Kristen Welch
About
Available on
Community
352 episodes
It’s the clock I noticed first. It was the only thing hanging on the bare wall of the home I was visiting. It wasn’t ticking. The hands stood still as if it silently screamed for me to take notice… to see that time was running out. It was my third home visit of the afternoon. […]
It was all I could do to drive home after a brutal day where anything that could go wrong, actually did. I work in the nonprofit, faith -based world… so you know, a Tuesday. My husband wouldn’t be home until late from work and so I called my teenager and asked her to get a […]
There is a new film out, and whether or not you agree with it, it’s makers or agenda, the terrifying truth is that human trafficking really exists around the world and in our own backyards and it is holding countless innocent people captive. While the outcry on social media for awareness and the […]
There is a new word introduced in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah that we might have missed in this familiar pillar of salt Bible Story. We often retell it highlighting God’s wrath and destruction due to evilness. While that is true, the new introduced word “ze’aqah” roughly translates to the “unique cry of the […]
Less than two months ago, I became the CEO of Mercy House Global. On the same day, my husband started his new job that took him to a war zone. His first day in Ukraine coincided with the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion and on the last day of his trip, more than 1000 […]
I walked into a coffee shop for an all-day meeting two weeks ago and I was barely holding it together. The last couple of months have felt like a furnace of spiritual warfare. It has been a lot of small trials and a couple of big ones. Heat like that can either consume us or […]
“Intelligence, goodness, humanity, excitement, serenity. Over time, these are the things that change the musculature of your face, as do laughter and animation and especially whatever peace you can broker with the person inside. It’s furrow, pinch and judgment that make us look older — our mothers were right. They said that if you made […]
You haven’t really lived until you’ve been given the last of what others are living on. It’s happened to me more than once. This time last year, I stood in the doorway of an apartment in Houston with bags of groceries. I was there on a chilly November day with my family on behalf of […] The post Unlock the Door to the Happiest Holiday Season Today https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/11/unlock-the-door-to-the-happiest-holiday-season-today/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
This week, my family will sit around the table together for the first time in months. Only a mother with a mostly empty nest understands the tenderness of this statement. My kids are almost entirely grown up and this old parenting blog remains idle much of the time until I have something new to say. […] The post This Is What Faithful People Do https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/11/this-is-what-faithful-people-do/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
Dignity is another word for decency—and when it’s missing, God created us to demand justice. 12-year-old pregnant girls Indentured teenagers Child brides Underage laborers Survival prostitutes Orphan-led homes Violated minors These words shouldn’t go together. When we see them side-by-side on a page, we are offended because innocence and evil shouldn’t commingle. It’s unnatural, unholy, […] The post Complete the Circle https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/10/complete-the-circle/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
She tugged slightly on the thread and gathered the woven fabric under her fingers. With a critical eye, she leaned back to give her creation a better look. A smile formed at the corner of her mouth. It was good. I watched this play out as she sat at a large wooden loom, in a […] The post Woven Together https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/09/woven-together/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
I have spent much of 2022 in a pit. I don’t say that to alarm you. I share it because it’s true. On one particularly hard day, my husband was also struggling to hope and he said jokingly, “I need you to throw me a rope, so I can climb out of this pit.” I […] The post Turning Your Pit Into a Well https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/09/turning-your-pit-into-well/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
Nearly two years ago, I dropped shrunken dried bulbs into what I hoped would become a flower garden. I didn’t know that bulbs have a top and a bottom. I planted them upside down and covered them with thick dirt. I buried hope in the ground upside down. Stay with me. Did those large dormant […] The post Something New Will Be Born in the Pain https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/09/something-new-will-be-born-in-the-pain/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
When I was a child, I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard something in the next room. It scared me at first, the muffled words. My childhood wasn’t perfect, but my parents did their best. I got out of bed and snuck around the corner and saw my dad in […] The post Jesus is Praying for You Right Now https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/08/jesus-is-praying-for-you-right-now/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
Faith > Fruit I need to talk about this here so that it’s a permanent part of my story. It will be wordy and messy— as most processing is. I told my husband last night I literally need this phrase permanently etched on my skin as knuckle tats. He gave me a worried look. I […] The post Faith > Fruit https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/07/faith-fruit/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
I listened intently to her story. In a lot of ways, it mirrored my own–the startup, the striving, the struggle, the surrender. It seemed like she was miles ahead of me in her business success and ministry scope, so her words inspired me to stay focused on the path, and maybe one day I would […] The post One Day Can Change Everything https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/05/one-day-can-change-everything/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
There are rocks in my garden. Most people take rocks out, but I put rocks in and around each of my raised beds. They do more than serve as a pathway for my wandering feet. They hold space. The other day I was tenderly walking on the path barefoot. I stepped on a raised rock […] The post Between a Rock and a Hard Place https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/05/between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
I’ve been having night terrors or nocturnal panic attacks for the past 6 weeks. I fall asleep and wake an hour or two later in confused fear. It’s like my body and mind are out of sync and sometimes it feels like I’m trying to reach the surface from the bottom of the ocean and […] The post Trust the Process https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/04/trust-the-process/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
2020: When the floor beneath us figuratively disappeared two years ago with the onset of the pandemic, we fought hard to continue the empowering work of Mercy House Global around the globe. 2021: When the floor, walls, and the entire structure of our Transition Maternity Home in Kenya was destroyed in a fire in January 2021, Mercy House Global […] The post An Invitation to Grow https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/03/an-invitation-to-grow/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
Sometimes you fall down, because there is something down there that you are supposed to find. -Anonymous When the floor beneath us figuratively and collectively disappeared two years ago, I spent most of my time just trying to stay afloat, afoot, around. I feel like I’ve been crawling around on the floor in the […] The post The Day The Floor Gave Way https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/03/the-day-the-floor-gave-way/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
I’ve discovered the secret to raising, happy, grateful and successful kids.. Lean in and I’ll tell you…It doesn’t exist. Every home and every kid is different. That’s one of the things that makes family life so amazing and challenging–we are all unique! There are no two famlies exactly alike. What works for one, might not […] The post Uninvovled Parenting: How Not To Be an Uninvolved Parent https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/02/uninvovled-parenting/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
In my first few years of adjusting to motherhood, I made a lot of mistakes (and I’m not referring to buying a “colic machine” that vibrated my crying baby’s crib. Scam. I got a refund). I worried a lot and second-guessed myself. Why is she crying? Is she hungry? Why won’t she sleep? I struggled […] The post Everything You Need to Know about Gentle Parenting https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/02/gentle-parenting/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
In my first few years of adjusting to motherhood, I made a lot of mistakes (and I’m not referring to buying a “colic machine” that vibrated my crying baby’s crib. Scam. I got a refund). I worried a lot and second-guessed myself. Why is she crying? Is she hungry? Why won’t she sleep? I struggled […] The post Everything You Need to Know about Gentle Parenting https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/02/gentle-parenting/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
This is so hard, I thought as I shut our bedroom door and my husband pulled me close. I tried not to cry. We had just had a parenting night from hell. If you’re a parent, you might just know what I’m talking about. There was yelling and tears, hard conversations, hurt feelings, consequences and […] The post 30 Bible Verses About Parenting That Change Everything https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/02/bible-verses-about-parenting/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
This is so hard, I thought as I shut our bedroom door and my husband pulled me close. I tried not to cry. We had just had a parenting night from hell. If you’re a parent, you might just know what I’m talking about. There was yelling and tears, hard conversations, hurt feelings, consequences and […] The post 30 Bible Verses About Parenting That Change Everything https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/02/bible-verses-about-parenting/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.” Martin Luther King I checked the time and tried to mentally calculate the line of traffic ahead of me. The hospital on the other end of the phone and […] The post Open Your Heart https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/01/open-your-heart/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.” Martin Luther King I checked the time and tried to mentally calculate the line of traffic ahead of me. The hospital on the other end of the phone and […] The post Open Your Heart https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/01/open-your-heart/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
Parenting makes me think of the weather. It’s constantly changing, it comes in extremes and I never feel prepared for the newest season. I’m in the phase of launching a couple of my young adult children out of the nest. Some days feel like a tornado of change. Parenting books aren’t just for new parents. […] The post Top 19 Recommended Christian Parenting Books That Help You Raise Disciples https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/01/best-christian-parenting-books/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
Parenting makes me think of the weather. It’s constantly changing, it comes in extremes and I never feel prepared for the newest season. I’m in the phase of launching a couple of my young adult children out of the nest. Some days feel like a tornado of change. Parenting books aren’t just for new parents. […] The post Top 19 Recommended Christian Parenting Books That Help You Raise Disciples https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/01/best-christian-parenting-books/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
B doesn’t happen until A does. It’s advice I read in this dog-eared parenting book that I’ve kept next to my bed for years. Last week A was “Do your chores.” B was “Hey, Mom, can I go to my friend’s party?” Ah, a parenting equation. It was simple. But it was hard. Because really, […] The post 4 Bad Parenting Signs (And How to Change for Good) https://wearethatfamily.com/2022/01/bad-parenting/ appeared first on Kristen Welch https://wearethatfamily.com. Click here to check out my book Advertise on my blog
