Gaining a heart of wisdom
Child #1: "But I don't want to do my spelling lesson." Child #2: "I really don't feel like cleaning my room." Parent: "I'm not asking you to want to. I don't expect you to feel like it. I'm asking you to do it anyway." There was a season in which conversations like this were standard… Continue reading Self-Discipline: A Wholehearted Yes to the Call of God
Secrets have a way of grabbing our attention, particularly if the secret comes with a promise of something good. If I claimed to know the secret location of a buried treasure or to possess the secret for permanent and effortless weight loss, the world would beat a path to my door. Paul claimed to know… Continue reading The Secret to Contentment in a Discontented World
In rural Maine, conversations around race seem remote, theoretical, and (frankly) like somebody else's business. Colorblindness is nigh unto snow-blindness here: whiteness all around and a certain sightless condition that follows hard after it. Raising sons in the 90's with a narrative of color blindness involved earnest conversations on the way to Portland or Boston,… Continue reading Avoid These 4 Obstacles to Seeing the Color of Life
Wild extremes live on the bandwidth that comprises Christian faith. At one end of the scale are those who believe scarcely a thing at all, but even this is not as frightening to me as those on the end of the spectrum who have God all figured out. With algebraic precision, they are able to… Continue reading The Gift of Wonder and God’s Glorious “And”
We painted the room pale purple, her favorite color. A white lace curtain framed the window overlooking our busy backyard, and our wide-open door of welcome signaled a new beginning for my mum. She would be safe. We would know that she was eating three times a day. And maybe this would be the setting… Continue reading Mothers and Daughters Finding Their Way to Common Ground
The philosophical underpinnings of Christianity point the way to a community where each one competes to show maximum honor and respect to the others. The Bible describes a rule of life that values individuals as carriers of the image of God and the church gathered as a place to be refueled for maximum impact when… Continue reading What if Christians Became the Best Advertisement for Jesus?
Elisabeth Elliot offers the most durable definition for suffering I've ever heard: Suffering is Having What You Don't Want -- This covers everything from cancer to a flat tire. Or Wanting What You Don't Have -- A spouse, a child, a new job. Life on a fallen planet includes suffering of all types and intensities,… Continue reading Knowing God in the Midst of Our Pain
According to popular wisdom, ten thousand hours of deliberate practice are required for excellence in any field. After 20 years of homeschooling, 25 years of mothering, and 30 years of gardening and canning, I'm doing the math and wondering if mastery is even a possibility in any of these life compartments. Maybe a more realistic… Continue reading Why It’s Great to Be a Woman
Written by real people with genuine feelings--often worn closer to the surface than this stoic New Englander might like--the Bible gives voice to a full range of emotions. There is plenty of joy, lots of celebration, and this has found its way into our worship. However, we are less comfortable with the practice of biblical… Continue reading A Melody Above the Noise of Your Grief
When Ray Rhodes, Jr. was investigating topics for his dissertation, he followed his life long interest in Charles Spurgeon and began to research Spurgeon's marriage and the spiritual element of his relationship with his wife of thirty-six years, Susannah Spurgeon. Surprisingly, his interest led him away from "the prince of preachers" and toward a more… Continue reading The Life and Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon
Living Our Days 