• 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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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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