If stress reveals who we are, then I am a completely awkward middle school student. Difficult news renders me unable to move, words frozen on my tongue. After my dad died, I thought I had learned which things were helpful to say; in my head, I am a paragon of grace and kindness when called [...]
When I was at the Glen Workshop last summer, there were several of us twenty- and thirty-something ladies who were in attendance because we wanted to take a class with Lauren Winner. Which, if you think about it, is not all that surprising: Lauren’s book Girl Meets God was a touchstone for me and for [...]
Categories: Books
I started using Goodreads this year, mostly to keep track of what I read since I didn’t keep a list in 2011. Now I can’t figure out how to get the titles over here, so it turns out I am still going to have to type them anyway. Goodreads, I shake my fist at you! [...]
Categories: Books
Sacredness requires specificity. The grand esoteric themes of theology have their place, but love takes root in those specific moments when we voluntarily and intentionally enter one another’s pain. “God so loved the world” makes sense when love has a name and is lying in the manger. The Incarnation (big theological concept) comes alive in [...]
Categories: Books,God,Introspection,Library
I grew up evangelical, but the truth is that I never shared the “good news” with anyone because I live in the south where everybody already knows about Jesus and I was not having very much fun. Growing up in church ushered me into a certain subculture: I went to those concerts and I wore [...]
Categories: Books
Other than telling Atticus that we were voting for his future, we did not talk to him much about the election. He saw political ads sometimes, and he and I counted signs in the neighborhood. He knows who the president is (Obama!) and the president’s best friend (Joe Biden!), but he was too little to [...]
This fall, my church is doing a series on children’s literature. We were invited to write about a favorite book from ages 3-13, why we liked it so much, and what ways God used it to shape our lives. Here is mine. John Green, author of recent young adult best-seller The Fault in our Stars, [...]
Categories: Books
Last night when we paused to pray before dinner, Atticus grinned, nodded and said, “Thank you, Atticus!” “Thank you, God, for Atticus,” Mike said as I giggled. “And thank you for this food and for rain and for school.” Is that a blessing? Or just a prayer of thanksgiving? Like many of my friends, I [...]
I have never been on any kind of mission trip, but I have followed the discussions about “poverty tourism” with interest. What are the lasting effects of a youth group traveling overseas to run a VBS for orphans? What about those trips where bloggers write through their experiences? Should churches build wells and orphanages? What [...]
Categories: Books
It amused me, at my brother’s wedding, to be reminded of how different he and I are. Mike and I had our ceremony and readings set early, and one of the things I cared most about was having nice bulletins. At my brother’s wedding, they didn’t set the ceremony until the week of the wedding, [...]
In a shocking turn of events, I have not had a lot of patience or attention for fiction so far this year. I was kind of kidding when I said that at the beginning of February, but it has turned out to be true. I keep moving the fiction further down my bedside table and [...]
I am not a grateful person. For the past few years, I have written down good things. I sometimes miss weeks at a time, but the practice of writing them down has made it easier to remember what was good about each day. For that reason, I was interested to read One Thousand Gifts by [...]
Categories: Books,Good Things
We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are, to see through plastic sham to living, breathing reality, and to break down our defenses of self-protection in order to be free to receive and give love. – Madeleine L’Engle I have [...]
Categories: Books
Atticus has been sick constantly over the past month, fighting ear and sinus infections. I am not the first to note the desperation that comes with being the parent of a sick child, when you have tried everything you can do and still he cries out with pain and discomfort. It was on one of [...]
Categories: Books,God,Intentional Parenting,Introspection
A few weeks ago, my friend Brandi said something about how Mike and I are trying to be intentional with our parenting. The phrase has been knocking around in my head ever since. I like it. It’s way better than saying that I overthink everything, and it’s a topic that I would like to revisit [...]
Categories: Books,Intentional Parenting
One of the memoirs I read last week was by Ian Morgan Cron, called Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me. I read it because Don Chaffer said that he is friends with Ian Cron, and that is a pretty good recommendation. I read it because it’s going to be a Discover Great New Writers [...]
A little over a year ago, when I was still just secretly pregnant, I wrote my credo statement for church, inspired by the New York Times article about a father and daughter who read together for over 3,000 nights in a row. I must admit that part of what inspired me about the story was [...]
Categories: Books
My 5th grade class did not study A Wrinkle in Time, but I had already read it by the time the other 5th grade class did. My copy came from my aunt, so if I had to guess, I would say that it was in that stack of Newbery books I got for my 10th [...]
Categories: Books
Last year during the Easter season, I wrote my Credo statement about the power of stories to connect us and teach us the truths of the world. I have been thinking lately about my passions, and I think I chose wisely when I said that “story as truth” is one of my foundational beliefs. I [...]
Categories: Books