The word came up in two conversations on the same day. Whenever that kind of repetition happens, I try to stop and pay attention. The first was a conversation with a colleague. She’d had an uncomfortable interaction with a client who was dissatisfied. The nature of the dissatisfaction was minor, and it wasn’t the result of anything she did wrong. ...
When motherhood and I were just getting acquainted, I thought I could approach her like taking a test. If I prepared well and made few mistakes, I could ace this thing and therefore send my children into the wild blue yonder with nary a carry-on size bit of baggage. I assumed good parenting would fit nicely within my hard work ethic and efforts, ...
Well, it's February. January has come and gone. Nobody has asked about your one word in weeks, it's possible to find a parking spot at the gym, and on the rare occasion you are required to write the date, your hand automatically draws a nine. We are fully into the new year now, and yet some of us are still living in the past. We're not even ...
I've felt for a while that I had drifted away from the intimacy I once shared with the Lord. I'm still steadily involved with good and godly things, and I haven't gone off the deep end. But I began to take inventory of how I had been spending my time and energy, and I wasn't too surprised. In this age of streaming everything, I admitted to ...
I would have thrown my head back in nervous laughter if you had told me a year ago what I’d be doing today. It all started last spring when God led me to have a complete hysterectomy. I knew He was using it to heal me from almost thirty years of suffering. He kept whispering to my heart that this surgery was my path to freedom. He was calling me ...
“Could I get some more sour cream?” the twenty-something girl asked as I rushed by her table, muttering to myself about the napkins needed by the customers at table four and the fact that those at table six were still waiting for their bill. “Sure,” I said, forgetting instantly. “Excuse me,” she said later, and I noticed she still hadn’t ...
Last year, just a few days after Valentine’s Day, the grocery store clerk made fun of me in the checkout line. I emptied my cart, placed each item on the conveyor belt, and tried to keep my mouth from falling open as the gentlemen looked me in the eyes and spoke words I can only hope were meant as a joke — something rude that simply isn’t worth ...
We are already into the second month of this year, and I have been thinking about my plans not to worry about resolutions this year. I just want to focus on walking with God and following His plans for me and His purposes for my life. But a month into this idea, I see the obstacle I am going up against. In all its forms, again and again, it ...
We couldn’t find him anywhere — my nephew, whom I see every day. Our precious blessing with an extra chromosome had wandered deep in the woods. Ten minutes, thirty, forty-five minutes turned to sixty. The minutes merged together as emotions swirled, and desperation descended. Dozens of friends rallied together — searching, shouting, turning ...
I was a first-grader. It was a warm spring day, so all of the kids had stripped off their heavy coats at recess and left them in a big pile. As I walked past the pile, I heard voices. The voices belonged to two girls in my class -- girls who I thought were my friends. From underneath the pile, they were calling me horrible names. I was ...
