What if strength of faith isn’t shown in having all the answers or blindly moving forward, but in the ability to doubt and question and wrestle and beat our chests,  in communion with Christ and acceptance of his goodness and love for us? What if the growth of our faith depends on this honestly and vulnerability, instead of running away from it?

It’s the beginning of the year and my inbox, podcast feed, and social media is flooded with posts about simplifying and decluttering. Which sounds utterly magical. Until. I remember that a lot of this hoarding is not just purposeful, but necessary.

Friends, decluttering and simplifying is a whole different beast when you live abroad. But I’m here to tell you- it IS possible. You just need a plan for all your things. And I’m here to help!

This month’s intention is Endurance. Why START with endurance? Isn’t that an intention for the middle or last stretch of a project?

I think we are weary. The last few years have not been gentle to us, and we don’t feel like we are at a fresh beginning of a life stage. Instead, we feel smack in the messy middle of a lot of stress, overwhelm, and unknown. We need the perspective shift, to remind ourselves of whose we are and what we are promised in the hard spaces.

I’ve used a number of different reflection and goal setting systems in years past, but none of them felt perfectly suited for our life overseas. So this year, I created my own, just for us third culture ladies. I’m so excited to share it with you all today!

Each time I ask for ideas for upcoming topics, someone always puts in “how to make friends with locals”. Did we all think that was going to be a lot easier than it is? When I look back, I think this was my most naive moment as I began my life in another culture. I can still see the stars in my eyes as I imagined the community I would have. A community that is, to be honest, nothing like the community I have in Rwanda today. And that’s not a good thing. But I think it’s where many of us find ourselves.

Nothing brings your personal waste into full focus like moving to a country with no recycling system, where trash is either rifled through by your neighbors or, more likely, burned in your backyard.

A lot of these tips are mainly geared towards females, as you probably could’ve guessed. But there are lots of tips and suggestions for the whole household, too. Let’s get into it.

We’ve talked about self care on this podcast before. While it’s definitely a buzzword, and often conjures up unattainable images of candlelit baths with large glasses of wine, I do think self care is essential for thriving, wherever we are. But today, I want to address another layer of the self-care conversation that I think often gets glossed over: how we often “triage” our souls with self care and quick-fix rest, and don’t actually treat the deeper issue of a lack of habitual, preventative rest.