When my oldest was a baby, I received some a fantastically daunting advice: even in the midst of the day to day – and late nights – of mundaneness that often accompanies parenting, keep focused on the future adult you…
Building Your Support Team
I’m pretty good at cooking, really good at dancing (regardless of what my kids say), one heck of a card player, and I can carry a tune. Jokes and wisecracks are my thing – some would say my love language…
When Marriage Fails: An introduction
When marriage fails, the sense of loss can be suffocating. Disappointment, grief, disillusionment flood your life and, in my experience, can leave you drowning in a wave of emotions that are raw and triggered by the one thing many Christian…
Would I Really Believe?
Growing up in the church hearing the story of the Gospel my entire life, I naturally assumed I’d be a Mary or maybe a Martha. If gender roles weren’t an issue, maybe I’d be a Peter or John. Regardless of…
A Present-Focused Gaze
In the midst of an uber competitive scavenger hunt, we connected. During our last mother-son game night, he ditched his pals, held my hand, cheered me on, and we came in third. Third in the midst of a couple hundred…
The Thing About Walls and Windows
Part five in my thoughts on managing difficult relationships. Walls exist for a reason. And when I think about walls, I’m not visualizing an attractive fence where you an still see through to the other side a bit. I’m talking…
Without Dread of Disaster
Part four of thoughts on dealing with challenging people and situations in life. When I was a kid, I was terrified of quick sand. Quick sand. I was terrified of something from cartoons about treks in the jungle from the…
Feel and Then Focus
Part three of my thoughts on navigating difficult relationships with difficult people. I’ve got a weird relationship with raw emotion. Part of me desperately wants to be justified in how I’m feeling. I want to know that my “off the…
The Discipline to Breath
Part 2 in a series of thoughts on managing the difficult relationships in life. I, the one who has been communicating with people one way or another as long as I can remember, majored in Communications in college. When I…
Letting Go of the Illusion of Fairness
I’ve been giving some thought for a while now on how to manage difficult situations in the most Christ-like way I can. Preserving decency in poor relationships is the biggest challenge I’ve faced and this post is the first in…
Internal Arguments vs The Knowledge of God
One of the things about being a single parent – and I’d imagine a single adult – is that at home you don’t have any other voices (adult voices anyway) to counter your internal dialogue. In my case, at home…
The Danger of Shame and the Value of Guilt
This winter, I’ve joined a Bible study on racial reconciliation and the role the church plays in this process. This week’s lesson was on the shame we can feel as a part of examining our past as a cultural group…
