Tanara McCauley

Culturally Imagined Stories

Tag: inspiration

  • When Dreams Age

    How exactly does one revive an aged dream? One prayer, one day, one word at a time. Read where originally published on the ACFW blog at https://acfw.com/when-dreams-age/.

  • Beautiful

    A woman had a dream. She walked for miles through fields and deserts, grasslands and marshes, following the sun. It warmed her face and shined in her eyes, making her squint as she journeyed. She pushed aside tall stalks of wheat, trudged through wet sand. She strained her thighs up steep mountainsides. In every place…

  • The Labor of the Journey

    “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…” John 15:16 My youngest is in the first weeks of her kindergarten career. After years of seeing her older siblings off to school and spending her days with me all…

  • Thanks, Mom

    I blog sporadically for Compassion Ministries, an organization that makes it possible for my family to sponsor three children from different countries. In honor of Mother’s Day, this week’s Compassion blogging prompt is to write an open letter to my mom. I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to publicly praise her, despite her love for…

  • Let It Burn!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sUKoKQlEC4 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works…exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” ~Hebrews 10:24-25 The year’s almost half gone. Of all my goals for 2015, the one I’ve shirked the most is my resolution to exercise regularly. I could…

  • A Wrecked Perspective

    “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Recently, on a day like any other, my three kids and I set out for an evening of gymnastics and Kenpo practice, with a potential coffee stop squeezed in. The smell of mint wafted from…

  • The Write Kind of Life

    The Write Kind of Life

    Writing is a solitary business. Sure, lots of people do it. But when it’s time to put words to page, the writer is often isolated behind four walls. We talk to ourselves. We get talked to by inspirational quotes we’ve framed, tacked, or taped all around the writing den, not to mention characters we’ve made…

  • When the Odd Bird Flies

    Odd bird. It’s an expression my family uses for something or someone who strikes us as unusual. The context can be positive, such as a quirky or endearing oddity; or it can be of the don’t-make-eye-contact variety. A bird of the former type attends my daughter’s gymnastics school. She’s tall and pale, all angles and…

  • A Writer’s Praise

    Psalm 144:1    

  • What We All Need and Almost Never Get

    For many of us it seems the more rest we need, the less we get. Between taking care of my family, actively seeking the Lord, and trying to launch a writing career, (plus all my other projects and obligations) getting sufficient rest can be as far-fetched as finding out that book I’ve never pitched has…