“Do you always read to your kids like that?” she queried. My friend was referring to my rendition of a Dr. Seuss classic delivered at tongue-twister speed from a rocking chair in the church nursery: “Would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse? Would you eat them in a…
Greasy fingers met in a communal popcorn bowl and laughter overpowered the details of dialogue: “Hey, somebody rewind! I missed that line!” It was family movie night, and the flickering image on the screen played second fiddle to the allure of an extended bed time. With cold pizza congealing at room temperature on the coffee…
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 to be home for dinner at 6:00 p.m. When 6:00…
“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 was very small, she would wriggle from the towel, her sturdy, smooth limbs bending and extending,…
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. Mom. Mom. Mom. Cat. Cat. Cat. I indulge my daughter in practice, but…
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. My head ached from the dry…
I felt confident walking into the New Jersey post office that afternoon. I had set clear rules beforehand for my children. They knew to avoid the automatic door buttons. As tempting as the buttons were, an open door would land them right on Main Street with oncoming traffic while I was still in line. In…
There were so many things I looked forward to before having children, but one that couldn’t come fast enough was getting to enact the nightly ritual of story time again. (Seriously, not fast enough. I think we started reading books to our firstborn when he was five weeks old and his eyes didn’t even open…
Author Richard Foster describes spiritual disciplines as practices Jesus taught through his own words and actions. In his classic, Celebration of Discipline, Foster says, “God has ordained the Disciplines of the spiritual life as the means by which we place ourselves where he can bless us.” I’d seen the truth of this concept in my…
A few years ago, when my daughter had just reached her first birthday, we took her on our church’s family mission trip. Those words don’t always go together: family and mission trip. But our church is committed to ministry that is done with the entire family, which I love, and which also makes me feel…
The first time I traveled internationally—I mean, really traveled, not just stuck my toe over our northern or southern border—was in 1984. I went to Oxford, England, to study for the summer and came back changed. My world had opened up, and I saw everything through a new lens. Travel became an important passion for…
I love to lead and teach. It’s a part of my natural gifting, the way I’m wired. These traits have been evident from an early age. My mom recalls with fondness the authority with which I lined up my stuffed animals in my bedroom after school, demanding their attention and presenting the new material I’d…