Accusation is a loud bully, clamoring in our minds unceasingly. Most of us can rehearse our own shortcomings at a moment’s notice, but what we really want to know is what we’ve done right. We want affirmation. We want vindication. We want public accolades. Yet the positive feedback we crave often comes in a whisper. I spent fourteen years home schooling our three sons, believing this was what God had called me to do. The unspoken opinion of many around us seemed to be, Are you sure you can do this adequately?  Self-doubt crept in. I prayed. I researched. I got together with Continue Reading

Sometimes when I’m looking for a movie to watch, the only thing that fits the bill is a bizarre nature documentary. Not only are they fascinating; they demonstrate how creation teaches spiritual lessons. There is a very long, shallow lake in Africa that never gets more than a foot deep, and dries up into salty mud puddles when the rainy season ends. Thousands of flamingos return to this lake every year to lay their eggs and raise their young. Baby flamingos run around in this salty soup until they grow large enough to graduate to the world of the marshes. They are relatively safe on the Continue Reading

Ever drag yourself out of bed in the morning thinking, would someone please remind me of the point?  I suspect most of us experience emotional meltdowns now and then. We get irritated and depressed. We overstimulate ourselves and then can’t sleep. Everything feels impossible; nothing seems inspiring or fun. We barely tolerate the presence of others. That’s me one day not long ago. So I decide to take a walk, and turn onto a street I don’t normally take, just on a whim. He’s maybe four years old, the little kid coming toward me on a scooter. He waves and says hi. I say hi back. I see a Continue Reading

Did you have a favorite place to hide as a kid, like a fort in the woods, or a closet, or under the kitchen table with a blanket over the top? It seems like we all start out loving the game of hiding and being found, all the way back to peekaboo. Hide and seek is one of those simple joys we tend to lose in our busy, oh-so-important adulthood, a small but important pleasure we forget much to our loss. Recently, I’d had a tough day. So I go outside to breathe some fresh air and pull some weeds. The evening light is spilling through the picket fence, laying golden planks on the cropped Continue Reading