Jacque Watkins

finding grace through the mud

Day 24: Humble Repentance Brings Restoration

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  This is Day 24 in the series “31 Days: What You Should Know Before An Affair“ Day 24 I remember sitting in the car in the church parking lot the day after my confession. In the fresh rawness of the crisis, we’d come to church to receive pastoral counseling. My husband went first, while […]

How to Really Become Big {The #BackwardsPrinciple}

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Her tiny fingers wrap around mine, as I try to wipe all the vernix away. She cries as she lies on her mama’s chest, and I’m marked by her dependence before me. I see it everyday, and I’m in awe of how we’re born–the humble way a human being emerges into this world, looking down. […]

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 […]

When a Soldier Fights for You, So You Can be Free

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She’s already three centimeters dilated and just received her epidural when I meet her in the early morning. And she dozes as the other nurse gives me report. Her mother rocks in the recliner, back and forth, as any nervous grandma-to-be would, and I notice her droopy eyes and half-worn make-up as evidence of the […]

When You Want to Run Away {Hope for the Weary Mom}

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Dear Weary Mom, I see how you are dragging through your day, worried about tomorrow, and regretful of yesterday. How there’s an endless to-do list always waiting, one child complaining and another yelling. How shoes are strewn and puzzles mismatched all over the floor, with the fridge empty and tummies hungry, because there’s not been […]

Mended :: When All We Have to Do is Surrender {Week 8}

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There was a time in my life when I was unwilling to surrender. The noise of my desires and the chaos of the details left me spinning like a top. Disoriented and alone, I grew more and more discouraged each day. It was as if I was in my own rowboat, saying goodbye to the […]

In Case You’re Wondering What They Will Remember

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We say goodbye to her just five months after her 90th birthday. And it is ever before me that life really is a vapor, a mist that is here for a time and then gone, vanishing like steam rising in the air. He plays his guitar and we lead the music and sing “It Will […]

For When You’re Exposed and Have Lost Your Words

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I hear the pitter patter of the rain and see the clouds hang on the mountain, much like the words hang heavy on my heart. Where have they gone? After baring my soul to the world, braving the cold winds of exposure and judgment, what now? January has left me behind… Deadlines to meet and […]