unequally yoked
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A Continued Testimony: My Family and Church
Hi SUM family, Ann here. A few weeks ago I shared about how my teenage son Miles is now attending church with me. Amazing, amazing, amazing! If you missed that story, you can catch up here. Today I want to give you an update because I know how encouraging testimonies can be. Specifically, I want…
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SUM Community, Let’s Party!
By Ann Hutchison My friends, today is an auspicious day: A certain someone turns fifteen. Nope, it's not one of our children, it's this ministry. Fifteen years ago today this blog had its humble beginnings with its very first post! Books emerged. A YouTube channel. Friendships. Testimonies. We've seen salvations of spouses, restorations of marriages,…
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Reflections on Attending Church Alone
Dear friends, Ann here! Today I want to chat about one of our topics that is an old favorite: Attending church alone. I type this with a smile, but it's a wry smile. Whether or not we've got into a routine, I think most of us would say that Church-plus-SUM is super tricky! I shared…
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Sow Bountifully, Reap Bountifully
Ann here! I have a little thought for us today: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 (NKJV) Sowing. In a spiritually unequal marriage? Perhaps we can pause and think about this for a minute. When we’re in a spiritually unequal marriage,…
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The Curious Move of Jesus in My Home
Ann here! When you're driving in the dark it's a great place to talk to a teen. With both sets of eyes fixed on the road nothing too intense is going on. That's probably how a teenage boy likes it, and it's where my son and I found ourselves last night as we drove home…
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Teenage Testimony Time Again!
My dear friends, Ann here. Thank you so much for your lovely comments on Monday’s post. It was as if the whole SUM community sent up a cheer of excitement to hear that my one teenager had joined church. The Body of Christ. And we cheered because we get it. We get the pain. We…
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God’s Move in My Family
Dear friends, Before I continue to share my story from Passover, I need to tell you about one of those less wondrous 'SUM moments' — Because it forms the backdrop to what I share next. It was one of those moments in church. All that happened was I turned around to see some kids having…
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Focus on Jesus, And … Things Bloom!
Dear SUMites, Ann here. I hope you enjoyed our little experience of walking together through Easter. I have to say it was a great discipline for me to focus solely on Jesus that week. On the topic of 'focusing solely on Jesus', when I first started writing for this blog a few years ago I…
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The Slithering Snakes of Holy Week
We've now got to the middle of Holy Week. My friends, one thing we see in the Gospels is that those Pharisees were an absolute pain in the backside! No, not just a pain. It's serious. Their rejection of Jesus is really, really bad. Really bad. Jesus shares pearls of wisdom that final week. His…
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Monday of Holy Week
It’s Monday of Holy Week in Jerusalem. With just three days to go before the crucifixion, Jesus is walking around Jerusalem ministering to others. In love. Miraculous, amazing Jesus. I cannot imagine the turmoil within his soul as he dug deep to carry out those last ministry tasks, knowing what he would endure next. At…
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Holy Week Here at SUM
Hi SUM family, Ann here. This time of year is ever so special. It’s a time when we lift our eyes collectively to the cross of Jesus. There’s such value in faith routines, and I know many of you have routines that you follow, year after year. For me, one treasured routine is to follow…
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Top Three Tips for Thriving in a Spiritually Mismatched Marriage
Ann here! Today I had an interesting faith conversation with a man with whom I cross paths occasionally. I know him in a professional rather than social capacity, but whenever I see him we have a good chat. So, I'll call him a 'friend-acquaintance'. Anyway, today I saw him for the first time in a…
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So, We Roll up Our Sleeves as Workers!
Dear friends, I hope the past few posts down memory lane have been interesting to you. God loves this community – His SUM family – and wants us to walk in hope! Wrapping up this series on past words from the archives, I guess I have a couple of thoughts: It's so important that…
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A Wave is Coming
Hello friends, Ann here! I hope these recent words from the archives have been refreshing your souls. Don’t we need it right now! After a year of sitting through this pandemic, we certainly can do with a little spark of fresh stuff. So, let's roll up our sleeves and carry on a little longer with…
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Jesus, I can’t see past my SUM!
Happy Friday, friends — Ann here! Today, I’d like to share a vision that the Lord gave our community a few years ago. It was Dineen who received it, and she shared it on the blog — The original article is here. I hope when you read the vision below it will encourage you! Here’s…
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The Harvest – The Many!
Dear friends, Ann here! One of the things I’m currently thinking about is the word 'Harvest' and how it relates to all we have been through in this community. I guess I feel we've been prepared through some pretty gruelling training (i.e., the challenges of a spiritual mismatch), and that training has equipped us to…
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The Harvest Ahead
Dear friends, Ann here. I mentioned on Monday that I would share some words from our archives that God gave our community. These words are promises that we're dusting off now because they feel relevant for today. For the past months I've been hearing God that after this pandemic many of us are going to…
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God’s Promises from the SUM Archives
Ann here! Dear SUMites, do you remember last year I said I would pull out some of the words that God has spoken to our community over the years? In particular I’ve been interested in key promises we have received from the Lord — Corporate promises for us that we can look at together. Here's…
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Master, Are YOU Worried?
Hello friends, Ann here. I’ve had a little discovery this week that has totally made me smile, and I thought I’d share it. It’s to do with my husband: Bryce has a trait that can teach me a lesson or two about my walk with God. It’s this: He has not an anxious bone in…
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Are You Weary? Let’s Take Communion
My friends, Ann here. I normally try to write something on the cheery side but sat down earlier to do that and … Mm, I'm not quite in that space. See, for the last two weeks I’ve been mostly horizontal on my couch feeling a bit physically unwell. So that's the tone of today's post:…
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A Fasting Reflection, by Vidya Rodney
Hi SUM family, Ann here! Many of you will know Vidya Rodney, who sends us lovely guest posts for the blog. Today she has shared a little about how the community fast in January went for her. It's a good thing to reflect back on a fast after the event. Once we have recovered,…