I have the pleasure of introducing you to Jenny Rae Armstrong, a teaching pastor of Darrow Road Wesleyan Church in Superior, Wisconsin. Jenny is an award-winning freelance journalist who writes about faith, social justice, missional living and women’s issues for Christian publications such as Relevant, Her.meneutics, Mutuality and Red Letter Christians. She is a…
When I was nine, my family moved to a seven-acre plot of land. At night, cicadas buzzed and lightening bugs rose simultaneously with a mist from the creek. We ate mulberries from the tree while slapping mosquitos, and I trained tender pale-green pea vines up wire mesh. We spied goldfinches and bright-breasted orioles and mimicked…
My kids love to build lemonade stands. But I hate them. I am really ashamed to admit this because it seems like something a mother should embrace as the joy of summertime. Kids selling lemonade is so small-town sentimental, so community creating. The idea that people might stop on their walks or pull over in…
We always knew where her house was because of the huge palm tree in the front yard, which could be seen from blocks and blocks away. Planted when my dad was just a boy, the tree swayed in the ocean breeze and beckoned us inside where a little glass jar of Hershey chocolates fell into…
Summer is here. The world is screaming it. The trees have leaves, the grass is green, the sun is shining, and my son’s school is ending. The question comes up quite frequently: What are you going to do to keep busy this summer? Almost daily we receive fliers from recreation centers, churches, schools inviting my…
What do you do when you hear your teenager say, “I’m bored”? I’ve done everything to survive summers as a mom. When they were little, I took them to a playroom in a cafe while enjoying refillable drinks and air conditioning. Bliss. Or to “rec centers,” which have an endless array of affordable camps that…
When someone wants to end a relationship, she or he may say, “I just need some space.” But when I told my kids I needed a little space from their father, they understood I wasn’t trying to break up. Jerry was the love of my life, but at 85 his health was failing, his memory…
I remember feeling conflicted as we picked out my grandma’s casket. I shouldn’t care what type of wood it is made out of or the color of the interior lining. Pardon my frankness, but it’s really just a box of bones—this casket is not my grandma’s eternal home. Except that I want her box of bones…
In early November 2005 my mom began a journey that changed us both. She got into her little car and began to drive to Denver International Airport, 60 miles from her home, a route she had driven thousands of times during her 69 years. But this time she faced a particular challenge. She told me after…
“It was the Sunday I hated most of the whole year,” writes Marlo Schalesky in Empty Womb, Aching Heart. “There was a huge vase at the front of the church filled with dozens of beautiful long-stemmed pink roses. . . One rose for each mother in the congregation. Of course, I wouldn’t receive one because…
Day of the Lord You have this thing that begins as a wave, Hurried thing, it takes to task the columns of unconvincing elation. Ever present regardless of the wind or the decisions of humane individuals eager for motive, and cause, and effect, and things wrapped up before the end comes at warp speed. …
Ah Ni stepped off the airplane and immediately sensed she was in a new place as the odors of fried food and coffee assaulted her senses. Excitement and fear intermingled as she settled her backpack more securely on her shoulders and followed the crowd through the airport. She glanced around at the signs in English….
Shell begins cracking as from inside she scratches, it’s time to get out and that egg finally hatches. Free and damp with the shell shaken off, she’s fresh and hungry! Where is that feed trough? This world seems more beautiful than e’er she knew, that big yellow ball illumes the kindest of blue. That beautiful…
She lost all her memory in drops of misplaced keys forgotten bills a disconnected phone. Her makeup grew heavy. Pristine eyeliner, now charcoal cakes stacked on summer tan base, claret jacket, mauve sweater out of season. “You’ll need to wrap your neck now that it’s starting to turn cold, dear.” As we inch into April….