Charina.Writes

Come and See

There is something about the story of the Samaritan woman that I keep coming back to. Jesus knew where He was going. He knew Samaria. He knew the woman He would meet there. He knew her story before she ever stood at that well. And still, He went. He didn’t meet her by accident. He…

Look Again

There is something interesting about the way we come to know people. At first, we are curious. When someone is new to us, we want to hear their stories. We notice the little things. We listen closely. There is a natural curiosity about who they are, what they think, what has shaped them. But as…

Let God Handle What I Cannot

There was a time when I thought understanding why God allowed certain things to happen would finally bring me peace. I wanted to understand the pain. The disappointments. The seasons that seemed to stretch far longer than I thought I could endure. I wanted to know why some prayers seemed to take so long to…

Fluent in Silence

Some nights I pray with words. Some nights they come easily. Gratitude spills out before I even know what I’m saying. Hope feels natural. Faith feels effortless. But there are other nights. The kind that arrive quietly. The kind where the day has taken more than it gave. Where disappointment lingers a little longer than…

The One He Saw

I wonder if one of the saddest questions we can ask ourselves is not, “Who have I become?” But rather… “What happened to the person God always saw?” Not the person others expected us to be. Not the person shaped by disappointment. Not the person hidden beneath fear, betrayal, or years of trying to survive….

The Shape of Love

I have been thinking lately about how easily we say the word love. We love coffee. We love summer. We love a favorite song. We love a place we’ve visited once. We love people. We even say we love God. The same word carries everything from a passing preference to the deepest commitment a human…

The Storm Doesn’t Test the Leaves, It Tests the Roots

When a storm passes through, our attention is often drawn to the leaves. The branches bending in the wind. The visible damage left behind. The things we can immediately see. But the storm is rarely testing the leaves. It is testing the roots. The leaves may tell us how strong the wind was. The roots…

The Person God Always Saw

Sometimes I wonder who I would have been if life had been different. If my heart had never been broken. If trust had never been betrayed. If disappointment had never found its way into my story. Would I be softer? Less guarded? More carefree? It’s a question I think many of us quietly carry. We…

The Life That Didn’t Happen

I think one of the quietest thieves of joy is comparison. Not the kind where we compare ourselves to other people. The kind where we compare our lives to the lives we imagine we could have lived. It happens more often than we realize. We wonder what would have happened if we had made a…

Before We Talk About Submission

There are certain verses in Scripture that seem to attract more attention than others. Ephesians 5 is one of them. Mention marriage, and it is often only a matter of time before someone brings up the words: “Wives, submit to your husbands.” Yet the older I get, the more I find myself drawn not to…

Charina.Writes

Resting on the Wings of God

Memoir of my Heart

The Art of Healing

What’s Your Story?

{Make Time}

Flying Through Fog