Welcome
This is Rough Around The Halo, a site about following Jesus in the middle of real life: not the polished, picture-perfect version, but the everyday reality of joy and struggle, hope and disappointment, grace and perseverance. Here you’ll find honest, biblical, and practical reflections on discipleship, church life, identity, culture, and the challenge of walking faithfully with Christ when life gets hard — sometimes thoughtful, sometimes humorous, sometimes challenging, but always aimed at helping people keep going when faith & life collide.
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Saved Through Childbearing? What If I Don’t Have Kids?
Making sense of 1 Timothy 2:15, and discovering that God's family is bigger than we sometimes realise.
Recently, I preached on 1 Timothy 2, and there was one particular part of the passage that I didn't really get the opportunity to address properly. Partly because there's only so much you can squeeze into a thirty-minute sermon, and partly because this particular verse deserves considerably more attention than I was able to give it.
The more I've thought about it, the more I've felt compelled to come back to it. Because this isn't just an interesting theological question or another one of those awkward Bible passages that leaves us scratching our heads. It's something that touches on a deeply personal, and for some women incredibly painful, area of life. And I don't want anyone to read this passage and come away believing that they're somehow less valued by God because they haven't become a mother.
Why Is Reading the Bible So Hard and Boring?
Sometimes reading the Bible is amazing. It’s life-giving. Something clicks, and I’m reminded why this book matters.
But honestly? A lot of the time, it’s a graft.
Sometimes I have to read the same passage five times because the first four literally sent me to sleep. I do love a sleep, but ideally not during an act of worship. Napping is a family trait. In my family, we don’t take naps. Naps take us.
As a church leader, there’s a pressure to have an amazing spiritual life. Bible reading should apparently be like a spa day every time. I should emerge refreshed, radiant and overflowing with insight. Meanwhile, I’m trying to work out where I got to before my eyes closed.