No amount of ranting or complaining can change the fact that we live in a fallen world. I wish I had known sooner that I needed to accept this reality, to determine to grow up, to build up my strength little by little.

How we live through these seasons following hard after God at every point, leaves us with a soul satisfying story, because we learn that God was with us and faithful at every point.

We must rule over our domains in such a way to have order, rhythms, traditions, and anchors in our schedule that provide for this divine reflection of what God has done.

Today, I am so happy to share my conversation with you that my friend Jennifer Pepito and I had earlier this week. As a seasoned mama of 7, she brings gentleness, peace, fun, insight, and wisdom to us mamas on our journey.

Growing older wisely means to have more ability to love generously, to forgive, to allow people time to grow as you need time to grow, and to watch over your heart that it might not be eaten up by self-righteousness of bitterness. Put anger and harsh criticism away and put on love.

We came up with a model that worked for our family called LifeGIFTS. Each letter in the word gifts stood for one of the five areas I held as a grid in my mind to focus on each day: grace, inspiration, faith, training, and service.

Giggling, belly laughing and guffawing they say are good for your soul — even scripture teaches that a joyful heart is good medicine. Today on my podcast, Keelia, Nathan, and I could not stop laughing. We hope you enjoy the merriment.

God is with us, He will answer and He cares for you. Today, in my podcast, I speak of ways and rhythms I practice in my life to bring my being back to health and strengthen and ways to keep myself going forward.

It took a lifetime to build our home and environment and books and rhythms that echo through all of the days -- tea mornings, breakfast every day, evening meals… it is fun to see how much my children have adopted and applied these things in their own way.

It is simple to see all the flaws in my children, my husband, and myself. But that is not healthy or biblical. I am practicing several commitments to help me see each person for who they are inside and to bring a fresh wind of grace to each moment.