In the first year of our marriage, Dennis and I made an unintentional and yet very serious mistake, one that inflicted profound disappointment on two very important people. The rolling, repeating waves resulting from our mistake washed over onto us, too, and the drying out took longer than we ever imagined. Like most newlyweds Dennis […]
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One spring, years ago now, Dennis and I watched other families experience all the celebratory festivities of a child’s senior year in high school: proms, award nights, graduation. But our daughter, a senior that year, had decided she was done with school. At 18, she knew she was not legally bound to us anymore. Six […]
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A lesson I’m still learning, but understand more clearly with each decade of life, is that fixing my circumstances is rarely the answer to reducing stress. The “whens” were a repeated refrain for me for decades, beginning when our children were all little. Life will be so much easier when she sleeps through the night, or when the littlest one […]
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When our adopted daughter was in her late teens I was spent, not just by our journey with her but also from parenting all six of our children for so many years. In addition, my heart was wounded by the fallout and heartache, and my body was deeply fatigued from the burden of unrequited love. […]
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When our six children entered middle school and the teen years my prayers for them increased in focus and intensity. In fact, I started two prayer groups of moms which met weekly during the school years on Monday mornings. In the first group we prayed for teachers, tests, and friendships. We prayed that our kids […]
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We women know well that comparison is a constant nemesis. But did you know that our daily measuring of ourselves has created a collage of ideals, an image of perfection, a phantom “me” within that can haunt us? One day I pulled a cute shirt out of the corner of our closet where my spring/summer […]
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Do you ever feel like I do … weary, broken, bewildered? Do you ever feel beat up by the world, by circumstances, by life in general? Do you ever feel like your brain is clogged, in a fog, unable to form words, at a loss for what to pray to God? No words make sense? […]
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In high school, I discovered watercolor painting. It was love at first practice. I eagerly invested time, lessons, and supplies to become like seasoned watercolorists whose extraordinary works of art I admired. Though I was passionate about this medium, I soon discovered it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Too much or too little water create […]
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You know the name George Washington Carver, right? You know he invented a crazy number of products from the lowly peanut. But do you know that he talked to God constantly as he worked in his laboratory? His conversations went something like this: “Lord God, you made the peanut. You know every molecule. You know all […]
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At age 28 I experienced my first significant encounter with a side of God that was as unknown to me as the dark side of the moon. Up until that day my life had proceeded “normally” in the light … until one fateful June morning. One bright summer morning in early June, enthusiasm for a […]
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