Jacque Watkins

finding grace through the mud

MS 023 Michelle DeRusha: Doubt, Unbelief, and Feeling Like a Spiritual Misfit

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Welcome to episode 023 of Mud Stories! Mud Stories is a podcast dedicated to bringing you inspiration in your muddiest moments, hope to make it through your mud, and encouragement for you to know, you are not alone. In today’s episode I’m talking with Michelle DeRusha—writer, author, speaker and Massachusetts native,  who relocated to the Great […]

When You Need Hope the Day After Easter

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Fifteen years ago yesterday, I sat in my living room and confessed my 2-year affair to my husband. And when I did, I had no plan what I’d do next, and no idea what I even wanted. All I knew was my double-life was destroying me from inside. And no matter how hard it was […]

Love Runs Toward Another {To South Africa with Love}

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To love is always to give a part of ourselves away. To reach out in hope that the one we’re reaching for in return will take us in and hold us tight. Love runs toward another. It is kind and patient. Never seeking self, but always reaching out in hope, to protect and trust and […]

The Secret of How to Live a Holy Life

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I wrestle with perfectionism. My tendency of performing for love, lingers, and old habits are hard to break. Even in my relationship with God. I read in my Bible of being holy–of being ‘set apart’. But I struggle to know what that means, and how it is supposed to look. Because in my everyday chaotic grind, I […]

Dear Woman with Pain and Regret…

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I see you. And I know you. I watch you walk in, and smear a smile on your face, convincing your troubled heart everything’s fine for now. How you’ve put on just the right outfit, wrapped that trendy scarf around your neck, and sauntered in, praying no one will detect what’s happening way inside. You […]

To Slow in This Season, and Reflect

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I walk the perimeter of the tiny lake at sunset, and the trees reflect and glow on the surface of the lake’s still water. I walk, and ponder–reflect on my life, and this season I’m now living. There is silence. Ducks split the smoothness in formation, leaving a wake behind them. They are braving their […]

What I Learned {November 2013}

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Learning is a lifelong process. A process I’m learning to notice with intention. Today, I’m joining Emily Freeman, sitting down to share, in no particular order, some of what I learned in October and November. And I’m looking forward to hearing what you learned too! 1. Scarves are in style. So in style! I see them everywhere. Different […]

Choosing to Give Thanks and Fighting for Joy

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I so clearly remember how I wanted to be a mother. I watched new moms with their babies, and dreamed of holding a new baby of my own. Holding and bathing. Feeding and changing–a life of meeting my baby’s needs. And then, I became a mother. Four children in six years. Months and months of […]