A Favor to Ask...

Hello my faithful readers and followers! In case any of you still frequent this pages, I wanted to let you know we have moved! And are redirecting our readers to our new home [please check it out if you have not already!]. With that in mind, I would like to ask you all a favor. Many of you have kindly included InsideOut in your "link list" or RSS feed or list of blogs that you read, shared on the sidebar of your own blogs and websites. If you have, would you mind double checking and making sure...

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Head On Over!

Ok guys, the big day is here... We're excited to present the new site to you: at INSIDE-OUTMAGAZINE.COM. Please head on over, check it out, and leave us a comment or two!! Hopefully, you all will like the updated look and appreciate the new layout - we aimed for a more streamlined incorporation of all the blogs, so it will be easier for you to see what is new and keep updated with what is happening on all our pages. Comment and let us know if you like it! Also: if you have not already, please...

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A Highly Enthralling Annoucement Post

As you might have gathered from the title, this is not a typical blog post. This is an announcement post! Mainly with the purpose of explaining why things have been a little quiet on here lately and to ask very politely for your patience, but also to keep you updated on the exciting things that are happening. First, as InsideOut is nearing its one year anniversary, it is also being completely revamped and renovated. We’ll be moving over to our own self hosted domain [so to everyone on Google Friend Connect, please get ready to follow us through a different means, either by liking us on Facebook, subscribing to RSS feeds, or following by email!! We don’t want to lose you!]. There will be a cool new look as well as hopefully more streamlined integration of all the blogs. Secondly,...

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My Call to Go

{By Beth Roose} I have been called to GO by the Master Designer of the universe. I will step out in faith and I will walk with joy the path set out for me.  When I fail to see the road or become discouraged in my own accomplishments, I will praise my God because He is perfect.  He is the embodiment of love and faithfulness.  Although I may not always be able to see the path, I know that He can.  Therefore, I will never stop pushing ahead, because I know that right beside me Jesus is guiding my every step. As I go, I will strive to mirror my Companion in everything that I do; in the words I speak, and the words I don’t, as well as in the way that I listen.  This is not just because I am called to “Go and do likewise” or that I want to impress my Heavenly Father...

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When Life Gives You Lemons [And You Hate Lemonade]

{By Hailey Sadler} Your parents warn you about it from an early age. You get the inkling that it might actually be true, when certain things happen – like your sibling getting way better stuff on Christmas or your friend landing the main part in the play, even though your audition was [objectively, of course] far better. Then you grow up [some]; reality hits and it hits hard. There’s someone you love. And they die. There’s something you want really, really badly and work like a maniac for. And you don’t get it. You fail. Someone who lied and cheated wins in your place. There’s a dream you have. And it fades away, far out of your reach. There’s something you prayed for with all your heart. And it doesn’t happen. Life isn't fair. Why?? I can honestly say that I do not know. You can shake your...

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Treasures in the Desert

{By Samantha Roose} Recently, I have been reading “Hinds Feet on High Places.”  It’s a story of lame little Much-Afraid’s journey of faith in the Shepherd.  Shepherd has promised to take her to the High Places and on the way give her the feet of a deer.  After traveling several days the path turns, taking Much-Afraid down into a desert dashing her hopes—Shepherd had promised to take her to the High Places!  Exploring this book, yet again, I have found many similarities to my own journey with my Lord and Shepherd.  The Lord has been revealing to me how much of my identity I find in having control (which is, I’m afraid, quite a bit).  Faithfully and gently, He has been bringing me to a spot of humble surrender, trust and reliance to Him.  It's hard because,...

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Actual Real Truths from the Mouth of a Nine Year Old

photography credit: rachel coker {By Rachel Coker} It’s funny the life lessons you can learn from your younger siblings. I think, as an oldest child, I always tend to assume that I’m the one who has it all together. I’m supposed to be the example of godliness and humility, and they are supposed to be following me. But, more times than not, I continually find myself humbled and awed by the godly attitudes of my nine and fourteen-year-old sisters that stand out in stark contrast to my own selfishness. Case in point: My nine-year-old sister Ruthie did something really brave this year. She auditioned for a part in a play. Now, to understand how truly jaw-dropping and astonishing this is, you sort of have to get an idea as to her past history of acting. When she was a toddler, we tried...

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Guy's Perspective: Beautiful

{By Anonymous} Taylor Swift. Carrie Underwood. Kate Upton. Kim Kardashian. Colbie Callait. Pop culture produces almost as many airbrushed female celebrities (and apparently a fascination with country stars) as it does terms to describe their physique. Chick. Hot. Doll. Sexy. Nothing short of perfection portrayed or admired. Flaws minimized or surgically addressed. Hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for one person’s outer appearance. Body has become god. ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ This antique cliché rears its head time and again, in every genre of life. But it almost universally accompanies some variable. ‘You really failed that last test at school.’ I need to study harder for the next one. ‘That outfit looks horrendous.’ Note to...

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From Boo-Boo-Fixer To Best Friend: The Value of Mothers

{By Rebekah Kimminau} The title of this post is kind of an oxymoron. Mothers are amazing people, and though people may try to pin down their value, really, there is no set "value" of a mother. Because they are pricless. My own mother has been a true testament of what a mother should look like. She has influenced just about everything I do - for good - and she is one of the many people I can't imagine my life without. I think when you are younger, you don't really think about the value of your mother. She is someone who is there for you when you scrape your knee, she is the person who knows how to make the perfect braid, and for me, she was the teacher who I went to anytime I had a question in school. But as you grow up, and start doing things independently, going places on your own,...

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A Severe Mercy

{By Taylor Eckel} No book had ever made me cry. When I read A Severe Mercy, I wept. Although the story centers around the life of Vanauken and Davy, the themes in the book transcend their personal story, and even their lives. From the beginning of their relationship, the Vanaukens deliberately cultivated a very thorough paradigm of love, beauty, truth, and longing for eternity that underwent a major evolution after their individual conversions to Christianity. “We saw self as the ultimate danger to love, which it is; we didn’t see it as the ultimate evil of hell, which it also is,” Vanauken writes about their pre-conversion worldview. Vanauken’s story is much more philosophical than a typical autobiography, yet his narrative is anything but dry. The eloquent prose reflects...

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That Saved A Realist Like Me

{By Hailey Sadler} The whole “is-the-glass-half-empty-or-half-full” dilemma sort of confused me as a child. When posed with it, I would always answer “half full” because that seemed to be the right answer. Anyway it seemed like the better, happier option compared to being labeled a pessimist, which always conjured up images of wet blankets and bitter old men. Secretly, though, my water-in-the-cup philosophy is more along the lines of, Ok, we’ve established that there is water in a cup, now can we please move on?? I guess I could be considered somewhat of a realist. An interesting term, “realist” usually just means a cynic or pessimist who enjoys patting themselves on the back for the pleasing ability to accurately perceive objective reality. Poor,...

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Evaluating A Suitor - Thoughts to Consider from an Older Sister

{by Katrina Rebsch} As those of you who follow this blog might know, God has recently brought into my life a most amazing young man and we are engaged to be married!  Words cannot even begin to describe the sheer joy that has characterized this new season of love and discovery with the one for whom I have been waiting and praying all these years.  In recent weeks, I received an email from the mother of some good friends who asked me to consider writing for the benefit of other girls what I’ve learned when it comes to evaluating a potential suitor; questions to ask to get to know him, and qualities to look for in his life.  While I am certainly no expert on the matter of guy-girl relationships, I have had quite a bit of experience this past year and a half with the evaluation...

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