Let’s Start Talking about It
“Ssh! Don’t talk about it. Especially in church!”
I once attended a Bible study with a small group of women who loved God deeply, knew the Bible well and had worked as hard as anyone could at motherhood, and yet eight ... When I was younger, I played softball. Geared in tight spandex with a hot pink aluminum bat, I was more concerned with how my hair looked in the god-awful hat I had to wear than my ERA. (Don’t be impressed that I know what that stands for; I grew up in a family that lived and breathed baseball. ... We’ve all heard news stories about “free-range children,” those unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on who you ask) children who are allowed to BE OUTSIDE WITHOUT THEIR PARENTS! One news story involved 6- and 10-year-old siblings. Their parents dropped them at a nearby park with instructions ... I have been haunted by fear for as long as I can remember. The gripping, often drowning sensation has terrorized even some of my earliest memories. And, despite my best efforts, the fear has only continued to intensify with age. Within moments of birth, a child’s life is driven by needs. Their first cry begins years of demands. And the demands get more insistent and determined as the child grows. By the time a child is two, he or she is determined that life is unfair and that they have to ... I set the bottle down on the kitchen counter “I don’t deserve him.” Just 10 days ago, I said these words, watching my youngest son pedal away on his red bike, thick brown arms looped through his favorite safety green backpack. What’s in a name? A name helps us be known by others, to connect. When I named my two girls, I chose names that spoke value and caught a glimpse into their character and who they might become. My parents set the stage ... “I don’t know if I can marry you,” I tell my boyfriend as we snuggle on the couch in his parents’ living room. “If I do, you have to promise to let me go to Africa, alone if I have to. I don’t know when, and I don’t know why. But I know God has a plan ... When I was the proud mother of a newborn, a two-year-old and a four-year-old, I thought parenting couldn’t get any tougher. Every day was a blur of caretaking, feeding and physical lifting. Merely strapping the three kids in the car ate up 10 minutes, and this was ... Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 Heather Jo sits in ... “Why would God make one of the Ten Commandments about jealousy? Nobody can control jealousy!” asked my 7-year-old. Good question. Once, my first impulse might have been to say, “So we try harder.” Big mistake. When my younger daughter ... When I’m trying to write, my young daughter likes to sit on my lap and have what we call “typing time.” Her fingers perched over the keyboard, she practices her motor coordination and spelling skills by typing simple words over and over. Last summer, hugely pregnant with my third child, I took my 1- and 3-year-olds on a walk every afternoon. I’d saunter along behind them, absently resting my hand on my taut belly, hoping to receive some communication in the form of a heel or shoulder blade in my palm. ...
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Ring the Cowbell
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Trust God and Land Your Helicopter
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Being All Or Nothing At All
Gratefulness Rather Than Greed
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By the Grace of God
in an aggravated attempt to swat
at the words accumulating in my mind
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On Letting Go
He Calls Me Mine
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A Promise, a Prayer, and an Irresistible Smile
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Social Stresses
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The Pain of Hoping
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Teach More Than a “Try Harder” Faith
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Sacred Interruptions
Small Sticky Hands Lead Me to Jesus
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