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What Seminary Meant to Me as a Mom

ALLYSON BRUCE | GUEST This past May, as I walked into my graduation ceremony at Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) we sang, “How Firm a Foundation.”  This hymn beautifully captures my journey through the Masters of Arts in Counseling program. This foundation wasn’t laid in ease or in ideal conditions; it was built in the midst of motherhood. When I began seminary, I was a mom with soon to be four children under the age of five. I didn’t enter with spare time or energy, but with a desire to know God  deeply, believing it would shape my mothering.   A Foundation in the Word The first stanza of the hymn declares, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.” Through lectures, small groups, papers, and exams at Westminster, God laid a foundation rooted in His Word—shaping how I see people and view joy and sorrow through the lens of the gospel. I learned  to see Christ in all of Scripture, in both the Old and New Testament. For example, we all face pain and suffering.  I turn to Psalm 77 and remember the Israelites’ wilderness journey and their longing for the promised land.  In that struggle I see God providing daily bread (Ex. 16), faithfully sustaining them. In John 10, I see Jesus healing and providing for His people, where He ultimately laid down His life for His sheep. We are still in the in-between period, waiting for the promised land, but He will provide. He is faithful. He is enough. As my kids face trials and difficulties, I am so thankful that this is the framework I meet them with—one of eternal hope in God’s faithfulness.... 

What Seminary Meant to Me as a Mom2026-02-10T21:03:24+00:00

Our Shepherd in the Desert

KC JONES | GUEST Growing up in the arid Rockies of Colorado, I did not need anyone to tell me how important it was to drink water and lots of it. I applied lotion twice a day, morning and night, so that my feet and palms would not crack and bleed. I knew better than to go on any excursion alone without taking necessary precautions such as informing loved ones of where I was going, how long it should take, and securing plenty of snacks and water. Lots of water.  One does not typically search for water in the desert. It is hard to imagine anyone might find refreshment and restoration in a place consisting of the most extreme elements– scarce in human resources. Yet, for those who see with their spiritual eyes, the desert is precisely the place God uses as a refuge for His own. Perhaps it seems odd that the desert is often used by the Lord to protect His people, provide for them, and to prepare them for what He has for them. If we examine the significance of the desert experience, it might be easier to comprehend God’s purpose for our lives... 

Our Shepherd in the Desert2026-01-16T19:24:23+00:00

Growth by the Strength of God

JULIANNE ATKINSON |GUEST “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4). I used to go fishing with my grandparents in the lagoons and ocean near their house in Savannah. We would choose bait specific to the fish that we wanted to catch. I’d squirm as I put the raw shrimp on the hook. What I really preferred was to squeeze the squishy, glittery plastic worms that caught the light of the sun like a fish’s scales. Whatever bait we used looked just like what the fish preferred to eat, smelled like what smelled good to them, and moved as they expected. Yet inside the bait is a terrible and deadly hook. Sin can act in a similar way. It’s like a shiny bait that catches our eye and makes us think we’ll be fulfilled and satisfied. Nestled inside the glittery facade is a sharp barb that leads to deep pain. The longer we live, the more we can see the devastation that sin wreaks in our lives. As the Puritan theologian John Owen soberly puts it in his book, The Mortification of Sin, we need to “be killing sin or it will be killing you.”[1] The more we let it get a hold of us, the deeper the hook embeds itself. We find it increasingly hard to remove. And we reap serious consequences. As believers, we know these things about sin and its effect in our lives, but what do we do about it?...

Growth by the Strength of God2025-07-04T19:16:36+00:00

A Family Resemblance

BARBARANNE KELLY | CONTRIBUTOR We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5a) I’ve been going through a box of old photos found in my dad’s attic, and I’m seeing the faces of my great and great-great-grandparents for the first time. I’ve seen their names written in the branches of our family tree, but for the first time I’m able to look for family resemblances in their eyes and smiles. I marvel at seeing my infant grandmother tenderly held in the arms of her parents under the shade of their garden, held with the same affection with which I held my own precious children. I’m connected to my great-grandmother in more ways than DNA can explain. I never met her, but her blood flows through my veins, and her love for gardening and family, along with her physical characteristics, have been shared down through the generations. When Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, he was writing to saints he’d never met. The gospel had been carried to them by his co-laborer Epaphras, had taken root, and was “bearing fruit and increasing” (1:6–7). Paul’s joy overflowed in thankfulness to God as he recognized the family resemblance in these unseen saints when he heard of “[their] faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that [they] have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for [them] in heaven” (1:4–5a). How did these saints and fellow brothers and sisters at Colossae resemble the family of Christ? They bore the traits of faith in Christ Jesus, love for all the saints, and a hope laid up in heaven. Faith, love, and hope are spiritual characteristics which set the family of God apart from the rest of the world. Faith The word “faith” is repeated five times in the letter to the Colossians, and each time it refers to a specifically objective faith in God the Father and/or the Lord Jesus Christ. This isn’t the baseless faith of the world that calls us to “just believe,” or worse, to “believe in yourself.” The faith that characterizes all Christians is “faith in Christ Jesus (1:4; 2:5), “the faith” in which they need to continue (1:23), “the faith” which is key to walking in Christ (2:6–7), and it is faith in the powerful working of God through which they were raised in baptism with Christ (2:12). Paul sees the family resemblance in the Colossians’ faith because he knows it’s nothing they’ve done in themselves; it is God’s gracious gift (Eph. 2:8)....

A Family Resemblance2025-05-26T16:20:52+00:00

I Will Sing

SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR When I hit a recent milestone birthday, my children made sure that I was celebrating for a full week. There were new surprises each day. My favorite was a poster board they created with their special memories about me, one for each year. My daughter wrote this as one of hers, “I loved that you sang hymns to me while you were fixing my hair for Sunday School.” I had almost forgotten about that! And it is funny that she would remember those times since I cannot carry a tune. But the words of those hymns and their truths are embedded in her memory, and now she sings those same hymns to her children! Ministry Through Song In Exodus, Moses led the people in song, a hymn of praise, to celebrate God parting the Red Sea and protecting the Israelites from Pharaoh’s army. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:1-2)...

I Will Sing2025-05-05T18:49:30+00:00

How Prayer Changes Us

MARISSA BONDURANT | CONTRIBUTOR We had finished our conversation at the coffee shop and were hugging in the parking lot when my friend mentioned she was going to walk home. Summers in South Texas are not known as prime walking weather, so I quickly offered to give her a ride. She eagerly refused, explaining that she prays as she walks and didn’t want to miss that time with the Lord. Driving home with my air-conditioning blasting and a podcast playing I felt convicted by her joy. I tend to actively avoid situations where I will be uncomfortable, yet here was my friend— excited to sweat(!)—because that light and momentary suffering was nothing compared to spending time with Jesus. What is so compelling to her about prayer? Why is she willing to suffer a bit to spend that time with God? Part of what drives her is that she knows that prayer changes her. She sees sanctification unfolding in real time. And she hungers for it. If I’m honest, most of my prayer time is spent asking God to change things in my life. I want him to remove suffering, give wisdom, open doors, fix people, and give me more patience while I wait for Him to act. It’s about getting God to do things. And it’s about me being unsatisfied with what He’s already done...

How Prayer Changes Us2024-09-27T18:49:25+00:00

What Jesus Shows Us About Self-Control

SUE HARRIS | CONTRIBUTOR In 1978, Melissa Manchester famously, but tragically, sang, “Don’t cry out loud. Just keep it inside. Learn how to hide your feelings.”  It’s a complicated song about learning to cope with pain. Melissa Manchester’s antidote to a broken heart is this: don’t show pain, be strong, and learn how to hide your feelings. Other than the pleasure of hearing Manchester’s amazing pipes belting out the chorus, I don’t recommend the song or the accompanying video with the creepy circus clown. I certainly don’t recommend the song’s posture toward love, pain, and suffering. Most importantly, I don’t think Jesus would, either. But in reading Titus 2, I noticed that Paul, when talking about teaching sound doctrine, repeats the idea of self-control four times in that chapter. Four times! People of all ages and stages are to be taught self-control. This is sound doctrine, according to Paul. I’ve considered the lost art of self-control in our express- yourself- and- find- your- voice world. I wonder if hiding or denying our feelings is a way of exhibiting self-control. Is Paul telling us to keep silent about our pain? Is that self-control? Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen any of the Inside Out movies, denying or hiding our feelings isn’t healthy. But more than healthy…is it biblical? I know there’s a difference between hiding or denying our feelings and exerting self-control, but how does this tension play out in everyday life? A Model of Self-Control When I think about perfect self-control, I think about Jesus when he was summoned by Herod. Remember, there was some triangulation going on between Jesus, Herod, and Pilate. Neither Herod nor Pilate wanted to take legal responsibility for Jesus. They didn’t seem to know what to do with this man, so they were sort of trading him back and forth, perhaps to see what the other would do. Eventually, Herod agreed to meet Jesus and was very glad because he wanted to see him perform miracles (Luke 23:8). But if you recall, Herod was also the ruler who ordered the killing of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, not long before this meeting. John’s death wasn’t simply a murder; it was a brutal, grotesque decapitation that was celebrated at a party Herod threw. This is where it gets explosive and unfathomable to me. This is the moment that the Lord Jesus exhibits a level of self-control that I can’t possibly understand. Can you imagine coming face-to-face with such a wicked man as Herod?...

What Jesus Shows Us About Self-Control2024-08-14T13:36:01+00:00

The Renovation of a Soul

SUSAN TYNER | CONTRIBUTOR Never go to the grocery store hungry and never let your husband look at Zillow if you’re feeling bored. The move from Mississippi to Texas had been a big one. Besides the loss of small-town connections, our usually chaotic house of seven finally entered the empty nest phase, and Lee and I found ourselves idling. Listless. In a word, we felt a little blah. In this season of unusual boredom, Lee was Zillow-surfing and landed on a listing in a neighborhood we stalked on weekend drives. The tree lined streets boasted sidewalks with families walking their dogs. Grand homes and cottages looked well-tended despite their age. We toured the house Lee found and decided it would be perfect once we did some construction on it. So, out of a little loneliness and a lot of naivete, we decided to put our house (a perfectly beautiful house on a really lovely street, by the way) on the market. I knew just because I wanted this house, that did not mean I would get it. Feeling like a little girl asking my earthly Daddy for a new toy, I sat down with my Father and boldly prayed for this house. He and I both knew it was not a necessity—more of a wish. And, I knew if this was a terrible idea, He would never give me something that wasn’t good for me. I trusted Him to answer yes or no. He said yes. And, it was a quick yes. Buyers snatched up our house before it hit the market. We bought our new home for lower-than-asking-price. We hired a contractor. Sure, we’d heard the horror stories of renovations of old houses, but this was God’s gift to us. And while we knew better than to overlook the peeling paint and crooked walls for the hundred-year-old charm, we saw green lights everywhere. The inconveniences of a renovation were small prices to pay to unwrap this good gift, right?...

The Renovation of a Soul2024-07-04T15:47:39+00:00

Four Reasons to Study Theology

JULIANNE ATKINSON |GUEST When I lived in Alaska, my friends and I went on several 30-mile treks. There was one trek where we hiked the first ten miles and went to sleep that night to expansive mountain views as far as the eye could see. We woke up the next morning after a cold night on a hard floor to a completely opaque cloud cover. We couldn’t see three feet in front of us. We wandered the Alaskan wilderness searching for trail cairns to take us to the next point on the bald faces of the mountainside. The rain wasn’t as much falling, as we were walking IN it. We decided to finish the hike a day early and with our soaked-through waterproof boots we traversed 20 miles through a wet cloud. We saw the boggy ground. We saw the great dark shapes slowly take form on the horizon as we went up and down, up and down, up and down. We bonded over trying to make sense of where we were on the elevation map. We felt joy in the accomplishment and relief when we made it to our cars and subsequently, pizza on the other side. We finished the journey, but we missed what we came to see. On the last weekend of the summer, we took on the Kesugi Ridge trail in Denali State Park. Denali, the famed highest peak in North America, is seen only 30% of the time. You never know how clear your weather will be, but there’s always the hope it will be clear enough to see. That weekend we hiked the first ten miles up Kesugi Ridge and set up camp opposing the crystal-clear Alaskan sunset over the snowy, awe-inspiring mountain towering over the entire Alaska Range in the distance. We hydrated our hot meals and couldn’t believe the glory of God revealed before our eyes. We could see what God had made and it turned our eyes and hearts to Him. In a similar way, when we don’t study theology, we might complete the journey we set out on. We might even love what we see of God through the misty ups and downs of life. But what we see on the clouded journey is nowhere near the satisfaction we COULD experience with the rich and beautiful full picture of who He is. So, what is it that we’re missing out on if we don’t pursue the study of theology?...

Four Reasons to Study Theology2024-05-09T18:57:11+00:00

We Always Need Jesus

KIM BARNES|GUEST A few years ago, I found myself struggling during a worship service. If you’re like me, corporate worship has a way of uncovering emotions, thoughts, and attitudes that are more easily suppressed and controlled otherwise. During this service, I became visibly emotional. After the benediction, a friend who noticed my emotional response came over to check on me. Through tears, I blurted out, “I really need Jesus and I’m a little mad about it.” Worship confronted me anew with the fact that I can’t manage my life in this fallen world on my own. But it was more than that. I realized something I’d not previously grasped: I WILL ALWAYS NEED JESUS. Now maybe, you read that and think: “Of course, Christians always need Jesus.” And certainly, on one level, I would have acknowledged this. But what struck me was the realization that subconsciously I expected to need Jesus less as I matured in my faith. After all, as children grow in maturity, it’s expected that they grow less dependent upon their parents. Certainly, adult children who have a strong relationship with their parents seek their advice, communicate regularly, and enjoy celebrating special occasions. But it’s natural and desirable for adult children to live independently from their parents and equally, for parents to let their children go. I imagined that after 40+ years of walking with Jesus I would know enough and be sanctified enough to not need Jesus so much. I imagined that I would become more like an adult child seeking Jesus as a trusted counselor, than a baby dependent on Him for everything. I thought there would be some things I would be able to handle on my own; I thought I would turn to Him for the big things, the hard things, but the rest I would manage myself....

We Always Need Jesus2023-08-15T13:20:03+00:00
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