Written by Jill Redling Have you ever breastfed a hungry baby? They are ravenous, grunty, desperately looking for their food. There is almost a panic, a wild frenzy. “Where is it, got to get it now!”  In Psalm 131:2 God gives us a picture of a weaned child. The panic and ravenous search has ended. "I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content." Maturity is the weaned child, who knows when he would like a glass of milk, he can easily ask his mother, whom he trusts, to get him that glass of milk. And maturity is also the ch ..read more

Chicken. It’s basic, it’s universal, it’s a blank canvas for flavor possibility. Unfortunately the positives often end there because chicken is also prone to being dry…like, starved cactus dry. Sure, you can throw shredded chicken into a pot pie or some enchilada soup, and then the other ingredients pull their weight and contribute moisture and no one’s the wiser. But a chicken solo? It’s risky. Now you are probably wondering what’s so special about this particular rub/marinade, because there are about as many rubs out there as there are cluckers. Simply put, none of them ever quite suited me ..read more

You likely know the satisfaction of dragging a wet rag over a surface caked with grime and watching the slick, shiny reveal of something clean. Something inside you trills at the spellbound delight sweeping over a child’s face when you return their broken toy in working order. Restoration is intrinsically gratifying. A fresh coat of paint, a new light bulb, a sewn button, a faucet that no longer drips— so simple, yet so good. Why? When we set about the business of restoration, we are fulfilling a purpose that has been established as long as sunshine. We were given stewardship of this world an ..read more

Have you ever watched a room with dark walls get painted over with a wash of fresh color? It’s nothing short of transformational. I would know. I once thought it a grand idea to paint my one-window master bedroom “green bean,” which, within the shadows of my four walls looked more like the Emerald city in a thunderstorm. The black furniture didn’t help.  One day I realized that our master bedroom didn’t feel restful or refreshing, and a lot of that was owing to the cave I had inadvertently created. My husband eventually agreed to a new paint job, and I chose the palest hue of aquamarine ..read more

Gathering corporately as God’s church is not as glorious as it once was with the current technological hurdles and health-conscious minutiae. Knowing whether someone is smiling or scowling makes a significant difference in our interaction with them—and we are left to guess. Signals of welcome and warm regard, such as a hearty handshake or friendly embrace, have been replaced with knocking elbows or waving distantly. The simplicity of staying home is preferred to navigating current social codes. Muffled and masked words require repeating, and often we resort to saying as little as possible jus ..read more

Butternut squash is an ingredient that sounds wholesome and looks vibrant, but admittedly, I avoid eating more than a few bites in most dishes. This changed when Vivian Howard coaxed a little extra deliciousness out of those vivid golden cubes, in her cookbook Deep Run Roots. She adds just the teeniest bit of brown sugar to the squash as it roasts. It’s fall magic ya’ll. Jump to Recipe First layer: roasted butternut squash, dusted with brown sugar, salt and pepper. Vivian’s southern drawl is magnetic, her smile is infectious, and her food—oh, this girl knows flavor. I’m really looking forward ..read more

Written by Jill Redling, edited by Stephanie Smith It’s good to be angry about bad things. It’s good to wrestle with God on behalf of his people. What started for me as a simple prayer a year ago, has turned out to be a spiritual transformation. I prayed that God would give me someone to admire. I prayed for the Lord to bring into my path a godly woman who I could learn from— not because I couldn’t receive good from the women I knew, not because I was expecting perfection— but because I wanted to know it was possible for a female in this culture to transcend what is passing away. The bondage ..read more

Pasta is the food I choose when someone asks me that question about being stuck on an island for the rest of your life. I love pasta, and gnocchi is like pasta’s hot cousin. It’s delicious, carb-loaded, but slightly less accessible. But not anymore— well, not if you live near a Trader Joe’s anyway. Jump to Recipe While I do not recommend Trader Joe’s frozen gnocchi (whether cauliflower or otherwise), I can assure you that this shelf friendly version found with the dry pastas is a dream. And it cooks in 3 minutes in boiling water. The lemon and peas really brighten this gnocchi dish, making i ..read more

Mothers have a big job. We direct and influence the habits, beliefs, and behavior of our children. We coordinate, clean, cook, and control chaos. We are constantly adjusting and fine-tuning our little “greenhouses” to create the optimal flourishing environment. But for all that we do, I think we are also the first to notice everything we fail to do. You might not declare it aloud, not even to your spouse, but how acutely do you feel your insufficiency day by day? I know I do. But we have not been left to our own strength or devices. The job you have as a mother is a big deal, but you have als ..read more

The world as we know it is displaced. Spring break, St. Patrick’s Day, and school testing have been glossed over as a triviality in the sweep of the CoronaVirus. There are real dangers, and palpable vulnerabilities reminding us that we are fragile—even mortal. Yet we would be naive to think that this was a unique moment in history.  As a plane flew particularly low over my roof last night, I lay in bed thinking how the imminent closing of grocery stores and restaurants pale in comparison to how it must have felt as German planes bombed entire cities without warning in the calm of the night ..read more