Parenting is grueling (did I really just say that out loud?). Heaven knows it isn’t for the faint of heart or for anyone seeking self-glory. Far too many days come down to sheer survival, and many a night finds you falling into bed physically exhausted and emotionally spent. As a parent, you spend years plowing… Continue reading Reward for Sowing
Category: Parenting
Captives Unaware
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:31 I’m on the road again, somewhere in the middle of the Canadian prairie on Highway 1, about mid-way through the Province of Saskatchewan. We are returning home from collecting our youngest daughter following a year of attendance at Prairie Bible College.… Continue reading Captives Unaware
Swapping Lenses
Two of my children, Ben and Maggie, have a passion for photography. Both gravitated toward the camera early on, progressing naturally from fuzzy snapshots of family and pets taken on a little Instamatic camera, to the creation of photographs artfully composed with much more complex models. Both have enjoyed the process of mastering the camera—the… Continue reading Swapping Lenses
Waiting with Rebekah
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:11-13 In my thirty-five years of mothering five amazing children, I have changed no less than 5,000 messy diapers, lactated for 63 months, kissed and bandaged dozens of skinned knees, winced at hundreds of flat notes, and spent many… Continue reading Waiting with Rebekah
Into the Wilderness
I was reading in Jeremiah this morning when I came across what struck me initially as something of a contradiction. It had to do with the concept of ‘wilderness’. Most often, based on a kind of synopsis of Old Testament history that I have in my head, the “wilderness” in biblical context usually refers to… Continue reading Into the Wilderness
Pursuing Hannah’s Heart
Have I mentioned that one of my kids is a missionary? Lizzie left home at the age of 18 to earn a degree in Midwifery while serving in a clinic for impoverished women in the Philippines. She has been serving on the mission field for most of the six years since. Recently, after serving in… Continue reading Pursuing Hannah’s Heart
Persistent Shadows
Usual church routines and religious protocol were set aside this Sunday morning in our little town. Believers normally divided by denominational as well as physical walls gathered together at the local civic center. Our purpose was to participate in a ministry called "Project Ignite Light" (ignitelight.org), which provides backpacks filled with basic comforts to children… Continue reading Persistent Shadows
No Generation Gap
By definition, the phrase “generation gap” has a negative connotation. It means that something is lost in translation from one generation to the next. Differences in values, beliefs and perspectives result in a parting of minds and/or hearts. Chapter 3 in the Book of Judges tells the story of a ‘faith generation gap’ within the… Continue reading No Generation Gap
Estranged
I got a call from my oldest daughter yesterday. She needed to vent a bit of frustration over her oldest step-daughter’s choice to separate herself from her father. Though just a child, she has mustered all of her resources and mule-like fortitude to erect a wall between herself and her daddy. Spewing words of anger… Continue reading Estranged
Unrequited Love
I did my best to fight them back. I really did. Yet there they were, streaming down my face like a flash flood unexpectedly breaching a dike, blurring my view as I clumsily placed the final piece of scotch tape on my son’s Christmas present. How, I asked myself, can I love someone so much… Continue reading Unrequited Love
