Welcome

Hi!  I’m Monica Bard and I’m a hugger. To me, the world just needs more hugs!

Wrapped in God’s embrace, I seek God’s guidance to be the best Christian wife, mom, friend, and person I can be.  I don’t always get it right, but with God’s grace I keep trying.

I’m the proud momma of a precious blessing, our daughter Meredith. As her friends quickly learn, “God may have given me only one child by birth, but He gave me the capacity to love many.” Some of my fondest moments have been surrounded by Meredith and her friends. With God as our anchor, we’ve carved sweet memories in our hearts and travelled her journey to adulthood. We laughed and celebrated along the way on many road trips for swimming competitions and volleyball tournaments, while those same trips were grace-filled opportunities to digest the hard stuff. Teachable moments always filled with God’s word as our compass.

I thank God daily for entrusting me with the best job He ever gave me–being Meredith’s mom.

Meredith now soars as a child of God, sharing His message, striking out on her personal journey with Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, and following Him where He leads. Sometimes that’s near and sometimes it’s far.  Sometimes that’s exciting for this momma. Other times it’s a tad bit scary and challenges me to dig deeper into my own faith. When I feel the need to hover and protect her, when I want to swaddle her in my arms forever, I remind myself of one thing: God answered my prayers for the first 27 years of her life. I must trust Him with the rest.

Yes, that’s hard sometimes.

But I choose to exchange my empty nest for a full nest built on Christ’s hope.

I dive into God’s Word daily and learn something new every day, on every page. I love that and I crave that. Just like other moms, I encouraged Meredith to dream and stretched her to dream bigger than she could imagine. I motivated her with this truth—God has an imagination larger than life and He indeed has great plans for us.

Somewhere along the way, though, I forgot that truth applied to me. I believed I was unworthy. I gave up on my dreams. Feeling trapped in a marriage spiraling out of control, I lost hope.

Until I focused my eyes on Him.

In His arms, God birthed my dreams again.

And in His grace, against all odds, through answers greater than I dared to pray, God  set my marriage on the path of restoration. 

My hubby and I found our hope in Jesus Christ. We’re a work-in-progress, and there are days we fail, but we find joy together again. We look for joy again. We find happiness in each day and anticipate growing old together. We believe the best is yet to come.

And we find the tools we need for our marriage and the challenges of life in God’s word.

I hope you discover nuggets of God’s truth and inspiration on these pages, whether you’re emptying your nest or filling your nest. Together let’s persevere in our faith and be resilient in love, nurturing God-given dreams and adventures in Christ.

Together we’ll find Jesus-filled Hope.

Hugs,

Monica

P.S. If you’re interested in Meredith’s journey, you can follow her at:

sojourneyblog.com