When You Match Teenagers with Older Women Prayer Partners
I’m visiting my husband’s home church, and I learn from the teenagers about their prayer partners. This church pairs teenagers with older women who partner with them in prayer for a one year period. A teen and her prayer partner share prayer requests over the year, pray for one another, go to lunch a few […]
Like a Father
I’m reading a line by Margaret Silf in her book, Inner Compass, that helps me understand something about God. She writes: “Imagine yourself as a wounded bird savaged by a cat, or as an animal caught in a trap, or as a small child who has hurt herself. . . Now, without offering any excuses […]
The Book My Daughter Insisted I Read
“You must read this, Mom!” she insists. For days, she’s been following me around, this book in hand, telling me it’s the best book, her favorite book, and the book that will make me cry and cry. “Why will I cry?” I ask. Tears actually form in her eyes as she says, “It’s so heartwarming […]
Even If You Don’t Feel Like It
I don’t want to write this morning. But I remember that once I start doing something–even if I don’t feel like it–I begin to love it once I’m in it. I love it once I’m in it, so I’m learning to ignore the tug of “I don’t feel like doing this.” I have to get […]
Driven from a False Resting Place
I keep coming back to the same paragraph in Hannah Whitall Smith’s, The God of All Comfort. In a chapter entitled, “Things That Cannot Be Shaken,” she discusses the flimsy foundations we often build our lives upon rather than the sure foundation of God and God alone. But these flimsy foundations seem so very secure. […]
Ripe with Joy
My husband calls me to the garden. “The first blueberry is blue!” he reports. “Already?” We find that first ripe blueberry, and it makes us so happy. First Ripe Blueberry Who gets to eat it? The one who will have the most joy in it. Normally, the youngest in the family gets to pick the […]
Save It For a Rainy Day
Today we venture into all the things we’ve saved for a rainy day. The movies and popcorn! Long visits to the library! Knitting! Boardgames! We tell ourselves that certain things must wait for the rain, and so we hold off until we see those dark clouds and raindrops. Certain things must wait for the rain. […]
The Time She Felt Most Loved
I arrive at the part of summer devotions where I ask my daughters when they felt most loved. One says it’s when she held her cat for the first time. The other says, “When I had to ask you to forgive me and you said, ‘yes’ and still loved me.” Devotions over. I have to […]
Acting Like a Keystone Species
I’m reading a book about alligators with my youngest daughter, and I learn the definition of a keystone species. A keystone species uses the environment in a way that shapes and benefits an entire community. The alligator, for example, digs a gator hole for her own use that supports hundreds of other species. Without the […]
Places Within Places
I’m reading a line in Jamie Zeppa’s memoir from her time in Bhutan about her love of secret places. As a child, she loved finding hidden places. She calls them places within places. The line shimmers for me. I just can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe it’s because I’m learning how to dwell in the […]