Christmas is the holiday for which we all know we should celebrate the “real meaning,” but many of us struggle to know how. The culture does a fabulous job of giving us ideas on how to make it more magical and fun. The culture also gives us full instructions on how we can spend more…
Once, in a blaze of book love, I sent a copy of Anne of Green Gables to an eleven-year-old girl I had never met. This happened because of a conversation I had when I was twenty-three, sitting knee-to-knee with an extroverted flight attendant on a plane so small it was termed a “puddle jumper.” The…
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV) Adventure. Living with wild abandon. Spontaneity. Embracing the journey. These are all words and phrases I love. Do they describe me? No. Do I live those like those words matter to me? Nope. Then why…
Grace is an oft-misunderstood topic in the church. I think we’re all growing in our understanding of grace, but many of us grew up in church contexts believing we needed to earn our grace. I was blessed to grow up with a fairly healthy understanding of God’s grace, the gift he freely gave me regardless…
Like many parents, I worry about my children’s exposure to media content. I carefully monitor their online searches. I read reviews of movies and television shows before allowing them to view them. I try to read books before I pass them along to my young readers. To keep unwholesome talk from their ears, I keep…
Murphy’s Law would say everything goes wrong as you’re trying to get your family out the door for church. People wake up late, and they wake up grumpy. The baby poops through his diaper onto your pants just as we are walking out the door. Big homework projects due on Monday are suddenly “remembered.” I’ve…