Gaining a heart of wisdom
Teaching or leading in a Christian context is always a bit of a risk. There's the perception that you just might have all the answers; that your life is all nice and pulled together; that you and God have some kind of agreement about how life is going to unfold -- when the truth is that… Continue reading In the Midst of Your Mess
Life-changing . . . When I was fifteen, I attended a ten-day training event in preparation for a summer of children’s ministry. For the life of me, I’ll never remember what possessed me to think that I could hold the attention of a group of kids – or that I would dare to open my… Continue reading Relationship: The Active Ingredient
Ruth A. Tucker is a story teller. I have vivid and fond memories from my experience of reading her Dynamic Women of the Bible when it was released in 2014. As she unfurled and then analyzed the story of each Biblical woman, tiny shards of her own story would poke through the narrative fabric: an abusive husband, the humiliation… Continue reading No Sanction for Domestic Abuse
Feed the cat. Pick up your toys. Let's get in the car and GO! Such is our hurry-up world that even the tiniest toddler knows what it is to be Busy, Busy. Therefore, Eileen Spinelli's board book is a tool in the hands of wise parents who know that our work, our rest, and our… Continue reading Never Too Busy
So many books. So little time. Tozer is my "undiscovered author," and it's not as if I haven't delighted in brief quotations of his words -- a mix of the understated and the profound. It is even true that portions of his sermons read online have jolted me awake to God's holiness and drawn me closer to the… Continue reading A.W. Tozer: Thoughts on Prayer
The year is really no longer "new," and the image I've chosen for this study is -- thankfully and finally -- out-of-date (although we did have snow flurries on Sunday morning), and so today we conclude our study of Hebrews with the rich content of chapter thirteen. For weeks, I've been planning and pondering how… Continue reading Grace for Breakfast
In this election year, I've heard it said that foreign policy doesn't fit on a bumper sticker. True enough, and I would go on to say that theology doesn't either, but that doesn't stop us from trying to put it there. One bumper sticker that's been around for decades reads: "Prayer Changes Things." You've… Continue reading Where Faith and History Intersect
"What's that, Mum?" asked my son, pointing to a small plastic something-on-the- ground. "That's just a barrette," I replied, off-handedly. "What's a barrette?" he asked -- framing in one simple question the deeply entrenched boy-culture and the essence of the testosterone-laced air that I have breathed for the past two decades. With this as background,… Continue reading The Art of Being a Wife
Close your eyes and do not peek, And I’ll rub spring across your cheek. Smooth as satin, soft and sleek, Now close your eyes and do not peek. I can’t begin to count how many times my husband has come home from a spring outing with these words from his childhood . . . and… Continue reading Blessed Are Those Who Persevere
Soaring on lyrical thermals, the author of Hebrews piles image upon image, linking his thoughts with conjunctions that urge the reader to keep a finger in the preceding pages -- all the while pressing forward for more encouragement. Finding that ten out of the thirteen chapters begin with a conjunction, this last thunderous "therefore" that launches chapter… Continue reading Running the Race of Faith
Living Our Days 