Fixing It All

by Katy McCown | | no comments

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I passed her as I exited the room. She retracted a little as I walked by, then darted into the room I had just left.

Armed with a can of disinfectant, she sprayed the room I had occupied minutes before. Long before the days when we knew of a term called COVID-19, I had come to work sick, and there was no hiding it.

My face told the story. Sunken eyes, a pale complexion, and probably a red-tinted nose … and if that weren’t enough, I carried a box of tissues with me everywhere I went.

No one wanted to approach me. Whether they had their own health in mind or something else, my sniffles and cough were enough to send

You Belong Here

by Katy McCown | | 2 comments

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They lined up one by one, no questions asked.

They didn’t come begrudgingly. They came with an eagerness you could see on their faces. They were ready. They were excited. And they were together.

The front lawn of our local elementary school was the stage for the epic tug-of-war championship between two fourth grade classes … while some may call tug-of-war a game, I feel confident the fourth graders holding the rope approached this as anything but a game. 

Mrs. Johnston’s class formed a line down one half of the rope, while the opposing class took their places on the other half. Because I had a daughter in the class, I had heard the stories of disagreements and misunderstandings. I knew

Moving from Restlessness to Rest

by Katy McCown | | 3 comments

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Like clockwork, it happened every night.

For weeks, under a pitch-black canopy and hum of the fan, a guest would appear. One night I even felt fingers crawling up my arm. I jolted up out of my sleep to see my daughter, nose to nose with me, looking for a place to lay her head.

Most nights she came alone, sometimes she brought her brother with her. But every night, whoever showed up in my bedroom wanted the same thing—the coveted spot in the bed between Mom and Dad.

Now, I know many parenting books would scorn me and tell me to take the child back to bed. I’m not winning any Mom-of-the-year awards here. Nor am I encouraging you to mimic

When Fear Taunts You, Do This

by Katy McCown | | 5 comments

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I crouched behind a wall in my living room, peeking out only for a few seconds at a time. I didn’t really want to keep watching, but for some reason I couldn’t stop.

A real-life tightrope walker dared to cross a gorge near the Grand Canyon on live television. I didn’t know this man from Adam, but my fear for him and his potential plummet to the bottom of the canyon was real. With each step he took I prayed, please God let him make it across!

The wind blew so hard at times he stopped and crouched down on the rope to lower himself beneath the gusts. He would pause and pray then stand up and continue across.

Yet quite

The First Step to Smiling Without Fear

by Katy McCown | | no comments

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It’s as though the worn-out piece of wood can tell the future. Years of use have literally left their mark on the old stick, and each time it appears, anticipation swirls in the hearts of my little people.

During the days of my husband’s youth, as he and his siblings grew in age and size, Luke’s mom took a wooden board and made it a measuring stick. Year after year, Luke and his brothers and sister would scoot their heels all the way to the wall, stretch their necks, and wait anxiously to see the new line that marked how much they had grown.

Now, decades later, my children like to measure themselves on this same old piece of wood.

One Question to Ask Before You Begin the New Year

by Katy McCown | | 6 comments

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“I’m not doing this again,” I proclaimed, and I meant it with all my heart.

Just a few days before, I spent a dark, rainy weekend packing our lives into boxes and then unloading them into a new place in a new city.

Though the bulk of the work was behind me, I felt exhausted and unsatisfied. I didn’t look forward to new memories and planting roots, because this new place had no more certainty than the last one. I feared another weekend much like the one I’d just experienced was all too close.

So, I announced I wasn’t doing it again … but my husband’s career required us to relocate often. Although I knew I couldn’t cling to the

Moving From Grumbling to Gratitude

by Katy McCown | | 2 comments

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I heard the crackle under my foot and knew what had just transpired.

I shut my eyes and felt sure my ears must be turning red. I didn’t know whether to cry or scream.

With six little ones under my feet, dinner to be made, and another practice to get ready for, the chip on the floor threatened to make everything fall apart … especially when I stepped on it.

While enjoying an after-school snack, a chip slipped through some little fingers and fell to the kitchen floor — the same kitchen floor my hurried feet shuffled through and consequently crushed the forgotten chip into a million tiny pieces.

With my emotions already on the edge of irritable, this chip created

A Pattern for Change

by Katy McCown | | 2 comments

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I knew that sound too well. It had etched its way into my mind the first time I heard it and now it was unmistakable.

A few years ago, doctors diagnosed my daughter with asthma. From that moment forward, any warning of the asthma-induced cough sent me into action. I grabbed medicine, called doctors and asked her to stop any strenuous activity. I knew her life depended on it.

Like me with my daughter, we’re usually quick to respond to physical warnings. When we have a fever we call a doctor. When we have a headache we take medicine. We go for yearly check-ups and do at-home examinations.

Why don’t we treat our spiritual health the same way?

Today’s Truth details

When You Can’t See What God is Doing

by Katy McCown | | 10 comments

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I couldn’t believe my eyes. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined it would turn out this beautiful. I stared in amazement and kept coming back for another look. A tear may have even formed in the corner of my eye.

What I viewed seemed like a masterpiece to me.

This masterpiece was a family picture. Only a few weeks before, I had given birth to our baby girl. We positioned a small, white sofa in the middle of a field of green grass. We brushed our hair and dressed in coordinating colors. Reds, blues and creams brushed across the autumn background of our very first photo as a family of eight.

That alone was enough to make

You Can Walk With Confidence Today

by Katy McCown | | 12 comments

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A few years ago, my family and I teamed up with our local church family and went out into our community for a week-long event complete with bounce houses, food, music and God’s Word. We’d never attempted anything like this before.

For months we prepared. We hung signs about the event and held training sessions for our workers. When the week of our community block party finally arrived, I scurried about with my clipboard making sure everything went as planned … What I did not do was clean my car.

As the week went on, my car accumulated trash, crumbs and anything else I didn’t feel like dragging into the house. (Let’s be honest – it wasn’t all that different from what I do