Gaining a heart of wisdom
4988 -- Warm zucchini bread smelling like a cinnamon candle 4989 -- Church supper to celebrate our new pastor and our family connection 4990 -- Clanging of wind chime in the chill autumn breeze On the Monday before Thanksgiving Day, I recorded gift number 5,000 in my gratitude journal -- confirmed evidence of God's goodness… Continue reading November Musings — 2016
Finally, about ten years ago, the light began to dawn, and you can't imagine how disappointed I was. I realized that parenting is not a cause and effect proposition. It's not a vending machine in which I insert my actions (seizing teachable moments, training in character, consistency in discipline) and then am rewarded by equal and… Continue reading Grateful Parents: Grateful Kids
#2967 -- The sweet and tart of cranberry bread. #2968 -- Peach colored dawn behind silhouetted branches. #2969 -- Phone call from far-away friends . . . . . . and so I approach the end of another year of giving thanks, another record of the day-by-day goodness of God in my Gratitude Journal. Giving thanks is… Continue reading Three Thousand Gifts — A Thanksgiving Checkpoint
The walls had been rebuilt. The people living in and around the city of Jerusalem had gathered. Along with the fresh aroma of new lumber from Ezra’s wooden platform and his strong voice ringing out over the hum of the crowd, celebration was in the air! Within the barely-renovated city walls of Jerusalem, there was… Continue reading Celebration and Lament
"You need to stop reading those magazines." Once again, the patient husband had come home from work to find me in a puddle of panic over some detail in the life of our firstborn. Some days I was convinced that I was a failure as a mother; other days I was sure that I had… Continue reading Enjoy Your Preschooler
With a sigh of relief, I glued the last tiny piece of the decoration into place: a scattering of yellow felt hay secured to the silhouette of a brown felt manger. I'm craft-challenged, no doubt, but the adorable grandboy is two, and he's quite ready to start making memories of an Advent tree banner with… Continue reading An Eternity of Days
Lectio divina, the practice of "sacred reading," brings to mind images of flickering candles and meditative silences broken only by the turn of a page or the scratch of a pen on paper. The flickering candle I can manage, but my dining room table "command post" is where just about any kind of reading happens at my… Continue reading Sacred Reading – Hands On
Stop signs and flashing lights preside over busy intersections. Commas and semi-colons mark the collision of clauses. Wouldn't it be lovely if there were some ready marker or built-in gulp of air at the major crossroads of life? Kelly Chripczuk began living the transition from ten years in full-time mothering mode when her youngest children went… Continue reading Chickens at the Crossroads
By faith, we have gone behind the curtain. We have made our voices heard, according to the temperature of our hearts -- Some with a raised fist; Some with a wavering hope. We have sifted the relative merits of two deeply flawed and difficult candidates. We have heard the word "Never" said about the person… Continue reading A Prayer for November 9th
Six years ago, Ann Voskamp took the dare to dive deep into a lifestyle of gratitude. Could she record one thousand gifts from God and let her heart be changed by the knowledge of all the ways that God loved her? She wrote about the dare in her first book, and suddenly the Greek word… Continue reading The Broken Reaching Out to the Broken
Living Our Days 