How to Keep Hope Alive While Praying for a Prodigal Child
Q&A with Monica Schmelter (as heard on the Habits of Hope Podcast) What do you do when someone you love walks away from faith—or from you? When prayers feel unanswered and your heart aches with questions, where does hope come from? In...
Seek God First: How to Order Your Life Around What Matters Most
Learn what it means to seek God first (Matthew 6:33) and how to order your life around what matters most with trust, wisdom, and hope. Have you ever noticed how easily good intentions can quietly turn into pressure? You begin a new year—or a new...
How to Number Your Days with God for a Heart of Wisdom
Have you ever reached the start of a new year with a long list of goals and resolutions—things you want to do better, manage better, finally get under control—and yet still feel unsure where God fits into all of it? I’ve been there. Many of us...
How to Start the New Year with God: From Reflection to Formation
There’s something about the start of a new year that makes us want a clean slate—new plans, new habits, new energy. But before we rush forward, what if we paused? Because some of the most meaningful growth doesn’t come from starting over. It...
This Christmas…Choose to Believe, Part 1
A quiet Christmas reflection on choosing to believe God while waiting, holding faith through unanswered prayers, and trusting His work in ordinary days. Note: This post has been updated to include episode 64 of the Habits of Hope Podcast. This...
How to Let Go of the Picture Perfect Christmas and Embrace Joy
Feeling pressure to create a picture-perfect Christmas? Discover how to release expectations, choose presence over perfection, and find true joy in Christ. Christmas has a way of quietly stirring expectations—often without our awareness. Have...
Christian Hospitality and Loneliness: One Invitation Can Restore Hope
Discover how simple Christian hospitality can ease loneliness. One invitation can restore hope and build meaningful, faith-filled conversation with Sue Donaldson. “Loneliness is at an all-time high.” I said those words as we opened this episode...
Gratitude in Grief and Trauma: How to Anchor Your Heart
Discover how gratitude can anchor your heart through grief and trauma. Learn practical, biblical steps to find hope—even when gratitude feels impossible. Have you ever walked through a season so heavy that gratitude felt impossible? It’s...
7 Common Obstacles to Gratitude (and Simple Ways to Overcome Them)
Have you ever meant to practice gratitude—really meant to—but somehow the day passed in a blur? You had every intention of noticing God’s goodness, slowing down, paying attention…but then life happened. The laundry buzzer went off. Someone...
