During my sophomore year of college, I had the incredible opportunity to study abroad in Italy. For an entire summer, I adventured my way through a beautiful, romantic country that was thousands of years older than my own. I slept under the same stars as Michelangelo, met the David face-to-face, and walked through Roman ruins that once housed ...
In the past, I’ve made summer bucket lists and packed sunscreen, water bottles, and floaties. I’ve wrung out wetsuits a thousand times hanging them out to dry. The cycle of towels ran constantly in our machine, washing out the lake water and sunscreen, the places watermelon dripped down chins and pooled in the cloth. We’d made memories in the ...
Show us your faithful love, Lord, and give us your salvation. I will listen to what God will say; surely the Lord will declare peace to his people, his faithful ones, and not let them go back to foolish ways. His salvation is very near those who fear him, so that glory may dwell in our land. Faithful love and truth will join together; righteousness ...
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 (CSB) It's ...
Last week, my oldest dropped one of our drinking glasses on the floor. It slipped from his fingers like a ghost. He’s at the age when independence and dependence keep showing up for a game of tug-of-war, and it's keeping all of us on our toes. I watched his eyes pop like a puffer fish as the blue Ball jar transformed into a million shards and flew ...
I was half asleep on a summer morning, spreading butter across a cinnamon raisin bagel, when I heard these words coming from our TV: “The lion goes out on patrol every few days to survey his lands and seek out predators that could come against his cubs.” This simple nature fact came from one of the main characters of my daughter’s favorite shows, ...
We were talking about what a battle it can be raising kids and knowing when to say "yes" and when to "hold the line," and I said, "I fear that my kids will resent me." Without skipping a beat, my friend said, "I don't care if my kids resent me! I love them. I would die for them. But I'm going to follow the Lord and teach them to follow Him. This ...
This is going to be the death of me. It’s a statement I’ve made often over the past several months, mostly under my breath and to myself. One of my children has been struggling in a variety of ways, all stemming from a traumatic childhood lived outside of our home. He came to us through the foster care system at eight years old and has done ...
When I read her words, they felt like hot embers. They burned glory -- only glory -- but fueled by old insecurities, my humanity received them as a personal assault. The enemy hissed lies, and I lapped them up like a ravenous kitten, allowing them to seep into tender places and to pick at old scars. You aren’t as good as her. You can’t write as ...
I’m at a bicycle shop in south Denver, waiting nervously for my adult Learn-to-Ride class to start. I feel embarrassed. I learned to ride a bike as a kid. Sharing a one-speed Schwinn with my big sister, I biked up and down our northeast Denver streets, determined to pedal fast. I loved the speed and skill of mastering a two-wheeler. Once I learned, ...
