Hi, friends! Lauren here. Shouting praises at embarrassing volumes for my hubby and
children is my favorite. Smiling big is the runner-up. Seeing and encouraging others
makes my heart beat.
My heart overflows with encouragement and empathy for everyone who lives in this wacky world. A world whose narrative can leave us feeling unseen, unsettled, and unworthy. Writing is my intentional time behind the keyboard with my hands open, where God and I tease out the big and small wonderings of this life together.
Thanks to the incredible, techy shazam of the worldwide web, I push the ‘post’ button and it’s as if I’m given the opportunity to sit down with many friends at once. In that space, I get to say the things that I would say if you were sitting in my living room, and we were talking through the happy and hard of our current life seasons. Even my hyped and extroverted self can’t figure out how to sustain enough energy to host daily parties. Yet in God’s grace, books in hand or words on screens are avenues that allow me to keep affirming parties of people in their every day – affirmations that I pray will make us all feel seen, purposeful, and never alone.
Arkansas is my homeland. Talking about myself makes my stomach feel icky and bubbly. But I will chew an antacid in order for you to see all my humanness in print — which would hopefully leave you wondering “what’s her sustaining source in life as she juggles so much wow and yuck in her day to day?” Turns out, I ask myself the same thing sometime — often when looking out my office window at a breathtaking view of ridges and mountains. It’s the Creator of that can’t-be-made-by-human-hands-landscaping that grounds me each day. What I do. Who I am. My rollercoaster of emotions. It’s all a beautiful mess. Yet, the very patient and present God who puts up with my sass and deep feels, is who I really want you to know.
I will add that I’m a huge fan of water balloon fights, bright colors, and animals with long ears. My husband and I live in a sorority house with three daughters and one female canine – leaving us to never lack for passion, instruction, or opinions .