Inviting Folks for Dinner
Tonight we host some new friends for dinner. I know it’s strange to gather on a Monday night, but why not? Everyone needs to eat, and this way, the family coming doesn’t need to worry about cooking or cleaning. It’s a weeknight break! They come. They eat. They go home. It’s a quick, fun weeknight […]
The Books You Never Publish
Sometimes I go back and look over all my hopeful prayers about books I wrote that nobody published. I recently read in my prayer journal how certain I was that God was leading in this way or that way, with this novel or that nonfiction book. I just knew He’d grant all my dreams to […]
Back to Country Music
This semester, my students who arrive early to class to hang out request their favorite country music videos. For the last sixteen weeks, I’ve listened to more Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett, Sam Hunt, Brett Eldredge, Raelynn, and Blake Shelton than I’d like to admit. I learn the genre country pop. One student […]
Long Term Joy: The Art of Bonsai
For Easter, we gave each daughter her own bonsai tree kit to grow little trees from seeds to then prune and shape for the next several years. It’s a skill we decided to learn together. We laughed when we realized that, by the time we begin our pruning, Sarah will have left for college and […]
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” –Louisa May Alcott
This little line in Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, makes me smile today. I don’t know much about sailing, but I love the idea that sailors don’t fear storms because they know how to sail in them. They know how to harness the power of the wind and make it work for them to […]
Special Moments with Barbara Bush
When I heard that Barbara Bush’s journey here ended, I pulled out two old photos. In the first, I stood beside her at a special gathering of school children in 1987 to celebrate her Reading is Fundamental Program. In the second, the teenage me stood by Barbara Bush during a party at her vacation home […]
It’s Just a Day
When my daughters aren’t having the best day, we often say, “Well, it’s just a day.” It’s just a day. It’s OK that we needed to nap all afternoon or that we just wanted to watch TV till bedtime. It’s OK that we ate too many cookies or didn’t finish our homework. It’s OK that […]
The Snare Has Been Broken
Yesterday, I spent time considering Psalm 124 and David’s praise to the Lord. He writes in verses 7-8: We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. I took […]
Instantly Regained
Today I read something that reminds me of my research on shame all those years ago. Hannah Whitall Smith writes about sin and how, instead of collapsing under discouragement that “all is lost,” we come to God in repentance and start fresh again on the journey. Yet so many of us live as if it’s […]