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Why I’m Teaching Our Kiddos Hymns
© 2011 khrawlings, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio “One of our great idolatries, yours and mine, comes from our loss of memory, of respect for the past; we become locked in the present moment, no longer...
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Why I Gossip and How I’ve (Mostly) Stopped
I hate to admit that I struggle with gossip. I’d rather downplay it. The reality is, I don’t gossip with very many people. And therefore I’ve justified it as okay. But it’s not. And I’d like to say...
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Guilt, Complacency, Comparison and the Holy Spirit
We have many friends and acquaintances who are neck deep in true religion. They’re adopting. Or mentoring. Or fostering. Or advocating. They’re giving hard. And the guilt runs deep. Because I compare...
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Dear Kids, We’re in this Together
Let me just say, sometimes I’m not kind to my kids. Sometimes I’m downright mean. And I may or may not have asked my daughter why she thinks she can talk to me like that while talking to her exactly...
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Life is a Gift, Not an Emergency
Life is a gift, not an emergency. Therefore, I can savor these two cookies instead of inhaling ten. I don’t need to panic about a temper tantrum – even when it happens in front of all the extended...
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Even So Come Quickly
© 2010 Barbara Müller-Walter, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio This world aches and groans. Disease. Brokenness. Inequality. Racism. Injustice. Poverty. Flat-out meanness. I could just cry over the...
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When You Think it’s About Trying Just a Little Harder
You know those days? When the dirty laundry is scattered all around the floor. And someone knocked the clean laundry off the couch so who knows what is what anymore? And the youngest doesn’t have...
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As We Resolve
© 2009 Koshy Koshy, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio As we resolve: Let us remember we are more than the sum of our weight. Or our bank statements. That clean houses, kiddos who sleep through the night,...
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We Can’t Nourish Our Way Out of Brokenness
© 2010 ConstructionDealMkting, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I haven’t intentionally had a bite of gluten in 9 years. Gluten makes me sick. So I avoid it religiously. But in all of my searching for gluten...
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We Don’t Do Perfect Here
Dear Daughter, As a female on this planet, somewhere along the way you’re probably going to get the idea that perfection is the goal. And that not only are you expected to be perfect, you must make it...
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For My Brother (And All the Other Pastors)
Dear Brother, I know I am not your keeper. But that you are everyone else’s. I know the 2am phone calls and the Saturday knock on the door. I know the split-second decisions you often make. The...
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For the Recovering Know It Alls
Dear Recovering Know It All, I know you cringe when you think of what you said. What you thought. Who you were. Because it’s ugly facing up to your own self-righteousness. You want to crawl under the...
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Christianity, Candy, and the Stories We’re Handed
© 2007 bertknot, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio He struggled. He overheard the adults whispering, as if his inability to recite the memory verse made him unable to hear their criticism. As if he were...
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A Prayer of Confession
This morning, We confess that we’ve been silent. Not standing up for the weak and powerless. We confess that we’ve allowed our stubborness to get in the way of really listening to those whose lives...
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Good News!
My husband is a diehard Cubs fan. His mom’s cousin, Doug Dascenzo, played for the Cubs. As a kid he would go to games, sit behind home plate, and hang out in the dug out. He even has a couple of bats...
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There Will Be Days
There will be days when we wonder if anything good will come out of this hard work of parenting. Days when one kid complains that her dress isn’t fancy enough and the other complains about leftover...
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I Pray for You on Sundays
I wouldn’t call myself a woman of prayer. If I say I’ll pray for you, I do. Often right then and there so I don’t forget. And sometimes again later. But praying without ceasing is so far beyond my...
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How Resentment Clues Us In
We’re well into summer and the Facebook posts and Instagram pictures are bursting forth with other people’s glorious lives. Their vacations. Their beach bodies. Their perfect families. And it can be...
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