April 2012
One of my earliest fears for Penny, and consequently one of my earliest prayers, had to do with her ability to make friends. My fear has softened over the years. There are the buds of friendship she's growing in kindergarten. There is the ongoing friendship with William. And ...
Penny and William and I were reading Thomas the Train a while back, and Thomas faced a conundrum. He desperately wanted to get back to the station so he could be the train to take a group of children home from a school trip. But as he chugged along he noticed a bus that had ...
Brokenness and limitations are not the same thing.
Brokenness, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, is not good. It comes as a result of sin in our world. As Jesus demonstrated throughout his ministry, God wants to heal broken bodies, broken minds, broken souls, and broken ...
Mother's Day is coming up. And a friend recently suggested I offer a shameless plug for A Good and Perfect Gift as a perfect (pun somewhat intended) Mother's Day gift. I do hope you'll consider buying it for your mother, or for your friends who are mothers, or for your friends ...
Intervarsity Press recently published Letters to a Future Church, written by an array of men and women, addressed to the North American Church. IVP is sponsoring a contest in which you can participate. I was asked to contribute a letter through the Patheos Book Club.
Dear members ...
Last week, I had the privilege of sharing some thoughts on the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-11, during chapel at Western Theological Seminary. Here is an edited version of what I said:
If we were to come up with a parallel list of "Beatitudes" within American culture today, they'd ...
I've had the honor of trading a few emails with Aaron Cobb recently. He shared with me the eulogy he wrote for his son Samuel, who was born with Trisomy 18. It is a testimony to the goodness and beauty of life and love:
Friends and family: Thank you for sharing this day with ...
I lost my voice on Sunday. It happens often. Every few months, usually prompted by some combination of a cold (or, as in this case, allergies) and a speaking engagement. I've only had to cancel once, but I've coughed my way through some other sessions. But I've never had a situation ...
Our church doesn't do infant baptisms (well, kind of, but that's another story). We do infant dedications, and last Sunday was Marilee's turn. We made a valiant effort to have all three kids sit through the service for thirty minutes until the dedication itself. Marilee was ...
Many years ago, a mentor told me, "Be careful what you teach on, because the Lord will probably make you live it as well as teach it." This has proven true for me over the past decade as my husband and I have begun our family here in Venice, California.
For 5 of the 10 years ...
Many years ago, my husband John asked me to consider homeschooling our children. I immediately responded, "Are you nuts?" John pointed out that I was judging something I knew little about, and he asked me to research homeschooling, so I could make an informed decision. I reluctantly ...
There are very few absolutes in this life. What kind of school our children attend is not one of them.
Home schools, private schools of kinds, public schools, each in their different ways are places where good parents hope for a good education, knowing that at the end of the ...
Christian school was never in the plan or the budget for my kids. I liked their school just fine and we were set on them finishing out their schooling at our local public school.
Until one day when my sweet son, then at the beginning of his seventh grade year, asked me if he ...
When I was 6 and my dad had been hired by the U.S. government to work as an economist, one of the first things he and my mom did after we moved was to call the few fellow Korean immigrants they knew in the D.C. area.
"Where are the good schools?" they interrogated. When they ...
After nine years in a private Christian grammar school our son stepped into his freshman year at the local public high school with 600 people he didn't know. Almost every student in his graduating class of 80 went on to attend the private Christian high school. He didn't want ...