Category: grace

Good Friday; A Rescue story

We never intended to need a rescue. We did everything right. Well, at least as right as 20- something’s can do when planning a camping trip in the middle of winter. We had maps (yes, paper maps, call …

To the lady who gave me peanut butter and grace at Walmart

Peanut butter. I just need peanut butter. And a few more hours in the day, but Walmart is all out of those. So I settle for peanut butter. Feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending race against the ticking clock, …

Things break. What matters is what we do with the pieces

He sped his brand new remote control car into a tree and the wheel broke. He threw a water bottle at a shelf in my office and a statue cracked. He launched a wooden plane across our living …

Parenting, repenting and lessons of the heart

I am always trying to teach my kids a lesson. Always. Every cup of spilled milk, every argument, every accidentally broken picture frame, or bumped head is an opportunity to learn, “how to do it right the next …

Walk much?

I am not an athlete. Never have been. I can fall down standing still; and have no desire to beat anyone at anything. These are not positive attributes when it comes to sports. Somehow, though, in college, I …

For when you just don’t know what to be

“A zombie with blood dripping out of my eyeballs! Will that work? Can I be that? Or what about the guy with the chainsaw?” this boy goes on and on with his lists of possible costumes as we …

It’s All About How You Fall

“Everyone stands somewhere. Even if we sometimes don’t know where we are standing … because we’ve never give it any attention. But there we are, nonetheless, standing somewhere” (Piper 21). John Piper writes these words in his book A Peculiar Glory. …

What do you love?

“What do you love the most of anything?” my youngest is shivering in the early evening summer shadows. Swimming pool wet and popsicle mustached, he pulls his towel close and this question pops right out. He doesn’t wait for me …

For those of us with Perfect Plans

The little chalkboard in our kitchen tells me that there are 4 days of school left. 4 days! People are excited around here. Leaping, jumping, hollering kind of excited. And me, too. I think? Because  the end of …

Some Words for the Month of May and Endings

We’ve been doing this all year. The list of words and the sentences that need to be written. The first grader curled up on his legs in the space of his little homework desk. Frustrated, anxious and hopeful …