A Skinny Story
Of all the blog posts I’ve ever written this is the one that makes me most uncomfortable. It’s the one that makes me feel the most vulnerable. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t make myself delete the draft from my “works in progress” document. I’m really not sure who, but I had the feeling that someone might need to hear this. And so it has survived, somehow become a full length article, and..
A Letter To My Twelve-Year-Old Self
June fifteenth of this year marked my eighteenth birthday. By God’s grace, I’ve successfully circled the sun enough times that I’m considered an adult.
When I was twelve I was encouraged by the leader of my Bright Lights group to write a letter to my future self. It’s funny to see how dreams can change over the years. I wanted to share with you the letter I wrote, and a response I wrote to my twelve-year-old self.
Sometimes it’s encouraging to look back and see that some things really do work out how you hoped. And at the same time, the things that don’t turn out how you want them to are God’s way of saying He has something else planned for you.
Thoughts About Our Sin Life
I knelt on the side of the raised garden bed pulling the weeds from the moist ground. My hair whipped in my face; I should have pulled it back before my hands got dirty. The spring afternoon sun warmed my back and shoulders, reminding me that winter was really, truly gone from Ohio.
I am one of the few that enjoy pulling weeds. The dirt under my fingernails, the excuse to be outside in the sun, the time to be alone and think. As I pulled the weeds in the strawberry bed I thought about how our sins are like weeds.
Finding Peace In the Never Ending Cleaning Cycle
She plopped down on the couch, readjusting the the throw pillow she knocked out of place. That was the end of it. The whole first floor was immaculately clean. Martha Stewart couldn’t have found a way to make it more spotless. She looked down at the phone in her hand. “I just loaded the kids in the car. We will be home in less than thirty minutes.”
Less than thirty minutes, and her immaculate..
For One Last Time
From the moment you hold your baby in your arms you will never be the same
You might long for the person you were before
When you had freedom and time
And nothing in particular to worry about
You will know tiredness like you never knew it before
Days will run into days that are exactly the same
Full of feedings and burping
Nappy changes and crying
Whining and fighting
Naps or a lack of naps
It..
When You Forget Who You Are
I don’t exactly remember how, but somehow I ended up with a long piece of blue masking tape on my shirt. My name was printed on it in black sharpie.
“Is that for in case you forget who you are?” My not-so-little-anymore brother laughed at me from across the room.
Wisdom From C. S. Lewis
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who..
Rain
“Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It seems you can’t go very long at all without coming across some new trouble in life. (more…)
What’s Growing in Your Garden?
“Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits, Take care of your garden And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine, Kind words, and Kind deeds.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Kindness isn’t something that just happens. A kind heart must be cultivated, nourished, and watered. Ask the Lord to give you a kind heart, to make you..
Rocks At My Window
There’s a song I listen to every now and then by Bridget Mendler called “Rocks at My Window.” The chorus goes like this:
“We can run away for the weekend
But I’m here alone
Wish you’d go throwing rocks at my window
We could count the stars from your car hood
But I’m here alone
Wish you’d go throwing rocks at my window.”