Cat and me and a few of the girls we love Two weeks ago, while we were in Philadelphia, my friend Cat picked me up from my mother-in-law’s and we drove through the 5 o’clock traffic to Radnor High School’s graduation. Cat and I were not related to any kid in any graduation robe. But we whooped and hollered and I cried like a baby as I watched a handful of kids I’ve known since they were 7th graders walk across that stage. I met some of these kids back when I was charged … [Read more...]
Fifteen years ago, my youth pastor taught me to sit still, to keep my focus, to open my Bible and let the Spirit swoosh through my too easily distracted mind. I used to sit down to prayer with a plan scratched in notebooks: First praise God. Then confess the screw-ups. Then be thankful. Then ask for the needs. Once upon a time, I asked for direction for my life: who I would be, who I would marry, how I should serve, whether I should have children. I asked for health for the ones who were … [Read more...]
“Make [Christianity] attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.” –Blaise Pascal* Blaise Pascal was a scientist. He believed in the simplicity of hypothesis tested by research. He believed in fact. He used his mind to make proofs. But he did not believe God could be calculated or proven into existence. He understood that a book of facts will never turn someone toward God. Only the heart can do that kind of work. Pascal believed in God because he … [Read more...]
It’s Mother’s Day morning and last night was one of those up and down kinds of sleeps. Chris and I are at the stage where we go to bed in the unknowing: will the boys sleep all night? Will they wake four times? Last night August had to pee, then he couldn’t go back to sleep. Then he still couldn’t go back to sleep. And, then he really couldn’t go back to sleep. Each trip to his room, I found myself accidentally kicking my leg against something: a laundry basket, a couch. By 5:45 when … [Read more...]
I've been reading and loving my newest happy discovery, In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice. Its author, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, is a theologian and the book is a straightforward theological teaching on the things we've been talking about around here. She's a mother who believes the Church has missed its opportunity to honor the spiritual formation that can arrive out of the mess of everyday parenting. Often we're taught that in order to encounter God we need to … [Read more...]
When I made the decision to make the move to Patheos, I knew it was time to spruce things up around here. That meant having a banner with a higher quality photo than Chris' iPhone pic circa 2008. A friend recommended a local photographer and I had an actual photo shoot. (I don't think I've been in a photo by myself since I was pregnant with August. Why are moms always holding something/someone during pictures? What was I supposed to do with my hands?!) Erin from Erin Molloy Photography was … [Read more...]
I don't consider myself a "music person." I love music and I always have. It moves me and speaks to me, though usually, it's the lyric that lingers longest in my heart. Though I have spent a good portion of my life dancing in my closet while simultaneously buttoning my shirt and using my toothbrush as a microphone in the morning, I'm just not one of those people who talks about music in the cool kid language. I have nothing to say about rifts* and lifts and other things that rhyme with "ift." … [Read more...]
You're 16-years-old and the boy who kisses you beside the light blue Chevy Spectrum under the moon has berry-thick boy lips, his knuckles rough and cut from punching walls. He is all man, you think. And somewhat good. Becoming better. You hold hands and snuggle in the back of the church van on the way home from a praise and worship service on a Friday night in Oklahoma City. Before that, he tickled the inside of your arm outside under fireworks, side by side with friends around. Why that boy … [Read more...]
Last night was a sucker punch of bedtime crazy. My screaming preschooler woke his brother up twice between the hours of 8 and 9:30. I was back and forth to them and finally finished bedtime at 10:30, three hours after it had started. I'm still at my parents and felt sorry for myself. So I poured a bowl of M&Ms and sat in the bathtub talking saltily to my husband on the phone until I finally said, while staring at my "smushy belly" (as August describes it adoringly), "I can't talk anymore. My … [Read more...]
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