Gaining a heart of wisdom
When my sons were small, I kept a running list of their funny sayings in my journal or in the memory books I kept for each of them. Many of the most amusing or surprising were questions: "What's inside my tongue?""Did Moses watch tv?""Does Penny (our dog) pray?" They kept me on my toes, but… Continue reading Does Your Life Inspire Questions from Your Grandkids?
We've been tackling some much-needed cleaning projects here on the hill, and it feels good to move furniture, vacuum up accumulated dust, and throw away the things we don't need. Big jobs require time and a certain amount of elbow grease, but the results reward the investment. Routine tasks are less exciting: wiping down the… Continue reading Your Only Sure Protection from the Tragedy of Moral Collapse
The longer I live, the more dubious sounds the popular wisdom of couch pillows and coffee mugs advising me to “Listen to your heart.” When push comes to shove (as it invariably does), I’m learning the advice my heart dishes out is likely to lead me astray. Let me instead speak to my heart as the psalmist… Continue reading What’s the Worst Advice You’ve Ever Been Given?
Every January 1st, I am greeted by the same bracing truth as I turn again to the first page of my well-worn flip calendar of Elisabeth Elliot quotes: Lord, give me a quiet heartThat doesn’t need to understand,But, confident, walks forward inThe darkness, guided by your hand." In a sense, everyone steps into the darkness… Continue reading 6 Means Through Which God May Choose to Guide You in the New Year
Over the years, I have kept the same address book, a quaint and archaic practice for sure in this highly digitized world. To accommodate my more transient friends and family, all the entries are in pencil, and many bear the scuff marks of frequent erasures. This year, as I was addressing our Christmas letters, I… Continue reading Ending the Year by Noticing The Names Of The Missing
Decision-making is hard, and it's a process I never enjoy. Now, we've reached the stage in life when we're bearing witness to the decisions of our sons and their families, which is really a spectator sport—unless we get invited onto the field to share an opinion. Buying a house or a car, changing jobs, or… Continue reading Receive the Gift of Advent Every Moment of Your Life
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love its simplicity and its uncluttered focus: Gather and give thanks! That's it! No cards or gifts, and no expectation of a big program at church. For the believer, Thanksgiving is a wake-up call to a God-conscious mindset, so I view these days leading up to the holiday as… Continue reading Celebrating a Simple and Uncluttered Holiday
Food preparation and clean-up run like a perpetual conveyor belt through my kitchen and through my life, so for me, the bigger challenge of hospitality is always logistics. I feel overwhelmed as I gather chairs from the far corners of the house. I forget to dust the top of the piano or spend too much time perseverating… Continue reading Hospitality: The Power of Authentic Connection
The word on the street1 is that, of the twelve tracks on Taylor Swift's newest album, only four will emerge unfiltered on the other side of Spotify's parental controls designed to block explicit content. Having raised my four sons in the prehistoric era of dial-up internet in a remote outpost far from the nearest smoke… Continue reading The Sure Wisdom Found in Unfiltered Gratitude
I had never led a question-and-answer session during any of my past women's events, but I was looking forward to the experience. I wanted to hear the questions that had bubbled to the surface after a weekend of immersing ourselves in the Bible's teaching on hope. I wasn't prepared for the challenging contexts the women… Continue reading What Happens When You Fight For Genuine Joy In Impossible Circumstances?
Living Our Days 