Here's the rest of her interview. Enjoy!
If you had a short list of must-read books, what would they be?
Holding onto Hope, by Nancy Guthrie. This is a sad yet inspiring story about the struggles of losing a child. The author relates her journey to that of Job’s. It brought perspective to my situation and encouraged me to stand by what I believe in.
Holding onto Hope, by Nancy Guthrie. This is a sad yet inspiring story about the struggles of losing a child. The author relates her journey to that of Job’s. It brought perspective to my situation and encouraged me to stand by what I believe in.
Where do you find inspiration and encouragement for raising your family?
This may sound very strange, but I find a lot of my inspiration and encouragement from other families who are going through difficult or scary times with their own children. Having an unspoken understanding of what someone is going through is comforting to me. I’m the type of person who wants to make everything okay for everyone. When I hear a story of a family experiencing difficult time, it inspires me to want to better our foundation in hopes of helping someone else out.
I also find a lot of encouragement when I see other’s generosity. It’s not always monetary generosity; it’s the generosity of other’s encouraging words that inspires me to keep doing what we are doing. It’s hard to always know what to say to someone who is going through a difficult time. When people offer kind words or share that they are praying for Liv and my family, I’m extremely touched. There are a lot of really good people in this world who want to help others. When people give time, money, or encouragement, I’m deeply touched and humbled.
Are there any family traditions that you embrace that are especially meaningful to you?
Family gatherings are always important to us. We love to celebrate birthdays and holidays with our families. We live about 3 hours away from our immediate family, so any time we get together it really means a lot. Something that I’m very excited about is homemade Christmas. This is something that is brand new in our family, but I hope it carries on from year to year. For the adult gift giving, we typically buy a male and female gift. We then draw numbers, and choose gifts, with the option of taking one that has already been opened. This past year, the ladies chose to do homemade gifts. The same process of drawing numbers and taking other people’s open gifts remained, but getting something homemade was so special. We have talented women on both sides of my family, so getting something from any of them is a true gift! It was so much fun and so memorable!
Tell us about your spiritual formation.
My spiritual formation is going to sound so typical and an answer that probably everyone gives. My spiritual formation has been nothing but growth. I say that because, when I was younger, I didn’t really feel comfortable in church. I just didn’t know my place. I was afraid to ask questions and, at one time, didn’t feel welcome. It wasn’t until I was married that I felt like I had direction and focus with my spiritual formation. Jake has really been who I’ve leaned on when growing in my faith. The church that we attend now has also really helped in my understanding and growth.
My children are still so young that we haven’t had to answer any questions from them, yet. I try to teach my kids how important it is to thank our Lord for the blessings in our life. Livia definitely knows what prayer, church, and the Bible are. Finley is now starting to say some of the prayers that we say to her; she’ll even remind us to pray at dinner before we eat. Making prayer a part of our routine has helped with teaching our girls to put God first in whatever we do.
This may sound very strange, but I find a lot of my inspiration and encouragement from other families who are going through difficult or scary times with their own children. Having an unspoken understanding of what someone is going through is comforting to me. I’m the type of person who wants to make everything okay for everyone. When I hear a story of a family experiencing difficult time, it inspires me to want to better our foundation in hopes of helping someone else out.
I also find a lot of encouragement when I see other’s generosity. It’s not always monetary generosity; it’s the generosity of other’s encouraging words that inspires me to keep doing what we are doing. It’s hard to always know what to say to someone who is going through a difficult time. When people offer kind words or share that they are praying for Liv and my family, I’m extremely touched. There are a lot of really good people in this world who want to help others. When people give time, money, or encouragement, I’m deeply touched and humbled.
Are there any family traditions that you embrace that are especially meaningful to you?
Family gatherings are always important to us. We love to celebrate birthdays and holidays with our families. We live about 3 hours away from our immediate family, so any time we get together it really means a lot. Something that I’m very excited about is homemade Christmas. This is something that is brand new in our family, but I hope it carries on from year to year. For the adult gift giving, we typically buy a male and female gift. We then draw numbers, and choose gifts, with the option of taking one that has already been opened. This past year, the ladies chose to do homemade gifts. The same process of drawing numbers and taking other people’s open gifts remained, but getting something homemade was so special. We have talented women on both sides of my family, so getting something from any of them is a true gift! It was so much fun and so memorable!
Tell us about your spiritual formation.
My spiritual formation is going to sound so typical and an answer that probably everyone gives. My spiritual formation has been nothing but growth. I say that because, when I was younger, I didn’t really feel comfortable in church. I just didn’t know my place. I was afraid to ask questions and, at one time, didn’t feel welcome. It wasn’t until I was married that I felt like I had direction and focus with my spiritual formation. Jake has really been who I’ve leaned on when growing in my faith. The church that we attend now has also really helped in my understanding and growth.
My children are still so young that we haven’t had to answer any questions from them, yet. I try to teach my kids how important it is to thank our Lord for the blessings in our life. Livia definitely knows what prayer, church, and the Bible are. Finley is now starting to say some of the prayers that we say to her; she’ll even remind us to pray at dinner before we eat. Making prayer a part of our routine has helped with teaching our girls to put God first in whatever we do.
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