I've been a Martha lately. Not the kind who gets credit for showing up. The kind who can't stop moving. Who answers one more email, accepts one more project, says yes one more time, and calls it faithfulness. It isn't. You know the story when Jesus visits the home of two sisters. Mary sits at his feet. Martha works. And when Martha finally breaks, frustrated, depleted, looking for someone to validate her busyness, Jesus doesn't give her what she's asking for. He gives her something better....

When I homeschooled our four children, teaching the youngest spelling was a challenge. He would sound out a word and, more frequently than not, I said, "That's an exception to the rule." It reached a point where I would hesitate, and he would say, "An exception to the rule, right?" I don't know who ended up more frustrated. No wonder I was so frustrated learning to spell as a kid. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iIWYEEqR5r4

Watching things push through the ground after months of cold and quiet — it reaches right into my chest. Because I know that feeling. I’ve lived it. Not in a garden. In a manuscript. My debut novel, The Colors of Home , releases this spring. And if you know my story, you know that sentence didn’t come easily. That book lived in me for more than a decade. I carried it through seasons of doubt. Through life interruptions. Through moments when I genuinely wondered if it would ever find its place...