March 14, 201625 Comments
I woke up this morning with snapshots from one year ago today running through my mind.
The phone call on that fateful Monday morning. My mom’s voice, tearful and frantic, on the other end. “Kevin has been in an accident and we don’t know how bad it is. Cher and Daddy are on the way to him at Vanderbilt. Mandy…pray.”
Trying to throw on clothes while intermittently throwing myself on the floor before God to beg, to beseech, … » Read More
January 18, 2016180 Comments
The following is an excerpt from my new book Beautiful Uncertainty.
It should kill you, being told you’re not loved.
It should kill you but it doesn’t.
It feels like it’s going to.
In the silence, after words like that drop their weight onto your heart…all you can do is struggle to draw a breath and pray that life will somehow magically rewind to the moment before the person you loved and trusted most in the world said them … » Read More
December 31, 201592 Comments
Heeeeeellllllllloooooooo, 2016!
By now you’ve probably made out your long list of New Year’s resolutions…a list you might even be staring at in dread, wondering what you were thinking when you set the bar so high. And while those these great, big, giant goals are great…they might start to feel a little daunting after the glow of the shiny new year wears off. Because I’ve literally only kept like one resolution in my entire life (to … » Read More
November 9, 20154 Comments
A reader reminded me of this quote from my book “I’ve Never Been to Vegas But My Luggage Has” over the weekend and I wanted to share it with you guys along with a revelation I received a couple of days ago. During my prayer time the other day, God reminded me that the posture for releasing something and the posture for receiving something else is identical: Palms up. Palms open. Not clenched tightly together … » Read More
July 25, 201516 Comments
I’m leaving the ranch.
For those of you who follow my Instagram feed, you know that for the past year I’ve lived at a peaceful little ranch (the road to the ranch is pictured in the photo here) out in the country that is almost too beautiful to be real. And you might be surprised to learn that I’m leaving, given how much affection I have for this place, this magical place, that saw so many ups … » Read More
October 29, 201417 Comments
I’m sitting here in my tiny little kitchen that I don’t own…gazing out at my cozy little loft with the turquoise carpet that someone else picked out long before I ever arrived here…watching my sweet kitty, Prince Hairy, stalking a bug across the room, carefully following the bug’s path so he can “protect his domain.” (He never actually harms the bug, he just likes to monitor the bug’s every move.) Steam rises from my coffee … » Read More
August 26, 201436 Comments
If every season of life has a word, I think the word for this season of my life is QUIET.
I’ve spent 35 years talking and analyzing and verbalizing and theorizing and chattering my days away. I’ve talked at other people and at God for far too long now. At what point does it stop being a conversation if you never just shut up and let the other person speak? I’m honestly tired of talking. Not … » Read More
April 21, 2013Comment
Quotes of the Day:
Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. ~Robert J. Sawyer
Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other? ~David Baldacci
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Single Woman Says:
Almost every day I come to the coffee shop to work, not always the same coffee shop (always … » Read More
April 3, 20131 CommentThe story behind the old hymnal “It Is Well With My Soul” is as popular as the hymn itself. You’ve probably heard it at some point in your life. Horatio Spafford was a wealthy Chicago lawyer in the 1800’s with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian. At the very height of his financial and … » Read More
June 14, 2012Comment
Quotes of the Day: “The day I understood everything, was the day I stopped trying to figure everything out. The day I knew peace was the day I let everything go.” ~C. JoyBell C. “Her favorite moments were those when she let go of all expectations and worries and just simply celebrated the very moment she was living.” ~Unknown “Sometimes beautiful things come into our … » Read More
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Life doesn’t always look the way we want it to look. In Mandy’s upcoming book, Turn Toward the Sun: Releasing What If and Embracing What Is, you’ll find encouragement to live in the moment, sit with your experiences, and trust God with the unknown.
