Gaining a heart of wisdom
One of the great gifts of living past middle age has been the opportunity for meaningful connections with younger women. Through conversations about faith, parenting, or the challenges of ministry, I hear their hopes for stronger marriages and sympathize with their sleep-deprived discouragement over whatever discipline challenges their kids are dishing out. I’m thankful when… Continue reading How to Put an End to the Mommy Wars
Spaghetti sauce bubbles in a pot on the stove, the rich red depths of the kettle wafting fragrance throughout the house. The annual ritual spans three decades: garden-grown tomatoes, hand-picked, and placed into a basket become jars of winter provision. After all, my four sons could eat a lot of pasta! But this pot of… Continue reading How Can Mothers Instill Vibrant Faith in Their Families?
Along the wooded trail behind my home, a birch tree arches in a graceful curve as it stretches across the pathway. It’s a veteran of a good many northern New England ice storms and knows what it is to bow low under a weight of snow and frozen rain. Even though its tip-top branches have… Continue reading Solid Theology and the Gift of Community: Keys to Resilient Mothering
By the time I was 21, I had been thoroughly inoculated against any threat of marriage by the wistful comments of my married friends: “Oh, you can do that now, but just wait till you get married and have kids…” They painted an image of a small, constricted world with no scented candles (dangerous open… Continue reading 3 Mothering Insights I Learned on the Job, but Wish I Had Known from the Start
Armed with passwords and last year’s tax forms, we gathered at the dining room table with my youngest son and his new wife. They had asked for help in the annual ritual of completing the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which college students must submit in order to qualify for scholarships of… Continue reading Mothering Ourselves Out of a Job: Launching Our Children into Adulthood with Joy
Today I attacked the kind of cleaning chores that I envision other more diligent and domestically devoted women doing all the time, the tidying that requires pulling furniture away from the wall, vacuuming under beds, and applying a ferocious dust cloth to the rungs of chairs and the hidden recesses of bookcases. Homely household routines… Continue reading The Unexpected Gift of Homemaking and What I Learned from Elisabeth Elliot
"But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you." (I Thessalonians 5:1) Paul's words come embedded with a warning to the church--sort of a, "It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway" message regarding a certain watchfulness and an inspired willingness to live in the present… Continue reading Concerning the Times and the Seasons: Summer 2019
Whether we’re making meals, changing diapers, or shuttling kids to baseball practice, parents are doers. Always in protective mode, we apply sunscreen and Band-Aids as needed, and when we hit a wall with a need we can’t meet ourselves, we consult with the experts. Long before parents could ransack Google or WebMD for medical advice,… Continue reading How Parenting Exposes Our Need for Faith
Roots and wings are the gift Christian parents pass on to our children. We establish rules, give them responsibilities that build confidence and skill, and we water those deep roots with lots of love and prayer, knowing that strengthening wings will soon carry our children away from home, out of reach of our influence and… Continue reading A Fruitful Life from a Heart of Love
One thing so often leads to another, and, in retrospect, it takes a conscious effort to trace the trail of God's active participation in our lives. Here's a fresh example: In August of last year, I wrote a piece about praying for our teens because that's something I do. (A lot.) When Desiring God picked… Continue reading Musings: March 2019
Living Our Days 