If I'm Honest

There’s a song by Francesca Battistelli that speaks of being honest, laying our fears and secrets down at the cross, and finding healing in God’s love. It’s what I’m borrowing the title of this article from, and it’s part of the inspiration for what follows. If you like to listen to music while you read, be sure your volume’s turned up and click the below video before moving on to the next paragraph.

“Not one to wear her heart on her sleeve—at all.”

~ The Heart Between Us by Lindsay Harrel ~

Wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve is all about being vulnerable and sharing the deepest part of oneself. I’m not always great at either. Yet, here I am, typing up this gut-deep article. The way I see it, if I can’t be honest with myself and with you, then what’s the point of writing at all?

Oh, trust me: All the rest of my articles prior to this point (and afterward) have been (and will be) honest. But I haven’t always dug very deep. I haven’t always made myself be very vulnerable with you.

It’s hard to put myself out there, to say what’s moving my heart in monumental ways. It’s even tougher to admit what’s holding me back.

Happy New Year and a TBR Extravaganza!

by Andrea Renee Cox

May many blessings and joys come your way this new year. What goals do you have for 2018? I am aiming to learn a lot more about grace (my One Word for this year), but I'm also diving back into a couple of different writing projects. Firstly, there's the fictional story I began during last November's NaNoWriMo. I want to finish the first draft this month and tackle my first round of edits during February and March. Secondly, I'm jumping back into a Bible study I began writing about a year or so ago. (The time frame eludes me, quite honestly; it's been on my heart for a long time now, I know that!)

Here's a little more about both projects (both copyrighted by me):

Traffic Jam Contentment

by Andrea Renee Cox

How do you handle a traffic jam?

Yesterday morning, I read Philippians 4, and the two verses that leapt out at me were these:

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”

Philippians 4:11-12 NKJ

My family headed home from a weekend trip shortly after I read that section, and wouldn’t you know that would be the day of bursts of heavy rain that slowed us down, a side trip that was for naught, and multiple traffic jams that had us inching along slower than a slug.

But I didn’t panic. Or freak out. Or get frustrated at any of it.

Half-Empty? Or Half-Full?

by Andrea Renee Cox

There's a glass sitting on a table. The water inside kisses the midpoint.

Would you consider that half-empty or half-full?

Is the glass half-empty or half-full?

There was a time when I argued with my cousins about this very thing, and I kept insisting that the glass was half-empty.

Half-empty?

Why was I so insistent upon that?