• inspiring quote

    stop quitting

    Monday, February 2, 2015

    We all have the tendency to be quitters. We quit when things get hard, quit when we don’t feel like it, quit when there’s opposition, and quit because it’s Tuesday. But why do we quit? Sometimes it’s because we allow people’s words to make us feel like we don’t have what it takes. Like we’re […]

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  • woman in mirror

    big thighs, blue dresses, and self-love

    Tuesday, September 9, 2014

    Under the bright dressing-room lights at Target, I try on countless outfits. I am seven months pregnant. My body looks different now with new curves and indentions and a belly that swells each day. “I am really pregnant” I think and put on long blue dress, hoping it won’t look as bad as the others. I turn […]

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  • girl with a map

    What do you really want?

    Tuesday, July 29, 2014

    What do you really want? It is a husband? A job? A group of friends? A healthy baby? A certain life path? It’s a simple question, but one I think we avoid asking because we’re afraid of speaking aloud the answer. Because when we don’t want anything, then we can’t get our hopes up, which in […]

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  • Real Men Don't Text

    Real Men Don’t Text Book Club

    Wednesday, November 6, 2013

    I’ve received several emails from people saying how great Real Men Don’t Text is to talk through as a group. One group even invited me to join them for their last study. How fun! If you are in a book club, at a college, in a Bible study, a youth leader, a mom in a […]

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  • man giving flowers

    Forgiveness Won’t Fix Your Toxic Relationship

    Monday, November 4, 2013

    I recently had coffee with a victim of an emotionally abusive relationship. Every time she was ready to leave him after an outburst, he would return the next day and apologize profusely, sometimes with flowers or big displays of affection, begging her for forgiveness. After her somewhat unemotional description of his violent behavior, she asked […]

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  • couple on a bench

    16 Things Every Woman Should Know How to Say to a Man

    Monday, October 21, 2013

    The worst thing a woman can be in a relationship? Silent. But the art of expressing ourselves in living words, not typed ones, proves increasingly challenging. Here are 16 things I, like many of you, wish I learned to say to a man right as I came of age instead of a decade too late. […]

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  • Texting

    Are You Wearing Text Goggles?

    Wednesday, October 16, 2013

    As a millennial, I understand the appeal of the text message. It’s easy, convenient, non-threatening, and can be ignored. I have texted guys to suggest a hang out when I hadn’t heard from them in a while; I have received tweets, texts, and emails from men for last-minute ‘dates’ that never seemed to work out […]

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  • Bride and bridesmaid

    When God gives her a husband and you’re still single

    Wednesday, October 9, 2013

    Her email landed in my inbox just after 2am. “How could God give her a husband and not me?  I’ve gone home alone a million times when she went home with a guy. I’ve waited and saved myself for my husband and she hasn’t. She’s cleaned up her act recently but she’s only spent 6 […]

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  • sexy selfie

    A Letter to Sexy-Instagram Posters

    Wednesday, September 11, 2013

      (This letter is in response to this controversial letter to a teenage girl from a mom who blocks sexy-posters her from her sons’ social media feeds. Dear Sexy-Instagram Poster, I see you. That feels like a good place to start. I see how you long to be beautiful, to be told you are beautiful. […]

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  • © 1978 ABC

    Men: This is How You Ask Her Out

    Tuesday, September 3, 2013

    Real Men Don’t Text is officially available today everywhere books are sold! Michael wrote this post for the men out there who want to date differently, but don’t know where to start.  Spoiler alert: it will start with a plan and a phone call. When I was in high school and college, the easiest (read: […]

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Looking to Heaven
Jun
17

Why Don’t You Listen? | Questions We Ask God

When I was twenty, I spent months praying one request repetitively, “God, if we are not mean to be, I pray you make him not ask me on any more dates. If he isn’t supposed to be my husband, I don’t want to move forward. Make it clear, please?” As a girl who was devastated […]

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Relationship Speakers
Jun
11

Book Michael & Ruthie for Your Event!

Dearest friends, Exciting news! Michael & I would love to come speak at your event this fall. Whether it’s a singles group, college, a church, a retreat, a nonprofit event-we’d love to come. After emails started coming in about us speaking (mainly on college campuses), we prayed and cleared some things out of our schedule […]

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When Mockingbirds Sing
Jun
10

When Mockingbirds Sing | Summer Reading Giveaway

Hi Friends! Since I know many of you will be traveling this summer and perhaps find yourself in need of a stunning novel, I’m giving away three copies of one of my new favorites When Mockingbirds Sing. I could tell you about how wonderful this novel is, but how would you like to watch the […]

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You carried my backpack for miles on this hike in the Alps (such a servant).
Jun
4

2 Years, My Love

Dearest Husband, It was just two short years ago that we said “I do” under the birch trees in your parent’s backyard. It’s hard to believe isn’t it? These past two years have been so full of joy. My heart overflows just thinking about how lucky I am to be your wife; to laugh our […]

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Beach Scene
May
29

A Dad who Runs | Perspective on God’s Character

She is screaming and stomping her little tanned feet. “Daddy, daddy, dadddyyy!” She hollers and waves her arms perched on the edge of the sandy boardwalk. I determine she’s about four or five. Her dad is the one with the terrible sunburn, in the blue shorts. I know because I’ve noticed him come down to […]

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Old Phone
May
22

Will You Forgive Me?

I was supposed to write a blog post about Oklahoma tonight. I tried, but the words didn’t come. I watched a dozen different videos about the tornado (this one is my favorite where an elderly lady finds her dog!), read others posts about the event, and tried all my usual tricks-coffee, dessert, prayer, music-to start […]

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fence
May
20

Things I Don’t Do

I’ve spent most of my life feeling guilty for not doing more or being better, cooking like her or saving the homeless community like him. But the last two years for me have been about unwinding the guilt, the shame, the commitments that this week or this day will be different because I will do […]

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Rainstorm
May
13

a furious love

The sky turned black within seconds. We sat perched by the doorway of a muggy noodle shack, watching the tanned Asian faces stir the big steaming pots that rested on the floor. The storm was coming, my friend, “Small Moon”, told me and we weren’t going to make it home before it hit. So we continued […]

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CandidaPerforma
May
8

How Do I know if He’s the One?

How do you know if the guy you’re dating is ‘the One’? Will you “just know”? The scary part about marriage is most people make this decision of gargantuan proportion in love, which by definition means your mind is hazy from all the 3am make-outs and sheer thrill thinking no one has ever loved like […]

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Love Runs Remote 5K TShirt
May
7

Love Runs 5K & Other Things I Love

Occasionally, I just need to make a list of things I love around the internet. Here goes! LOVE RUNS Remote 5k In lieu of presents and parties for her 30th birthday, my friend Ally Vesterfelt is raising $30,000 to build a classroom in Gulu, Uganda with Bob Goff and Restore International. Pretty amazing, right? This […]

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