I love her because she taught me how to put on nylons when I was in middle school and because she has shown me how to enjoy knowing Jesus. Just back from Kenya on a short-term trip to work in a hospice, she had me in tears with this story that I know will encourage you. Please welcome the beautiful,… Read More
If You Want to Change
Does anyone remember Emily Post? Born in 1872 in Baltimore, Maryland, she became the voice of authority on rules of manners and etiquette. Because of her I would never consider passing the salt without the pepper. These two condiments are never to be “divorced” but must travel together around the dining room table. I have been reading an excellent book… Read More
Feeling Like You Need to Please God with Rule Following?
I’m driving my daughter’s car, a 1994 Honda with tires more valuable than the body. My son is driving my nice car that is only five years old, because the speedometer works in it. So I’ve been driving for a few months, in the car in which I have to guess my speed. Dangerous, because I’ve always taken very, very… Read More
Why God Keeps Bringing the Same Lesson Again and Again
I’m torturing my Spanish students by making them conjugate 50 verbs. Five verbs, four tenses each, every day for two weeks. Write, write, write, write. Turn the page. Write, write, write, write. Turn the page. I threw out a big word to them called automaticity. This is when we are able to process information involuntarily and without conscious control. Automaticity is what… Read More
When Disciplined Love Turns Mushy
I used to set my alarm. When it went off, I would quietly grab my Bible and slip out into the hallway so I wouldn’t wake up my roommate. Our room was in the “T”, which meant it was at the end of the long hall and around the corner, so it was very quiet. There I would slide down… Read More
Show Me
There’s nothing better than landing in a room full of people whose eyes light up over the same topics that light yours. I just spent two hours discussing how to get students to participate in class, so they absorb information. Fun, yes? We did this activity where we had to ask other teachers questions, and one of them was, “How… Read More
Kingdom Language Acquisition
My world has exploded into Spanish. The basement office is littered with textbooks, notecards, and sundry other Spanish teaching materials. I was hired in the eleventh hour to teach part time at the Christian high school here in town. I’m looking forward to being in the classroom, except in the moments when I break out into full panic because it has been… Read More
Better Than Funnel Cake and Tilt-O-Whirl
Yesterday morning we looked through the fence as we went by –fair week –and reminisced about how exciting it used to be when the kids were little and we paid way too much for them to wait too long in line for a few carnival rides. In the evening, we drove to Flathead Lake (the biggest natural freshwater lake west of… Read More
Running Downhill
Coming to a hill on a country lane yesterday, I drove past a little girl who was skipping full speed down the incline, long red hair flying out behind her and arms swinging. Thought number one, from the mom half of my brain: She might fall. Thought number two: She is the picture of joy, and I wish I had… Read More
A Link for You to Ponder on This Sunday Morning
My friend and I agree that we like a nice, clean swimming pool where we can see the bottom. No ocean for us –too deep and too many unknowns. But will I live that philosophy in following Christ? No way. Give me a vast sea and all the risk that goes with it. What’s your ocean?