My father bought it for her after one of the hardest years of her life, when she was struggling with feeling rejected and unheard after years of service. The pearl ring was worn on her finger and she would whisper the story sometimes, if you caught her in the right mood. “There are many times…
The moment you have a ring on your finger (and sometimes long before!), the entire world becomes sage with advice for you and your sweetie. Some of it is best let in one ear and out the other. Some of it you should laugh over. Some of it is borderline TMI! (Hey, it happens. Smile…
Rain splatters on the windows. It is cold, but the air is warm. “Come look!” my daughter pulls at my arm, her brown eyes sparkling. There are new piggies in the barn. They hide from the camera and grunt happily as they munch on corn behind the water dish. We talk about names and I…
In a spirit of honestly I must confess that I won’t be thirty for a few weeks yet, but stick with me, okay? So…the truth? A family friend just wrote it in an email, Although you feel that you are getting older, you are still in the prime of your life. I read those words…
I don’t know about you, but I thrive on following rules. This isn’t always the best thing, and it’s something that God has been working on in me for quite a few years. Back in my in-school years though, it was out full-force. I loved it when an assignment told me exactly what to do….
After our second date, my dad pulled me aside for a chat. ‘What do you think?’ he asked. ‘Want me to tell him it’s not going to work?’
She said the words with an ashen face, her hands clenched in defeat. “I know God doesn’t give us more than we can bear, but I.can’t.bear.this.” And I heard her. Every word. Every clenched fist. Every tear. Life offers pieces of broken pain that far outweigh our ability to endure. This often believed idea that “God…
One of the greatest gifts that my father gave me was living a life that exemplified true wisdom. Through my childhood I saw him learn and grow and change, his understanding of God and the Bible and Truth ever deepening. As an adult, there have been many times when I’ve watched others struggle to learn…
My move to the little house with the apple tree and lilac bushes was marked in my mind for a reason far deeper than a change of residence. It was the summer the doctor looked at me sadly and said that children would never be mine. It was the summer my mother-heart broke and bled and…
I was probably nine when I had my first major face-off with one of my greatest troubles. I was sent up to teach the kindergartners their church school lesson one week. I’d practiced and practiced and written down every single little word that I was going to say. But when I got up there, I felt the…
The call comes. I’m standing in the barn and my muscles lose their strength. My heart, this mother-heart that beats within me, wants to find him and cuddle him close and whisper words of comfort. He’s the boy that made motherhood real for this child-less me. I had claimed children through the years, but this…
A miracle is the redemption of pain, not the absolution of it… The idea that if our dreams come true, we’ll be free from pain is a lie. The idea that if we give up our dreams, we’ll always be empty is also a lie. Only in emptiness can we be filled.
The End.
The End.