After spending my whole life in church, I didn’t want to read the Bible.
I’d heard ten thousand sermons on it, memorized huge chunks of it, even built my life and family on it. But I never really wanted to sit down and dig into it on a daily basis.
I thought I’d heard it all before.
Enter 10 Minute Truth. I love to write, and I’ve always talked with and known God better by putting words on a page. But my words alone were not enough; they always led me back to myself in the end. I needed something to lead me to Him.
So in March of 2013, I challenged myself to write through the book of Colossians, verse by verse, phrase by phrase — word by word if I had to — to tie myself tighter to scripture, and, hopefully, to uncover a few small things I never saw before.
It’s changed my life. It’s transformed my view of Jesus and the Bible. And I’ll never stop doing it in some form, as long as He gives me breath, thoughts and a pen. My hope is that it helps you find big change through the power of scripture in small, ten-minute moments — because, let’s face it, that’s sometimes all a girl gets.
ABOUT ME
I’m a pastor’s wife, mom of three, writer, designer, communications director and NBA fan.
I have been writing for a living in some form since I left my graduate program at Wheaton College — first in marketing, then as a freelance copywriter, then for the Church. My work has been featured by ChristianityToday.com, ChurchLeaders.com, The Gospel Coalition, BibleGateway.com and Christian Media Magazine.
I’ve been married to my husband Mike for more than 20 years. We live in the Orlando, Florida area, where he’s the Senior Pastor of Grace Church. I homeschool — my youngest are still at home and my oldest is now in college (ages 8, 13 and 20 — seriously genius family planning right there, amiright?) — but if you’re looking for homeschooling advice, I’m probably not your girl. My oldest was born when I was in a coma on life support — I almost died during my first pregnancy due to respiratory failure. Living through that, church planting, and the loss of my father and brother to cancer are the hardest things I’ve ever done. Being sarcastic and eating carbs are the easiest.
MY TOP POSTS
If you’re new here and want to get a feel for what happens in Ten Minute Truth, here are some of the top posts:
When You Feel Like You’re Falling Behind
When You Don’t Feel God
When You Feel Shaken
How to Make the Right Choices
Being vs. Doing: Finding Balance
How to Find Yourself
CONTACT ME
Email me, or feel free to connect on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
TOOLS I USE
Believe it or not, I do most of my study for this project using iPhone apps:
FaithLife Study Bible This Bible app with same page study notes is my choice for reading on the go and in church.
Bible Gateway Great for searching for specific words in the Bible and finding cross references to other scriptures.
Logos Another strong Bible app with lots of resources.
Strong’s Concordance I look up the major words in their original language for each verse.
Matthew Henry Commentary I don’t often head to a commentary for this project, but when I do, there’s nothing like the classic. I also like this print version in modern language.
Byword I use this writing app to jot notes, flesh out the posts and post to WordPress.
I also can’t recommend these life management app tools enough, as they help me find time to do this:
Wunderlist The world’s greatest to-do list. It works for all my projects, but its grandest feature is being able to share a list with my teenage son. When he accomplishes something on it, I get the World’s Most Satisfying Ding Sound on my phone. This Ding is worth living for.
Sunrise My go-to calendar. Syncs with Google Cal, links contacts and maps to events, and connects to Facebook (you can see events, birthdays and post on FB from inside the app).
AnyList For keeping track of shopping and errands by store/location. Mine always has a lot of things under “Target.”
And for the blog:
I use Solstice theme from Themeforest on WordPress, and I’m hosted on WP Engine.