With Father’s Day right around the corner, you’ve got a great excuse to tell the man in your life how much he means to you — because Papa Bears need encouragement, too (even if they don’t ask for it or act like they want it). We guys are supposed to play it cool, be...
A Twitter post caught my eye a while back from a brother in Christ who was fed up with his church’s take on biblical manhood. Manhood, it was implied, was a burly trinity of plaid, football, and Clint Eastwood. As if the lost 11th commandment was: Thine beard...
I don’t live my life super publicly, but neither am I overly private. John and I joke that if my mouth doesn’t say it, my face will. And in this new world of communication — screens, social media, etc. — if my mouth and face are saying it but there’s not enough...
There are times when I’m not sure I have any ability to do the things I have a passion for, and there are other times I feel like I was made for those things. It is a tumultuous wrestling that sometimes takes place in the life of a believer. We struggle with...
The theology Charla grew up in goes by many names: word-faith, word of faith, name it and claim it, the health and wealth gospel, and prosperity gospel. This “gospel” teaches that we can speak things into existence — blessings, money, and healing. If you...
Mama Bears, there has been something stirring in my heart for a few months, and I haven’t been sure what to do with it. It is no secret that we at Mama Bear have always placed a high value on prayer. But I believe that in the coming months, it will be even more...
I have a good friend and apologist who posted on Facebook the other day. It wasn’t her normal careful, reasoned response. It was angry and belittling — not at all like her. I sent her a private message that said something along the lines of, “I love you, friend! Do...
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Psalm 46:10 (NLT) As a middle-aged woman trying to maintain some measure of physical health, I like to walk the two-mile loop around my neighborhood as many days a...
Listen to the article here: Coronavirus… It is the giant elephant-virus in the room that everyone is talking about… so let’s talk about it from a Mama Bear perspective. I sometimes jokingly refer to myself as a “Debbie downer” because my first instinct isn’t to make...
[By Elizabeth Urbanowicz] Have you ever noticed that apologetic events seem like the only place where there isn’t a line at the women’s restroom? As a female with a tiny bladder and a thirty-four-ounce Nalgene, I am usually thankful for this fact. However, as an...
The idea of being a mother, but not having children sounds odd to some people, and yet I believe it is a painful reality that plagues more women than we realize. There are a lot of ways a woman can end up as a childless mom. The most obvious is, of course, the woman...
I went to a concert tonight, and remembered something that I like to forget about myself: I’m a crier. I never used to be when I was younger. I remember growing up a total tom-boy and seeing those girls who cried at weddings, and babies, and movies, and whatever and...
I’ve often said that we don’t give kids nearly enough credit for what they are capable of. As Barna’s research has shown, dumbing down the Christian message into a hollow, shallow, bumper sticker confession of faith is not making Christ’s...
I was recently interacting with a young man on Facebook who is part of the crowd that my husband and I ran with back in Dallas. He was obviously struggling with a lot of stuff and (with my husband in the room and with his full knowledge) I started up a conversation...
