Greetings from the Land of Waterfalls, Glitter, and Unicorns
Okay, maybe not that last one. But, really, it wouldn't at all surprise me to see a unicorn drinking from one of these dappled mountain streams. We're enjoying a family vacation this week. The air is blessedly cool. The pools and streams are icy, and when my children come out after swimming they look as if they've been dipped in...
What, Then, is Prayer?
I fear that too many of us approach prayer with a mental picture of ourselves making a laborious attempt to come before God. Or, maybe we have a picture of ourselves trying and mostly failing to get God’s attention. Either way, the effort is all ours. The distance between heaven and earth appears too big to bridge, and our burdens seem...
The Only Thing I Pray My Children Grow Up to Know
The middle child, the oldest boy, starts kindergarten in just a few weeks. Not only that, but he will ride the bus (which is, possibly, a bigger deal for both of us even than kindergarten itself). I’ve been a mother long enough to know that the days are long but the years are short. These summer days drag (how to fill the time between...
Why Staying in the Moment Isn’t Always Best (Or, Why Southern Summers are a lot Like Midwestern Winters)
Understandably, winters in Chicago were long and hard. Still, I enjoyed them more than most of my friends and neighbors. I’ve always imagined that my Texas childhood created a snow deficit deep inside of me that no amount of Midwestern cold could fill up. As much as we all longed for spring come March, I was never sad, even then, to see...
A Sweet Tooth Reborn
I stopped eating sugar three months ago. Well, to be perfectly honest, I still treat myself a bit on the weekends. And birthdays. I'll never pass up birthday cake. But Monday through Friday, and even most of the time Saturday and Sunday, I sweeten my oatmeal with banana, I omit even the agave syrup from my smoothies, and I say no to...
When Literal is Lifeless
I recently came across news of another Gallop poll that attempts to sort and label people according to their beliefs about the Bible. You know the polls I'm talking about. Inevitably, they use catchwords like "literal" and "inspired" to tidy diverse opinions into neat categories. I think I understand and...
