My Five Favorite Blog Posts of 2015

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It's time for another Five Favs hosted by Ashely over at The Big White Farmhouse.  I wanted to take a look back at the five favorite posts I wrote in 2015 and make sure everyone had a chance to read them.  Sometimes my favorite posts are not my most popular ones, and I just wanted to highlight these from the past year.



1.  Weaving Your Faith into Your Wedding Day.  This was a sponsored post, but I loved that I was able to create my own post that fit our unique personality.  We wanted everyone to remember that our wedding was an actual church service, and I think we accomplished that.   This post highlights how we were able to express our beliefs in some more unusual ways with it still being worshipful and respectful.

2.  Honoring Your Parents on Your Wedding Day When Both Are Deceased  This was a sponsored post, but I came up with the idea before reaching out to the company.  My mother passed away in 2014, and my father in 2006.  I wanted to do something special to honor their memory but not make it too solemn.  I found many ideas online on how to honor a parent when only one had died, but couldn't find anything that I liked for when both were deceased.  I have never been married, so there were a lot of tears shed in the months leading up to the big day where I missed my parents.  I have received so many compliments -- even months later -- about how touching this was, and I think I made a great choice of memorial.   (Plus it allowed three extra girls to be in the wedding, and as we know, little girls just love weddings!)

3.  The Day I left Church in Tears is the post where I poured out my heart about wanting children and not being a mother and how Mother's Day at church made me feel.  (Spoiler alert:  I'm never going to church again on Mother's Day weekend, and possibly not even once we adopt because of how painful it has been in the past.)

4.  God's Grace Doesn't Require Groveling was a post I wrote as I was beginning to learn that there is more to life than do's and don't's.  Rules Meant No Decisions was also a good post from this time where I discussed how neatly legalism in faith sometimes means we miss out on the grace that God so willingly gives.  We're meant to enjoy our faith, not make it all about rules and regulations.

5.  Fifty Shades of No Way! was where I spoke out against Fifty Shades of Grey.  I feel like my arguments are very different than what I was seeing online about that time.  This post actually was reprinted on another blog.  I mention the domestic violence, poor quality of writing, and leave the premarital sex alone because I felt enough had already been written on that topic.