You may have seen the film The Greatest Showman. With its phenomenal music, raucous dancing, and Hugh Jackman, what’s not to like, right? (Okay, perhaps the fact that it’s not at all true to P. T. Barnum’s life can give us pause. But as a stand-alone, mostly fictional film, it’s pretty rad.) At one point…
One of my closest friends recently experienced something difficult. I waited for God to open the door for me to talk to her about my faith, his goodness, and how I had gotten through the same experience. But while I did feel God’s presence, he never opened that door. She did all the talking. I know that…
Hello, dear ones. I see you there. Feeling insecure. Doubting yourself. Looking to boys or men or friends or achievements—or perhaps all the above—for validation. I see you trying to figure yourself out. Trying to find your “place.” Trying to figure out what category you fit into. Trying to be enough. Trying not to be…
My mom had barely entered her teenage years when my dad—seventeen at the time—saw her over the hood of the bus he drove and said, “Someday, I’m gonna marry that girl.” He did marry her, and this year they celebrated sixty-four years of marriage. He has cherished her since the first time he laid eyes…
I was caring for some of my young grandchildren when a squabble broke out between siblings. I don’t recall what I suggested to resolve the dispute, but my granddaughter was adamant in her reply: “Grandma, that’s not part of our culture.” Her culture? She was seven years old! Her parents weren’t home for me to…
A 3×5 card hangs on my fridge with a three-line to-do list. The first two items are filled in with “Love God” and “Love Others.” The designer left the third line blank, and my daughter recently wrote in “Love Dogs.” My husband and I joke that, at only seven, she’s discovered the key to a…