It drives me crazy when my kids aren’t thankful. It really bothers me when they’re already focused on what’s next instead of being thankful for the right now; when they don’t appreciate the belongings they have; when they’re “bored” an hour after a fun outing. I think it drives me crazy for two reasons. One,…
Abundance is a tricky thing. It seems the more you have, the more you want. Take restaurants, for example. My favorite restaurant when I was a little girl was Burger King. We didn’t eat out much in the 80s, but when we did, it was two-for-one Whoppers on payday. When I moved to the city…
I’m happily married with three awesome kids, living in a home my husband renovated, with three dogs, four chickens, and a garden to boot. My husband is a discipleship pastor, and I am an English professor. Sounds like a good life, doesn’t it? You would probably think I ooze gratitude. The embarrassing truth is, I…
It’s one thing to tune your own heart toward gratefulness–I have good and bad days in this regard, and it’s a continuous area of focus for me. It is a whole other thing to spur others on to gratefulness in our day-to-day lives. I have been struck lately by how much negativity there is both…
Have you ever sought the Lord with your whole heart only to hear the spiritual equivalent of crickets chirping? Who hasn’t? We know God often speaks in a still, small voice (1 Kings 11:19), but sometimes it seems he isn’t speaking at all, at least not in the ways we expect him to. That’s the…
The story of the Exodus has become my favorite Old Testament narrative. Not only did God rescue the Israelites out of Egypt, but he actively led and fed them through their wilderness journey: “And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea and performed signs and…