Andrea Gressman

I went into the room of my little boy, Cayse, the other 'morning while he was still sleeping and  saw these sweet little feet poking out from under his blanket. I was immediately taken back to seven years ago when I was actually pregnant with him.   I was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. I was placed in remission in 2012. We were told I would not be able to have any more kids due to all the treatment I had to receive so you can imagine our surprise when we found out we were expecting this sweet little man in 2014.  At that time, I was struggling every single day with fatigue. I was barely able to take care of the 4 kids I had and here God was going to hand me another baby... I was scared. Then you add our history of pregnancy loss and the fact that I had who knows what steadily pumped into my body for nearly a year prior to this pregnancy...  To top it all off, these sweet little feet.... Who would have known they would cause so much excitement. He would hold them just like this when

I recently went to a conference and it was such a rich time for me spiritually. I feel so convicted to share some of the nuggets that were presented to me in the hopes that maybe someone else can get something out of it as well.  Most of these are not overwhelmingly deep. Some are very simple concepts that may even have been presented before to me but for some reason, it grabbed ahold of me now or just had a different meaning in the present time. The first nugget was the idea that "we are not in Kansas anymore."  We have heard that saying so many times in reference to the Wizard of Oz movie many of us grew up watching.  This was actually a reference to our post-Covid circumstances in the church world. However, I do feel like it can be applied to our family life, friend life, and even work-life just as much as it can be applied to our church life.  It was a simple statement. He was referencing how the church was sitting at a certain mark and then when Covid hit many churches

In life, there will be people who will just always seem to be against you.  It won't matter what you do -  it will be wrong.  It won't matter what you say - it will be wrong.  You won't be enough.  You will be too much.  Your intentions will be misunderstood.  Your explanations will be invalidated.  The list goes on and on.  It can be so discouraging..... if you let it.  Tonight I was able to take part in a wonderful Bible study and it was such a great reminder to me of how we are in control of how we choose to react to the different circumstances of our life - both good and bad.  We can stay humble.  We can stay kind.  We can continue to take joy despite our circumstances.  It isn't always easy and sometimes it takes work but God gives us so many examples in the Bible to provide us the encouragement we need to press on.  Tonight our study was on Philippians.  I want to pull out two specific verses: And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring