Gaining a heart of wisdom
People and books reserve the right to surprise us, and it's a real delight when both happen at the same time. I opened the pages of Barbara Hughes's book expecting the equivalent of a heart-to-heart over a mug of steaming tea, an open Bible and a warm sharing of practices that have held us close to… Continue reading Strength Training for Countercultural Women
The word "listen" appears in Scripture over fifteen hundred times, and the most frequently voiced complaint in the Bible is that the people don't listen. It may well be the most frequent complaint of present-day mothers, also, and, as a mother of four, I was in love with Adam McHugh's The Listening Life before I… Continue reading The Gift of Listening
Five and a half years ago our family piled into a mini-van and drove cross country -- Maine to Seattle, south to Arizona, and then in a zig-zagging joy ride back to Maine. Four boys, two parents, one tent, six sleeping bags, and five weeks of freedom on the road. It becomes a better memory… Continue reading Grant Us Grace to Ask
Author, Priscilla Shirer, had collected her grandmother, buckled her into the passenger seat, and embarked on a junk food run for French fries and vanilla milkshakes. Knowing that her grandmother was a faithful prayer warrior with a notebook full of specific requests and written prayers that she added to daily, Priscilla queried, "Why do you… Continue reading So You Won’t Forget
How has Gary Thomas sold half a million copies of a book about marriage that does not promise readers a happier marriage? No promise of six steps to more intimate pillow talk. No descriptions of three tips for more zip. The fact is that Sacred Marriage - The Revised Edition talks about the challenges and disappointments that… Continue reading Marriage: A Spiritual Discipline?
Proximity to the land, awareness of seasonal patterns of frost and heat, rain and shine: these are among the chief benefits of a garden, and in my ongoing cultivation of the beautiful mess where my veggies grow, I am continually renewed and inspired by the metaphors that spring forth from every aspect of life in… Continue reading Return to the Garden
The memoir meets spiritual formation literature in Nathan Foster's The Making of an Ordinary Saint; and in case the name "Foster" has a familiar ring to it, think "Richard Foster" of the seventies-era classic Celebration of Discipline. Nathan is Richard Foster's son, and a handful he was, apparently. Now with addiction and bitterness in the rear-view… Continue reading “Going Saint”
