• Real Men Don't Text Cover

    Real Men Don’t Text Book Cover

    Monday, March 11, 2013

    Check out our cover! Real Men Don’t Text will be at a bookstore near you in September. Michael & I can’t wait to share it with all of you. Just a few more weeks until we’re done with edits. I want to squeal in anticipation of not seeing 5am, or sitting in front of a [...]

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  • church

    The Separation of Church and Hate

    Monday, February 4, 2013

    It was one of those tough moments where the air feels oppressive and you start to sweat. A good friend sat across from me on my couch, fumbling with her rings. She had just broken the news to me: “I’m getting a divorce”. It felt weighty, even unbelievable. As she sat on my couch and [...]

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  • Girl Hiding

    Your Body is Not the Problem

    Sunday, January 27, 2013

    “Those high-school girls . . . they dress so slutty,” she said and then casually chuckled and added, “It’s a battlefield for men out there.” My entire body felt tingly and hot, as I sat quietly. I didn’t quite know why her words prompted such a strong response inside me, but I excused myself to [...]

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  • Celebrate

    Learning to Celebrate

    Thursday, December 13, 2012

    “The slight turn of seasons reminds me of last fall, and it strikes me that my life has changed almost beyond recognition since then. In the process of breaking my heart, life or God or something — not that I don’t believe God moves in these ways, I just don’t want to immediately blame Him [...]

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  • Waiting by the Phone

    10 Reasons He’s Not Calling You

    Wednesday, November 28, 2012

      What could possibly have gone wrong? I wondered, pondered, prayed, and even once yelled hoping my empty apartment would provide an answer. The date was perfect from my opinion, he even said he ‘couldn’t wait to see me again”. The first few days after the date, I entered an intense period of self-examination. The kind of [...]

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  • Vanderbilt/UT Game

    When You Marry the Wrong Guy

    Sunday, November 18, 2012

    On Saturday at the Vandy/UT game, I got in a fight, well not a fist fight, more like a verbal confrontation. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to punch the guy, but I did get to give him a piece of my mind. I’m still heated just thinking about it. My amazing father-in-law came in town and [...]

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  • Real Men Don't Text Video

    We’re Going to be Authors!!! | A Video Message

    Monday, November 12, 2012

    Michael and I are going to be authors! Real, published, coffee-addicted, “have you read my book?” authors. Can you believe it? Last February, Michael whisked me away to a chic hotel in downtown Nashville for what he called “a writing retreat”. We spent two days dreaming up what it would look like to write a [...]

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  • Image of landscape painting

    Good People Don’t Go to Heaven

    Tuesday, May 8, 2012

      The wind circled the small coffee shop, rustling the leafless trees. “I’m a good person. I go to church pretty often. . .and even give up my weekends to volunteer,” she dropped the comment in mid-conversation. I gazed at my new friend, confused how we went from our favorite restaurants in Atlanta to that [...]

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  • playground

    Healing Shame

    Wednesday, April 18, 2012

      Lunchtime. 5th grade. {When is middle school ever easy?} My friend Caroline and I carry our lunches in brown paper bags outside to the playground. We talk about what fifth graders talk about: movies, boys, nail polish, and our (insert eye roll) exasperating teachers & parents. Then, we hear it. “Here comes fat big Ruth. [...]

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  • 129900770471477344_goqqqjht_f

    Am I Worth Loving? | Wrestling with Rejection

    Monday, March 19, 2012

    In preparation to share my story at a Vanderbilt Greek retreat next weekend, I spent hours yesterday reading back through my college journals. Several themes emerged from the pages, but I mostly wrote about desiring love. And rejection that seemed around every corner. I find it intriguing that when asked about my college years, I [...]

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Bread and Wine Cover
May
2

Open the Door | My Thoughts on Bread & Wine

  I did something brave this year that honestly felt more courageous, more gutsy than writing any blog post or book, or even spilling my life-story in front of college students. My gutsy act? I invited people over for dinner. I read in Bread & Wine (a wonderful book that you just have to read) [...]

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Girl Starring Out Window
May
1

Stop Waiting for Him to Ask You Out

In college, I waited—like I thought every good Christian girl was supposed to. The Christian rhetoric of “men initiate, women respond” gridlocked my heart into eleven months of waiting. As the story often goes, I really liked this great guy. Our relationship escalated from group hangouts, to study breaks and late-night runs, and from there [...]

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body image
Apr
24

3 pounds

3 pounds. That’s all it took to send my thoughts into a tailspin. Two seconds with my feet planted on a scale was all it took for my entire day to feel ruined. You know the thoughts that started. I considered the wine, the candy, the burritos I’d had over the past week. I remembered [...]

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Boston Bombings Photo
Apr
21

We Will Run Again | #PrayforBoston

  It’s been one heck of a week. From seeing the news of Boston all over Twitter on Monday, to checking to make sure my friends running were alive, to asking the questions we all did, and then later shuttering with the words ‘terrorism’ and ‘brothers’.  Seeing people who showed up for an iconic event [...]

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Text Message
Apr
17

Sex Ed and the City

“What should you say to a guy if he says: ‘I don’t like wearing a condom’? Text your reply.” The text was just one of many that popped up on my screen in what felt like the most unfortunate times—including at church on Easter Sunday—as I clutched my screen hoping those nearby couldn’t see the [...]

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The Ragamuffin Gospel
Apr
15

Brennan Manning, Your Words Changed My Life

God still loves me? Even after all I’ve done? I held a book with the words The Ragamuffin Gospel printed across the front. That truth that God still loved me wrecked me in college. Growing up in the South, I’d heard about God’s love from my parents, from pastors, on street corners, and even in carpool and on my soccer team. [...]

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Rick Warren
Apr
8

An Open Letter to Rick Warren

Dear Mr. Warren, I cried when I heard the news. Your son was my age. Just twenty-seven. He had such a full life ahead of him—tragically severed by his own hand. I can’t imagine what you and your family are feeling. Is it hard to breath? Is it hard not to think that life is [...]

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Two Choices
Apr
3

Premarital Sex or Divorce? | Ask Ruthie

“I know in the Bible it says to wait until you are married to have sex. But a friend and her husband waited and when they were married they realized they had NO sexual chemistry and it was “miserable.” They were both so mad at God for letting that happen after they honored Him and [...]

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girl sitting on bed
Apr
1

The Poisonous Victim Mentality

“Why me?” I asked the all-too familiar question followed by a bit of wallowing. I shuffled around the house, feeling sorry for myself, blaming my problems on anyone and everyone. It was my parents, my boss, my terrible circumstances—all of it made a list letting me off the hook. For years, I struggled with this [...]

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Rest
Mar
28

Weary Vessels

“We are officially wiped . . . but God has never been intimidated by our weakness, rather He relishes in the opportunity to breathe through weary vessels. And, as though there was ever any question, it is clear that anything of power that was left behind is of God and not of man.”—Louie Giglio Michael [...]

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