Can I just tell you that this is the most difficult page of this site for me to write? You might find it hard to believe that a former pageant girl, professional speaker, self- professed-lover-of-all-things-that-involve-being-on-stage would have a difficult time talking about herself, but it is true. Even though I enjoy being in front of a crowd, at my core I am a someone who really doesn’t do well with self-promotion. It is my desire to promote one thing on the pages of this site and through my speaking presentations. That one thing is the name of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2).
That being said, it is important for you to know a little about me and my accomplishments. If you are looking for the more formal resume type mumbo jumbo, click here.
Growing up in a Christian home, I learned at an early age how to say all the right words and do all of the right things. For me, Christianity was a set of rules and regulations that I needed to follow. As long as I was successful at doing so, God was happy with me and all was right. When I failed, my young heart felt as though a vengeful God was displeased with me; looking down from heaven wondering when I would ever get it together.
Add to that the fact that my Dad was not around to provide an example of how a father is supposed to love his child and we have the perfect recipe for a very legalistic, very crippling, self-made religion.
It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I really began to grasp what it meant to have a relationship with Christ. Since then, God has been ever so patiently teaching me that Christianity has nothing to do with my performance. I will never be good enough. It is only through GRACE that I can have a relationship with God. That relationship can never exist in man made religion.
As I look back over my life, I can see the hand of God in every circumstance. He has performed some pretty amazing miracles in my life and in the lives of my family. From a young age, it was also obvious that He gave me the gift of communication. Combine the two and I can echo Peter and John’s refrain in Acts 4:20, “for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
One of the most powerful ways that God taught me about His unconditional love and grace was when He brought the man who would one day be my husband into my life. Steven’s patient and unwavering love for me, combined with His very simplistic child-like faith have forever changed my view of God.
Steven and I both agree that life should be an adventure lived off The Calf Path. Currently, our biggest and most challenging adventure is raising the three little princesses that God has chosen to give to our care.
Recently, the Lord has been challenging my view of the Church and what it means to be a Christian in the United States of America. I am definitely guilty of living an “American Dream” version of Christianity; one that we do not see on the pages of scripture. I wholeheartedly desire to live a RADICAL sold out faith, like what we read of the members of the early church in the book of Acts.
If I had to describe my personality in one word, it would be eclectic. My hobbies include, but are not limited to, spinning, weaving, nuno felting, knitting, reading, running, weight training, playing video games and genealogy.
I love history and love historical fiction novels even more. I would love to go back to a simpler time and live on a homestead where we provided all of our resources. I garden, can, and make all of our bread from fresh ground flour. I have often lamented that I would love to be Amish, but my husband killed that dream when he pointed out that Amish women aren’t allowed to wear rhinestones.
I am also the resident “tech-geek” in the family. I love computers, video games, iPhones, iPads, Kindles and my Nintendo DS. Whenever someone in the family has a technical question or problem, I am the one that gets the tech support phone call. I guess this is something else that Amish women do not do.
In the end, I am just a woman who is ever thankful for the life changing grace that Jesus offered me through His death on the cross and who desires all people to know that same gift of grace.
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