Gaining a heart of wisdom
Spring is officially here, and it's time to begin planning my annual dinner for the women of my church. Trust me, I'm no hospitality expert, but I try to make it special for them with a pretty table and a scrumptious dessert. One year I made a turkey dinner, another year it was chicken cordon… Continue reading What is Biblical Hospitality? Rediscover the Powerful Practice of Simply Making Room
Do you ever wonder why you can recall banal song lyrics from your youth, but can't remember why you've walked into the family room? I'm learning from this affliction that if I want to commit something to memory or form some sticky habit that's important to me, I really have to work at it. I… Continue reading A Guided Meditation to Keep Your Heart from Wandering
When my sons were tiny, I kept a running list of their zany questions in my journal--everything from the deeply theological to "What's inside my tongue?" Now it's my grandkids who keep the party going, but for some time now, my readers have been sending questions my way, so this post will be given over… Continue reading I’m Really Glad You Asked: A Post Featuring Your Questions and My Answers
If I should ever happen to meet the Old Testament prophetess Huldah, I would fully expect her to have pale blue eyes like my friend Mary's. Mary had turned her eyes on full power the day she rebuked me for being a hypocrite. Gulp... Until that point, we were having a great visit, sharing how… Continue reading Learning Humility: Cooperating with God in God’s Time and in God’s Way
My first few substitute teaching gigs in the fall always generate a bit of anxiety--butterflies over the unknown, anticipation of challenges, always the possibility of conflict. To my great surprise, on my first day of school, as I inserted my key into the car's ignition, the words of Isaiah 12 rushed into my mind, and… Continue reading Give Thanks! Sing Praises! Solid Disciplines Foster Strong Habits
I stood today on the front deck, camera pointed upward, waiting for the wind to blow. The rain of colored leaves was more dramatic in person than in the video I was trying to make, but I know this particular beauty signals the beginning of the end: the end of a season of brightness and… Continue reading Your On-Ramp to Comfort and Joy for Seasons of Suffering
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.” Annie Dillard, The Writing Life When I first read this quote from Annie Dillard, I was up to my fetlocks in raising four sons. What I was doing… Continue reading Jump-Start Your Daily Routines and Establish Good Habits for a Lifetime
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
My grandchildren are learning to sing hymns, and I love it! There's not much cuter than hearing a two-year-old's rendering of timeless theological truth. And whether or not he understands it today, the words are in his brain just as all those crazy advertising jingles from the seventies will forever be stuck in my own… Continue reading Rest: Growing in Our Understanding of the Words We Think We Know
When you flip all the pages to the back of your Bible, when you take a deep breath and begin to excavate the words of John's Revelation, what exactly are you looking for? Are you hoping for an end times road map? A winning slam dunk in your next theological argument? How about blessing? Have… Continue reading 3 Resources to Help You Search for Blessing in the Book of Revelation
Living Our Days 