These words play over the speakers at the coffee shop this morning, and tears choke in my throat. This is a culture to which I cannot relate. But these are universal feelings I think we can all comprehend. Oh, you sin-stricken, pain-filled world. No matter the age, the place, the culture, our primary relationships remain the same. We […]
Leave, and Leaving
David is on leave (which to all of you civilians means vacation); he’s a happy pajama-wearing, beard growing man who is unintentionally throwing off our school schedule. I’m trying to stick to the basics but also hold our days loosely in my hand. We’re a family, and these are relationships. I constantly fight the urge to […]
Dear Child, I Imperfectly Love You (thoughts on mother’s day)
Dear Child, I’m not one to go all crazy on Mother’s Day. My nose lifts a bit at holidays with modern roots, and this is your father’s fault. It’s also your father’s fault that I have you at all, a fact driven home when I asked what he’s giving me for Mother’s Day. “I already gave you […]
Wednesdays In The Word: John 1:29-34 (Jesus comes, bad day and all)
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I […]
When The Mama-Heart Grows Cold
Sickness abounds still. Five children slumber-partied in the living room last night, bodies strewn upon one another in the kind of harmonic intimacy that only comes after dark. Grace screamed for two hours in her crib with her Papa at her side, and I holed up in the bathroom and tried not to hear. These […]
Infinite Loveliness, Irresistible Tenderness: God, the settler of our minds
Are [the children] to go into the world ignorant of the questions that are searching many hearts, to be staggered by the first shock of evidence and opinion running counter to the old thoughts? No; but how I wish I could do [the children] the like inestimable served that a great teacher has done for me and […]
The Earth Is Alive
We have had two weeks of sickness around here, and just when I thought we were getting well, it came back to invade my lungs and Grace’s ears. No sleep. I am so, so, so, so tired. Nevertheless, yesterday dawned warm and sunny and in hopes of the car motion lulling Grace into a nap, I took the […]
Living Bravely: the mosaic is wrought through pain
What if Jesus doesn’t want to keep us from pain? What if the Hard Things and Broken Places are where we come to know the Lord? What if he is growing within us a heart full of courage? What if he wants to grow this within our children as well? On April first, just before I […]
A Whole Year Has Passed
We had family visiting for eight days, and then we landed on Easter weekend. Easter, and with it Grace’s first birthday; tomorrow, Easter Monday with Judah turning nine. Nine. Who is this child, nine years old, and too big for Thomas the Train? I stood picking through birthday decorations in an over-lit Walmart with tears dripping […]
…Become Altars of Sinning
“Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, they have become altars of sinning for him.” Hosea 8:11 IDOLS ARE NEVER SEEN AS IDOLS TO THE ONES DOING THE WORSHIPPING (This is the second of two posts so if you need background, read: Altars For Sin) Idols are never seen as idols to the ones doing the worshipping. […]
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