Winstead Wandering

Prone to Wander

strengthening our marriage after miscarriage

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The lessons we learned about each other and about strengthening our marriage after miscarriage.

The lessons we learned about each other and about strengthening our marriage after miscarriage.

In the ten years that my husband, Jon, and I have been a couple, we’ve endured many tests of our relationship: two cross-country moves, raising two active kids, buying and later building a home, the loss of four grandparents between the two of us.

Despite those challenges, though, the toughest thing we’ve faced, as individuals and as a family, came when we miscarried our third baby.

Losing a baby, the life you’re growing inside you, is immeasurably hard. We spent twelve weeks loving on, praying over, and planning for that life. There just isn’t a way to prepare for it to be taken away.

After weathering the storm as a couple, and coming out the other side stronger than before, Jon and I have learned a few things about suffering together.

Head over to His Endless Love to read the rest of the post.

You might also want to read 8 Ways to Help a Friend Through Her Miscarriage.

 

3 life lessons I learned from weeding

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Sometimes in life, we’re wise to take cues from the world around us; here are 3 life lessons I learned from weeding.

Hey! The month of July has me crisscrossing the country, from a road trip to Chicago to a plane ride “home” to Oregon. While I’m away, I’ve lined up some awesome guest posts for y’all.  Today, Angela is sharing some wisdom she’s gained while working in her flower beds.

I love the Spring and early Summer. I’m not a very experienced gardener of flowers or vegetables, but I have tried to make the space around our house beautiful with flowers. We moved into our house 9 years ago and my husband and I worked patches of the hard clay soil with compost and a lot of sweat so that we could have a few flower beds.

With the beautiful budding flowers and Spring rain come weeds. Lots of them. Every time I weed the garden beds, I find myself meditating on how there are life lessons we can learn from weeding. Today I was weeding the garden beds for the second time this season and reflecting on 3 life lessons from weeding.

Sometimes in life, we're wise to take cues from the world around us; here are 3 life lessons I learned from weeding.

1. Pull weeds early and often. The first time I pulled weeds this season, there were a lot of them – but they were small and their roots were thin so they pulled up easily. This time – I had neglected the garden beds and some of the weeds took two hands and all my muscle to pull out. Some I couldn’t even pull out with just my hands – I needed a tool.

All of us have vices, negative habits or thoughts, sins – whatever you personally call them. There are things that we do in our personal lives that are unhealthy for us. These “weeds” can’t be neglected. We need to be vigilant about knowing what our triggers are and pulling out our “weeds” before they take root in our lives.

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