Covering topics that impact today's Christian: family, marriage, raising kids, spiritual growth, forgiveness, etc.
What makes a great parent? Or even a good one? It’s a question that I have asked myself many times over. I used to know the answer…before I had kids. Oh yeah, it was so clear to me back then. Good parents set boundaries, loved fiercely, read nightly, kept to a routine, played lots of classical music, prayed with their kids, helped with homework, disciplined, modeled values, and showed up. And in return they had well-behaved, polite, kind-hearted, honest, hard-working
I have battled with my weight most of my life, to different degrees. And most of my life I have received messages that because of my appearance I did not measure up, I was less than. In high school I was told, “you have such a pretty face, if only you weren’t fat.” In college I watched as my girlfriends always got asked to dance when we went out, and I sat alone at the table. My first real
In a few days I will have another birthday. I will take one step further into middle age. I will leave the year of 40 and enter the year of 41. Birthdays aren’t really that big of deal any more, although I confess at one time they were. You reach a certain point where it all just seems silly, and big celebrations become needless. As long as I get my black forest cake from my favorite baker, I’m good. But
I’m going through a phase right now where I feel like I’m constantly failing. I say it’s a phase for two reasons: 1. I’ve been in this place before, and 2. I trust God to never let me stay here for too long. The problem really isn’t so much about failure to accomplish goals or tasks (although there is an element of that). The problem lies in my desire to be everyone’s person. The mom who shows up for every
Fifteen. Today you turn fifteen and I’m feeling very emotional about it. I can’t say exactly why, only that some ages hit me harder than others. I remember crying the year you turned seven, for no particular reason except that seven seemed so much older than six and I felt like a season was coming to an end. Today it’s feeling less like a season coming to an end and more like a new beginning. Like you are embarking on
When I was 11 years old I remember hanging out in the arcade at the bowling alley and two men came up to me, leaned in closer than I felt comfortable, and told me how beautiful I was. They offered to pay for my video games and then asked me for a kiss. When I was 13 years old I was molested by someone I trusted. Someone who was supposed to be a father figure to me. When I was
He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 26:38) I had the privilege of teaching the message at our church this past Sunday. The message was on Jesus’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. I love this story. Oh, I know that might sound strange. After all, it’s not an uplifting passage, like the Sermon on the Mount or one that demonstrates Jesus’s mighty power, like
At least 31 killed in weekend mass shootings. That’s what the headline read. I recall a particularly dark night, a little more than a year ago when I held my son, helping him to calm his breathing and slow his tears. I won’t go into details, but suffice to say my son, who has OCD and an anxiety disorder, went to a terrifying place and was almost swallowed up by it. As I whispered words of comfort and Truth in
Several weeks ago, my son came home devastated because one of his close friends told him that his parents didn’t want him to be friends with my son anymore. To the little boy’s credit, he told my son he didn’t care what his parents said, he still wanted to be friends. But the damage was done. My son, who has been diagnosed with OCD and anxiety disorders, could not get it out of his mind that there was an adult
I clicked the button to confirm my account and the first question popped up: “What are your core values?” And I had to stop and think. I wasn’t expecting such a deep question from an app. I was working in my new goal tracking app, Lifetick, and thinking I would just enter in my goals for 2018 and a set a few deadlines and notifications and be done with it. But before I could do that, this app wanted to
