“It’s hard to know just what God wants me to do,” someone said to me recently. “It must have been so much easier for those folks back in Bible times, when God just showed up and told them exactly what he wanted…” I was thinking about this conversation this week as I was re-reading Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. And I’m not so sure that I agree with my friend. Our story begins with Mary, a young girl, a v…
It’s always intrigued me – our thirst for stories… “Read it again, Mommy!” “Tell it again, Daddy!” Children demand to be read the same books – over and over. They ask for the same stories, again and again. There was a stretch when my own kids were small that they insisted we read the same three books. Every night. Without fail. For months on end. (I’m pretty sure I could still recite Goodnight, Moon at the drop …
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (NIV) I don’t know about you, but I feel as if we really struggle to get this one right. On one hand, it seems we’re often practice finding (and pointing out to one another) the things that aren’t going as well as we’d like, the things other people aren’t very good at, or just simply get wrong…
Just the other day I was in a conversation with some moms whose kids (like mine) are nearly grown. Someone asked, “what three things do you wish you had known when your kids were little?” After thinking about the experiences we’ve had with raising kids over the past 20 years or so, here are my thoughts: Experts don’t know everything. You’ll read the books and articles, meet with the pediatric…
This time of year always makes me think of the many traditions that we have developed over the years of raising our children. I suppose that’s because of the variety of fun holidays that occur within the next few months. One of the parts of raising kids almost to adulthood (my four kids are now 17-20 years old) that has totally surprised me is their interest in hanging on to some of the family t…
