I told my children at the beginning of this year that I felt a quiet taking place in my heart. A call from God to step away, to ponder more, and talk less.

In the midst of this conversation with them, I told them that maybe at the end of this quiet journey, I would write a book and call it “A Quiet Place.”

They both, quickly and without hesitation, said “NO, MOM. You cannot name it that!”

“Why?!!” I innocently asked.

“Mom, you cannot call it “The Quiet Place” because that is the name of a very well known horror movie! That would be weird!”

Ugh. Whatever.

So, I will just call this post, a tag along from my last post, “A Quiet Place, 2.”

Leave it to my kids to completely sabotage my grand book name idea.

Do our kids ever stop doing this? (just asking for a friend) ;)

Rise and Shine sweet friends! We have made it through another year.

10 years ago, this idea, this notion to read God’s Word together and grow closer to Jesus stirred my heart.

I took a baby step in December of 2011. On the first day of January 2012, God did IMMEASURABLY MORE than I could ever think or imagine.

He grew this little space and He drew others to His heart through our original site, Shine Girls.

If you have been here since the beginning, 10 years ago, God bless your sweet bones.

It certainly has not always been pretty. You have watched me literally grow up before your very eyes, and I have gotten the most incredible view into many of your lives as well along the way.

My writing has changed a lot since those early days. He continues to stir my heart for His Word and His people, even when I stubbornly refuse to move forward.

He, the Gentleman that He is, whispers faintly into the deepest parts of my heart. He pursues me even when I am the most undesirable pursuit.

It had been a few weeks since we had been at church. My spirit was craving the fellowship. With giddy hands, I applied my mascara and finished up by applying some pink gloss on my lips. It felt so good to get back to church. So good.

Until my husband said these words, “On second thought, I am going to head into work and get some much needed paper work done. It will make my day easier on Monday. Y’all go ahead and I will meet you back at home later.

And just like that….my little happy bubble was busted. All over the bathroom floor were my feelings of sadness and resentment.

I muttered something under my breath…then immediately regretted it. Thankfully, he didn’t hear me.

My mood went from happy to disappointed in about 2 seconds flat.

Ugh.