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…
Tag: family
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…
Coffee With My Father
This morning, as I sat quietly with my coffee, I found myself thinking about prayers. Not the prayers I am praying today. But the ones I prayed years ago. The ones whispered through tears. The ones spoken from places of uncertainty. The ones I wasn’t sure God was listening to. As I sat there, it…
Don’t Lose Yourself
There will come a time in all of our lives when someone hurts us. Perhaps more than once. Perhaps more deeply than we ever thought possible. We will experience disappointment. Betrayal. Disrespect. Broken trust. Words that cannot be taken back. Silences that speak louder than words ever could. And if we live long enough, we…
What Makes a Good Father and Husband?
I have often wondered what makes a good father. And what makes a good husband. The answers seem obvious at first. A provider. A protector. A leader. A man who works hard and takes care of his family. All of those things matter. Yet as I grow older, I find myself wondering if they tell…
The Slow Drift
There was a time when I thought broken relationships were mostly caused by the obvious heartbreaks.. The affairs. The lies. The abandonment. The harsh words that could never be taken back. But the longer I live, the more I realize that many relationships do not fall apart because of one catastrophic event. They unravel through…
My Father’s Kind of Love
There are memories that don’t fade with time… they soften, they settle, they become part of how you see the world. Monday will mark five years since my father passed. Five years… and yet, there are days he still feels close enough to reach. Not in grand moments, but in the quiet ones—how I notice…
A Love That Remains
There are some kinds of love that don’t ask to be explained. They just… remain. My father passed away in 2021. And not long after that, my mother was officially diagnosed with dementia—though if we’re being honest, the signs were already there even before we lost him. Time has moved forward since then.In all the…
Willow Sands
For a long time, much of my writing has lived in the quiet spaces of reflection and prayer. Books like The Quiet Life, Resting on the Wings of God, and Borrowed Prayers were written from those quiet places — the moments when we pause, listen, and notice the small things that shape our lives. But…
365 Days
There’s something about that number that feels both ordinary and overwhelming. A year. A calendar. A full circle around the sun. And yet… when you really sit with it, it becomes something else entirely. 365 chances. 365 mornings to wake up and try again. 365 days to love someone well. To speak gently. To show…
Charina.Writes 