Faith

Why and How to Begin Scripture Writing

June 2, 2025July 9, 2025 Rebekah Matt11 Comments

“Be sure to spend time in the Bible every day.” Every Christian hears this often. We know that it’s important. But we also know that it’s easier in some seasons of life than in others.

Almost seven years ago, I began a new way of spending daily time in the Word: I started copying Scripture (verse by verse or book by book) by hand. Over the years, I’ve done this both instead of and in addition to a Bible reading plan. With very few exceptions, I’ve been writing out Scripture for about 2,500 consecutive days, and I can honestly say that Scripture writing has completely transformed the way I approach the Bible and how I interact with God’s Word.

And it’s not just me. I can tell by the popularity of the Scripture writing posts on my blog that many Christians—both male and female, and of all ages—are eager to try something that will refresh and reinvigorate their daily time with the Bible. And for some, Scripture writing is just the thing.

Faith

Hello, Sixty

May 12, 2025May 10, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

“I’ll be sixty in a couple of months.”

At the present time, I can say this casually and effortlessly, without cringing, whispering, or grimacing. It was not always this way.

Last year, I could hardly say the number aloud, so I’ve actually come a long way from my state of utter denial. I’m not sure why it’s been so hard for me to accept this number, sixty. I’ve heard that “sixty is the new forty,” but honestly, sixty is the age where you can no longer even remotely pretend that you are still young. Sixty actually sounds kind of old.

Faith

This (Life) Too Shall Pass

April 28, 2025April 27, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

There were some days, years ago, when I thought I was going to lose my mind.

I had several children underfoot, some not neurotypical, and there were days when I didn’t handle the stress very well. I cried out to God for help, but it so often seemed like he wasn’t listening. I wondered sometimes how I was going to make it through.

And then my mother-in-law would come over for a visit and in her calm, gentle, non-judgmental way, she would say to me, “This too shall pass.”

Reading

Two Elisabeth Elliot Bios: One Authorized, One Definitive

March 31, 2025March 30, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

Soon after I became a Christian, almost 30 years ago, I found an author/speaker that I liked very much—a no-nonsense, straight-talking woman who would help shape many aspects of my early Christian walk. I owe a tremendous debt to Elisabeth Elliot, her books, and her radio program, Gateway to Joy, and I’m grateful to God for placing her in my life at just the right time. Her influence has made me a better person, and a better Christian.

So I was thrilled to see, a few years ago, that new biographies about her were in the works. First came Ellen Vaughn’s Becoming Elisabeth Elliot, part one of a two-volume set published in the fall of 2020 by B&H Books. Then came Lucy S. R. Austen’s Elisabeth Elliot: A Life, published in June 2023 by Crossway. This was followed very quickly by Vaughn’s highly anticipated second volume, Being Elisabeth Elliot, published in the fall of 2023. (I think these dates are important, as you’ll see.)

The two biographies (counting Vaughn’s two volumes as one bio) have similar titles, similar covers, and were published right around the same time. Vaughn’s is officially the authorized biography, but in my mind, Austen’s is the definitive one; of the two, it’s the most complete, must-read biography of Elliot’s entire life.

Faith

When Trouble Strikes, What Will You Reap?

March 17, 2025March 16, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

Recently I taught 1 Corinthians 13 (the “love chapter”) to a class of four- to six-year-olds. It’s a famous passage; you’ve probably heard these verses at weddings, or in a sermon about how we should love others. I’m probably not the only one with part of this verse artfully inscribed on a plaque that sits on a shelf in my home.

How do we love others well? If you’ve ever wondered, this chapter will leave no doubt in your mind.

The practical how-to verses (v. 4–8) are right in the middle: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

In this passage, there are eleven straightforward, everyday signs (displays or expressions) of love that we should be attempting with those around us every single day … followed by five looser, more general concepts as reminders of the abiding characteristics of love.

I’ve considered these verses many times during the thirty years that I’ve been a Christian. In fact, I bought that decorative plaque that I mentioned during the time in my life when I had several young children underfoot. During those busy and chaotic years, I realized how much I needed a constant reminder of how to show love to everyone in my household (husband included).

Lately I’ve been thinking about these verses again regarding family … extended family, that is, and how we respond to difficulty or tragedy when it strikes. Because none of us will escape trouble of varying degrees in our lives. At some point, and more than once, it’s going to strike.

Reading

My Favorite Books: Classic Gothic Suspense

March 10, 2025March 9, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

When I was nine, I wanted to be a mystery writer. I had read every Nancy Drew mystery and many Agatha Christies. I knew I loved to write, but despite giving it my best shot, I was never able to come up with a plausible plot—an essential element in mystery writing. So I never wrote mysteries. But for the past five decades, I’ve kept reading them.

Reading

At the Intersection of Art and Faith

February 17, 2025February 17, 2025 Rebekah MattLeave a comment

A few years ago, I went to a museum exhibit and did something I’ve never done before or since in an art museum: I stood in front of a painting and cried.

The exhibit featured the paintings of 19th-century French artist Jean-François Millet, but it also included paintings by artists who were influenced by Millet—the most famous being Vincent van Gogh. I saw dozens of beautiful and amazing paintings that day, but the one that brought me to tears was this one:

Faith

What Is Repentance, and Why Does It Matter?

February 10, 2025February 8, 2025 Rebekah Matt4 Comments

Confession isn’t the end of the story. Here’s why repentance matters—and what it means.

Here’s a little story about how you can teach a new word to five-year-olds so that they remember what it means. I guarantee that after you read and visualize this scene, you will also remember what it means.

Schooling

Homeschool, Public School, or Private School?

January 27, 2025January 26, 2025 Rebekah Matt1 Comment

If you’re looking at different schooling possibilities for your children, or if you’re wondering if the grass really is greener somewhere else, you’ve come to the right place to think through your different options.

Now, this doesn’t mean I’ll tell you what to do. There are lots of people who would love to tell you exactly what you should do—you may have run into them already. But I don’t believe there is only One Right Way to educate children. There are too many variables (among families, schools, children, circumstances) to make such a sweeping statement. What I will do here is to help you think through all of your options, honestly and hopefully without bias.

Faith · Other Topics

A Famous Poet, KFC, and Peace with My Past

January 13, 2025February 4, 2025 Rebekah Matt2 Comments

Nikki Giovanni—famous poet and winner of dozens of awards—died last month at age 81. We never met in person, so she’ll never know that one particularly interesting thing she did while eating lunch at a Kentucky Fried Chicken more than 25 years ago greatly touched my life.

By the time she was in her late fifties and eating that lunch at KFC, Nikki Giovanni was hugely famous, as poets go. In addition to her numerous literary awards, she was also a longtime professor of English literature at Virginia Tech, and by the time she reached old age, she had received 31 honorary doctorates. Despite having grown up in poverty in the 1940s and ’50s, she had risen to a high station in life due to her own tenacity and literary talents.

I have it on good authority that she was also a really nice, down-to-earth person. When she came to our city in the late 1990s as part of the library’s literary speakers series, my husband, who worked in the library’s marketing department, had the privilege of accompanying her where she needed or wanted to go. And where she wanted to go, after she was done speaking and on her way back to the airport, was Kentucky Fried Chicken.