See
This is gonna be a fun blog, because I get to talk about movies, books, and forms of entertainment. I’m a very emotional person, so movies, books, and music really speak to my soul. I love a good story. My husband and I have three kiddos. Years ago, we turned off the TV and walked…
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The Seven Deadly Sins–Part 3: All the Rage
ANGER I was musing over which of the seven deadly sins I was going to write about this week for my series, when the answer came to me in the form of a car accident. My husband and I were driving our oldest to gymnastics with our two other kids in the car. Ahead, we…
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The Day I Met My Guardian Angel
We all have people that come into our lives who bring meaning and memories. There are some, though, whose presence is so impactful that it cannot be denied that your meeting was no happenstance. I have one such person. Of all the hours in my life, the one hour I spent with her was one…
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The Seven Deadly Sins–Part 2: Gluttony (Don’t Eat Like a Pig!)
Gluttony What is gluttony? In a word…piggishness. “Don’t stuff your face!” “Don’t eat like a pig!” “Man, I ate so much. I feel all fat and sassy.” These are just a few ways we express the sin of gluttony. Now, there are probably some of you out there who are wondering if this is really…
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The Seven Deadly Sins–Part 1: Green With Envy
For the next seven weeks, I’m going to be running a series on the seven capital sins or, more popularly known as the seven deadly sins. I listen to a podcast called “Pints with Aquinas” by Matt Fradd and, last week, he ran a two-part series where he went over the seven capital sins. He used…
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A Christian’s Life Should Look Different Than a Non-Believer’s
When I was in college, I became acquainted with this one particular girl. If you directly asked her, she’d tell you she was Christian, but I noticed some questionable things about her. She was nice, energetic, a decent person. She could make anyone laugh and always had a story to tell. Though she would have…
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The Hope I Find in Millennials
I’m one of those people that fit into a nondescript generation. You have the Baby Boomers, the Greatest Generation, the Millennials, but, for me, I’m just one of those non-labelled folks. I’m told that I am a Gen-Xer, but, as of yet, nobody has been able to tell me what that means. In a way,…
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We Must Smother Evil With Beauty
As a criminologist, I’ve dealt with my fair share of horrific things. I’ve been plunged deep into the evils of this world and I’ve seen evil stare me straight in the face. No, literally, I’ve interviewed a serial killer. For my Master’s work I chose to specialize in sexual violence crimes, so you can imagine…
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The Road that Led Me to Become Politically Independent
For most of my life, I identified as a Republican, that is, until several years ago. Did I switch to the other side and become a Democrat? No, not by a long shot, but I have been on an interesting, eye-opening journey. Up until a few years back, if my husband and I were in…
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The Joy in Putting Down the Electronics
I grew up in the 80’s, back in the days when MTV was good and big hair ruled supreme. I’m the first born and quite a bit older than my siblings, so there was a good deal of time in my early days where it was just me. My parents didn’t have much money when…
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How Each Military Location Shaped Me
A few weeks ago, my dad sent a picture to me of his front lawn in all its glorious greenness. My family is stationed in Vegas right now, so we don’t see too much green. I saw the picture and my heart literally ached. We texted back and forth and then we had this exchange.…
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Sharing the Truth of Chastity with Your Teen
When I was maybe 12-years old, my grandmother gave me the birds and bees talk in the car while driving me back to my parent’s house. There I was trapped with no where to run and all I really remember about the “talk” was my desire to melt away into the seat. Hearing my grandmother…
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Are Pets Kids, Too? Our Culture Says Yes.
I’ll always remember when I picked out my first pet. Her name was Puffy and she was a black and white cat; one of the toughest, hardcore cats I’ve ever known. She took absolutely no bull from anyone or anything. She’d get in fights with anything that moved onto her territory and she’d leave us…
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Q & A: Help! What Are Some Practical Ways To Live a More Christian Life?
Question: I feel like things are unraveling in our culture and I just don’t know how to live a Christian life well. I feel like there are outside influences everywhere and I’m not sure how to combat this. I can’t seclude my family and live like monks, so what are some practical things I can do?…
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Is Married Life More Valuable Than the Single Life?
Recently, I had a single woman comment on one of my blogs about marriage. I honestly don’t know her story, but it was very clear that 1. She was single involuntarily. Â 2. She did not enjoy being single. 3. She felt as if married life is held up and celebrated, leaving her feeling “subhuman”…
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March’s Atheist Conversion Story: When Imagination Connects With Reason
God works in mysterious ways and He always finds ways to reach us in areas that speak to our hearts. Dr. Holly Ordway found God through her love of literature: C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, and others. I heard her speak on the radio awhile back and was instantly intrigued by our related love of Tolkien and…
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February’s Atheist Conversion Story: “Praying to a God I Didn’t Even Believe In”
This month, I’m featuring Devin Rose’s story of conversion from atheism to Catholicism. I learned about Devin Rose by reading his apologetics books. He is the author to several books and I’ve listened to him speak on the radio several times. My husband loves his style of writing because, like my husband, Devin is also an engineer;…
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January’s Atheist Conversion to Catholicism: Given a Second Chance at Life
This year, I’m focusing on stories of former atheists that converted to Catholicism. How each person comes to Christ is unique and special, but especially interesting are those that go from no belief in God, to becoming members of the Catholic Church. For January, I interviewed Barry whom I recently met on social media. Originally…
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Finding Your Path Out Of Victimhood
We are all a victim of something. Every single one of us has had something bad happen to us. There is not one single person on earth that can claim to have walked through life unscathed. It’s the nature of a fallen world. Whether we’ve been the victim of abuse, divorce, injury, illness, oppression, poverty,…
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How To Help Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick
New Year’s Resolutions. For the most part, they seem like an obligatory tradition attempted because…well, everyone else is doing it. It also seems that by the start of spring, nobody is dedicated to their resolutions anymore. I mean, does anyone talk about resolutions past February? We really don’t, do we? But, why not? I think…
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Our Words Have Power: Are We Using Them to Speak Love and Life?
I was in the parking lot of the BX (Base Exchange) the other day with my kids. Â As I was placing my goods in the car and getting my son buckled in, I heard loud shouting and cussing coming from somewhere in the parking lot. Â I couldn’t really hear what the person was so upset…
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End of the Year Round-Up of Featured Married Couples
Here we are at the end of 2016. Â What a year it is has been! Â I thought for this last month, I’d do sort of a round-up of all my featured married couples throughout the year. Â I went through each of their answers and picked out my favorite quotes from both the wife and husband.…
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Our Blessings Are Meant To Bless Others
“You are being enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produced thanksgiving to God” 2 Corinthians 11:22 In this life, there will be those that are blessed with much and those that will have little. Â We must never make the mistake of thinking that because we have been given much in the…
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When the Military Plants You Somewhere and It’s Hard to Bloom
Through my family’s time in the Air Force, we’ve loved every place we’ve lived…until now. Moving to Vegas and leaving behind our beloved Virginia has been one heck of a difficult thing to overcome and deal with for my whole family. It’s been almost a year now since leaving Virginia and I still feel like…
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If You Are Pro-Life Do You Have To Agree with Universal Health Care?
If you are pro-life why are you against universal health care? Anyone else seen this meme floating around the internet lately? I have. It’s catchy and it seems to hit hard to the pro-lifers out there, but does it really? Â Is it a sound argument? When I first saw this meme, I asked myself if…
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I Beg You, Please Stop Defending Your Candidate’s Bad Behavior
I beg all people of this country, to please, please, please, be consistent with your beliefs, your words, and your actions. I beg. Â I know I’m not always perfect at this, but if I’m not, I promise now, I will humbly admit I was wrong and work to correct it. When we are inconsistent with…
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Our Country Is Growing Sicker With Hefty Doses Of Racial Tension
If you are going to read this, you must promise to read it with an open mind and heart. Â If you are looking for a conservative agenda or a liberal one, shut off the blog and walk away. Â If you desire to fight and lash out, move on. Â If you want to offer solutions or…
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What Do You Mean There’s No Marriage In Heaven?!
There are many things in the Bible that cause a lot of emotions in me. Sadness, gratitude, awe, devotion, immense love, confusion, and, sometimes, anger are all emotions I have felt when reading different passages. There is one thing in the Bible, however, that almost always gives me heart palpitations when I read it. I get a…
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It Is Up To Us Where We Spend Eternity
When I first moved to Dayton, Ohio back in 2002, I was fresh out of college and eager to get into the workforce. Â I ended up working for some defense attorneys doing a job that was humbling, to say the least. Â I thought I was going to train to be a type of paralegal; I…
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When the Major Political Parties Have Become Unacceptable
About four years ago, my family stopped watching television. Â The main reason we stopped is because we were paying a lot of money for something we never got to use. Â My children are gymnasts and we spend a lot of time away from home, so it didn’t make sense to keep paying for something…
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The Five Things I Teach My Kids When It Comes To Truth
“Truth?! Hello?! Truth?! Where are you?” Apparently, in our day and age, it’s nowhere to be found. We’ve taken truth, smooshed it into a box, buried it somewhere where no one can find it, dusted off our hands, and marched off to immerse ourselves in our world of believing only what we want to believe.…
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Through My Brokenness, God Made Good Out of Bad. He Can For You, Too.
He swept into my life completely unexpected. I knew of him in high school, but we were about as different as you could get and barely acknowledged each other. He was bad and that’s about the best description I know how to give. Â Just bad. And not in that rough exterior, good interior kinda way.…
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Featured Married Couple of the Month: Erin and Michael “Cooperating with God’s Grace”
June’s Featured Married Couple of the Month is Erin and Michael from Louisiana. Â Like last month’s couple, I have never met them, but I follow Erin’s blog and have truly enjoyed reading her thoughts. Â I first came across a blog of hers written on miscarriage and I could relate on so many levels. Â Erin blogs…
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Teaching Teens About Authentic Love
“You don’t know what real love is!” How many teenagers have heard this statement from their parents? Â I know I did. Â While parents may be right in this statement, it is unfair to treat teenagers as if they don’t know, especially when parents haven’t taught their kids what real love is. I was a late…
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Pornography Never Equals Freedom: It’s Slavery For All
Usually, when people find out what my degrees are in, they wince. Why would anyone choose to specialize in sex crimes, they wonder? Well, when it hits home, it hits home. God often uses your tragedy as your story and then your vocation. When I first started out working in this field, I could not…
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Monogamy–That "Out-Dated, Old-Fashioned" Call To Love
 A few weeks back I wrote about monogamy and touched on the very basic claims against monogamy.  You can read that here.  I didn’t want to go too deep philosophically or morally, because this is a complex topic and trying to cover too many things at once gets overwhelming. One of the claims against…
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Abstinence: Not Just For Religious People
This is a guest blog by a woman I deeply respect and love. Â I first met Shawn when I was working at the Salvation Army Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Center in Panama City, Fl. Â Shawn just has a way about her–she is funny, intelligent, honest, a self-proclaimed diva, a wonderful friend, one of…
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Featured Married Couple of the Month: John-Paul and Annie "Learning to Put the Other First"
This month’s featured married couple is John-Paul and Annie from Ohio. Â You know the funny thing about life now is that you can know people without having ever really met them. Â I discovered Annie on Facebook through reading some of her Catholic blogs and I really connected to her freshness, positive attitude, and her devotion…
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Monogamy: Unrealistic? Unnatural?
I research a lot around the internet and since I blog and write about marriage, dating, and relationships, I often run into secular or atheistic beliefs with regards to these topics. Â I also run into a lot of “Christian” websites that miss the mark on Christ’s messages by leaps and bounds. Â I’ve seen a lot…
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Featured Married Couple for March: Shawn and Dawn “Marriage is a continual ‘Yes’”
In our world, especially our culture, we are bombarded with negativity surrounding marriage. Â We hear over-and-over of divorce, 5-minute marriages, and even disdain for the sacrament of marriage. Â I want us to celebrate marriage and show couples that are bringing to life what marriage truly is–a beautiful, messy, difficult, totally-worth-it blessing. Â I’m going to feature…
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Question and Answer: What’s Up With Catholics and Birth Control?
Question:  Does the Catholic faith view birth control as optional or completely discourage it?  Are condoms, pills, IUD’s, permanent (tying of tubes, vasectomy) procedures all shunned?  If so, why?  Does it have to do with Catholicism believing Christians need to populate the Earth?  Why aren’t there huge Catholic families anymore if birth control is forbidden? Answer:…
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Give Yourself Away This Lent
Lent. Eh? Unless you are Catholic or Orthodox, chances are, the arrival of Lent on Wednesday didn’t even hit your radar. I know that some Protestants do recognize it (as the church of my youth did), but for the most part Lent is regarded by many as primarily a Catholic tradition. Hold on. Come on…
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How Marilyn Monroe Taught Me Beauty Isn’t Everything
I’ve always thought Marilyn Monroe was probably one of the most beautiful women…ever. It’s a personal opinion, I know, but most people don’t deny that there’s just something about her. A few years back, I watched the movie Some Like It Hot starring Ms. Monroe and I loved it. I highly recommend watching it. I wanted…
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An Advent Tradition: Presents for Christ
So last year for Advent, I read about a neat idea to help the family focus more on Jesus during the Christmas season. Â Each person in your family gets a strip of paper and each day you write down a good deed you did for your fellow man. Â At the end of the day, the…
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Hey, Married Couples, Submit Already! (Oh no, she did not just say that!)
We all read the Bible a little differently. Â The Bible is so rich and deep that even the same verse can speak in different ways on different days. Â At different times in our life, different passages will speak more to us than others. Â Overall, though, when reading the Bible, there are four ways to read…
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I’m Sick of Living in the “World of Can’t”!
I can’t. When I hear these words come out of my kids’ mouths, I jump all over them. I harp on them about quitting, and not believing in themselves, and having a negative attitude, and this, and that. It’s a rousing speech; one that should go down in the books. But, I realized something the…
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Chastity: Seeing Sex as More Than a Test-Drive
You wanna hear the most romantic relationship line in the universe? You’re gonna love this. No, no, it’s not from Romeo and Juliet. Ready for it? Here it is: Â Hey, baby, before I commit to you on the marriage level, I’m gonna need to test drive you first. Translation: We need to have sex before…
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The SCOTUS Ruling Is My Fault
I have a confession to make: It is my fault that “same-sex marriage” passed a couple weeks ago. I share this blame with millions and millions of other Christians who failed to hold the same stringent convictions about marriage with themselves as they do with homosexuals. We can sit here and bemoan the decision of the…
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Don’t Judge Me Judging You: Our Country’s Present Day Logic
I dislike inconsistency with thoughts. I dislike it because it isn’t particularly logical and it’s always emotional. This makes for bad conversations. In fact, it makes for no conversation at all. To be sure, I’ve had my fair share of inconsistent thought processes in my life. I’m sure I will till the end. Why? Well,…
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The Day My Little Brother Changed Me For the Better
When I was about 17-years old, I was driving my brother and sister home from school one day. Â My brother, who was around 12 at the time, was seated in the passenger seat and my sister was in the back. Â As we were heading towards home, an elderly woman pulled out in front of me…
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My Ten Children I’ve Never Met
Ten miscarriages. Sometimes that number overwhelms me. I have laid awake many a night dreaming of who they would be. I have daydreams about who they would become, what their voices would sound like when they called me, “Mom,” and what special traits they would add to our family. For five years, our family suffered…
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When Hope Wins Out: What I Learned Through My Miscarriages
Things do not always go the way we plan them.  Events happen in our lives that can knock us to the ground so hard it is difficult to rise again.  I’ve been knocked down a few times.  Losing nine children to miscarriage definitely knocked me flat on my face.  During times of immense pain and grief…
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67 Shades of Love
Romance and love are a beautiful thing, aren’t they?  Here we are, a few days removed from a holiday all about love and romance.  But, how do we know when someone really loves us?  What is true romance?  Is it chocolate, flowers, date nights, and love notes?  Yes, in some ways it can be that.  But,…
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Giving a Voice to the Unborn: My Issue With a Recent Pro-Choice Argument
My husband and I frequently listen to a radio show called “Catholic Answers.” It’s apologetics for the Catholic faith and we find it extremely interesting to hear all the questions and disagreements. Often times, they only allow people who disagree with them to call in. The other day the topic centered around abortion. Only people…
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My Conversion Story: Why I Became Catholic
This blog has been brewing in me for quite some time. The reason it hasn’t been written until now was that I have been afraid: Afraid people wouldn’t read, afraid of reactions, afraid of offending people. But, this is my blog and if I’m unwilling to reveal and share who I really am, then it…
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Jesus Would Not Be a Liberal…Or a Conservative
“Jesus would be a liberal!” “Jesus would definitely be a conservative!” “Jesus would be a card-carrying Democrat!” “Jesus would support the Republican Party!” “Jesus would be an atheist!” (I’ve actually heard this and it makes me wonder if we aren’t on the slippery slope to insanity.) Yes, Christ would deny His existence–makes sense doesn’t it?…
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Just a Christian Girl Livin’ in a Material World
Sometimes it’s hard for me to accept my limitations. Â There are certain areas of life where, honestly, I feel stupid. Â I watch my husband sometimes read scientific things with ease and I grow frustrated. Â I grow frustrated because science and math don’t come easy to me, in fact, sometimes they just don’t come at all.…
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Why I Love Being Married
Dustin and I will celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary this coming Monday. Â Each year of our marriage has brought new joys, new challenges, new growth for both of us, and, yes, sometimes sadness. Â Through these years, I have only grown in my wonder for the beautiful sacrament of marriage and I feel blessed to walk…
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Clinging To The Past: My Sentimental Connection To Music
Many times in my life, I’ve been told that I’m an old soul. I like things of yesteryear. I seek out old soda fountains, my favorite movie is black and white, I enjoy going into antique stores, and I never tire of hearing tales of times past. And I love record albums. “Wait a minute, Amy.  You DO…
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Buying My Way Into Heaven
“Christians only do good things in order to buy their way into heaven.” Have you heard this before? Â I have on numerous occasions. Â My initial reaction every time I hear this comment is one of anger. Â How dare they! Â But, I’m learning in my journey through life to take a moment and stop and truly…
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Touch of the Holy Spirit
I’m the oldest of three kids. I’m a stereotypical oldest sibling–protective, lecturer, Mother Hen, organized, and a fixer. These traits can be a good thing, but then at times, they can be a burden on myself and others. I’m sure my siblings can attest to that. As kids, oldest children feel compelled to be the…