WELCOME to JessConnell.com! I am so excited to see you here! With a change in my writing habits and goals, it was time for a change. From 2006-2013, I blogged at a different place. I started writing novels (which are still unreleased and sitting on my hard drive), and so in Jan 2015, I started writing under…
Search Results for: mom on purpose
Christian Fasting & Fasting for Weight Loss: Similarities & Differences
One of the posts here on JessConnell.com that receives continual attention is this post, from 2016: Few people write about what it’s like to fast, while pregnant, nursing, or taking care of little people, and whether or not it can be safe, or done at all. Similarly, it is rare to examine the modern phenomena…
HOW Did I Learn That?! Moving Beyond Toxic People & Teachings
Lately I’ve wished I knew more information about my ancestors: the real things of life: stories, hardships, challenges, relationships, and lessons learned. For my birthday this year, my mom passed a couple pieces of family jewelry to me. One belonged to my great-grandmother who died when my grandpa was 8 or 10 years old, and…
Womanhood & Our Identity Idolatry – Part 3 (of 3)
In Part 1, we talked about: the unreliability of basing our identity on seasons, or characteristics about us the way we are all geared toward identity idolatry (feeling that what we do/choose is the same as who we are) and the way God – in kindness – seeks to shake us loose of that. And…
I Went on a Personal Retreat! Here’s What I Prioritized.
Recently I was able to get away for a glorious (and gloriously quiet!!) week alone. [If you don’t know, I have 9 children, ages 19 down to 2 years old, and I’ve been a stay-home, homeschooling mom for the duration of those years.] For most of my life, getting away like this has been an impossibility,…
When Your Faith Is Shaken by Spiritual Abuse
When you experience pain inflicted upon you by those claiming the name of Christ, especially by those in leadership in a Christian community, ministry organization, or church, it can turn everything topsy-turvy. What is true? What is right? Did that really happen? Am I losing my mind? Who can I trust? Can I ever trust…
13 Life-Preserving Ideas for Recovering From Spiritual Abuse
First: If you are suffering under spiritual abuse, or have recently left a spiritually abusive situation, I want to encourage you– not minimize or question what you experienced. For the purposes of this article, spiritual abuse is defined (by Got Questions) as: To “abuse” is to use something or someone to bad effect or for…
Build Now or Regret it Later: A Letter to Mothers of Young Children
“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.” ~Charlotte Mason Dear Mom of young children, Do you realize the incredible power you have…
IS IT POSSIBLE to Shake Off the Materialism of Christmas?!?
Q: What do you do for Christmas celebrations? How do we get through without it being a focus on presents and stuff and food? Is it possible to shake off the materialism of this season? Sure, I have a few thoughts, in no particular order: #1- I don’t know how old your kids are, but…
“ABOUT TO POP?” Encouraging Thoughts about Going Past Your Due Date
Almost every pregnant woman gets to a certain point where she JUST. FEELS. DONE. We feel massive, bloated, tired of waking up all hours to go potty, irritable (rather than sentimental) when the hiccups start up at 11:21 at night. And then for some of us, we reach that “Due Date” and keep right on…