The reflections of a mother clinging to the 136th chapter I’m not going to lie, when my children were small, I was young and full of pride. I had taken childcare classes, read parenting books, and observed plenty of other mothers. I knew exactly how I was going to raise my children to confident, blissful …
What makes you so special?
So you think you are beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy? The skeletons in your closet are too scary to be let out into the light? You have sunk too low, and your regrets have piled up higher than your deepest fears (and that's saying a lot)? Well, what makes you so special? …
I am worth more than leftovers
It took me a long time to realize this, but I am worth more than leftovers. I can and should lay down my rights for yours and forgive seventy times seven and give my life for a brother, BUT there’s sacrificial giving and then there’s self-sacrificing living, and there’s a fine line between the two. …
Who I am and why I’m here
I’m a Christian working mom who is married to a pastor who is a former Marine. I am a mother of six and grandmother of one. Once upon a time, my husband and I sold everything we had and served as missionaries overseas. But I’m so much more than that. I am also a woman …
I was okay . . . until I wasn’t
I thought I had it all under control. One day while we were living in Pennsylvania for part of our missionary training, I took the kids and went to WalMart for a supply run. The lady behind me in the checkout line saw me paying for fabric with my four daughters in tow and sporting …
Survivors of the Healthy Hearts
There are those among us who have seen things – things we wish we had not seen – and we will never be the same. We walk around like everyone else. We go to work, buy our groceries, and wash our cars. But there is a pain that would glare as brightly as a neon …
Sometimes we get a front row seat
If there is no God, then who just bought my lunch? I had been having a bad week - well, more like a bad month - but all of a sudden, everything changed for the better in ways I never imagined. This doesn’t mean God is real. Nor does it mean things are …
bedbugs don’t make for a very happy birthday, even when they’re only in your imagination
My birthday was on Monday, but instead of waking up to breakfast in bed, I woke up to another day of dealing with bedbugs. I had spent the previous day with box of black garbage bags and a day's wages in quarters, transporting clothes from the bedrooms to the laundromat in an endless procession of …
No one wants to see all that, not even the Russians
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but then pictures don't always tell the whole story, which is something I have learned on social media. We say we're keeping it real when we post our “nailed it" photos of the three-tiered cake we tried to bake for Grandma's birthday, or when …
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Any bumbling smudges I could offer
There are no destinations in life, only journeys. I thought I was just getting a small bite of dark chocolate goodness to finish off my brown bag lunch, but it would seem I was in store for a whole lot more. I licked the chocolate off my finger as I read that Dove wrapper and …
