Sunday morning was rough.

Peter had offered to let me sleep in. William didn't approve. As the morning wore on, he became more and more upset, and eventually his yelling woke me up. Soon enough, I was the recipient of his anger, as a result of denying him the towel that Marilee had requested. He never ...

Last week, I was putting Penny to bed, and she was all wiggly. She could probably tell I was getting impatient, because she said, pointing to her forehead, "I have so much in my head. I need to pray a lot."

I smiled at the time, but since then I've thought about her words more and more. When I have "so ...

Kristina Robb Dover, blogger at Saints and Sinners over at beliefnet, recently asked if she could interview me. The interview begins:

Christianity Today has named you one of 50 women to know, for your work in (and I quote) "profoundly shaping the evangelical church and North American society."  Would ...

A few weeks ago I wrote a response to the shootings in Sandy Hook for the Atlantic (The Importance of Teaching Kindness at a Very Young Age) in which I called upon parents to teach their children kindness as a proactive response against the violence and death of December 14th. Around the same time, ...

I have had a number of people ask me how I respond to the Sandy Hook shootings from a theological perspective. I've written a few responses over the past week, and I suspect I will write more. There is a time for mourning, for silence, for crying out to God, for refusing to accept easy answers or trite ...

I have a new post up on the Huffington Post religion page, reflecting on the hustle and bustle of Christmas, the sadness so many of us have felt this past week, and the anticipation of joy. It begins:

I was walking home from the playground on a warm spring afternoon. My oldest daughter Penny, who was ...

I have a new post for hermeneutics today. It begins:

Like many parents across America, I spent the weekend shielding my children from news about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, even as I pored over reports that might offer some way to make sense of the horror. I saw comment after comment and post ...

I will have more to post in response to the Sandy Hook shooting from my own perspective, but today I'd like to offer a few resources from other writers:

Rebecca Cusey's Why the Shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary Make me Believe in God offers both a personal story and a reflection on the nature of good ...

On the heels of Jesus' birth story comes a story of violence and death. The narrative moves, quickly, away from glorious rejoicing to the slaughter of the innocents, in which every baby boy near Jesus' birthplace was murdered.

Another slaughter of innocents happened this morning. It happened down the ...

I bring it up every year, but I'll say it again. If you even think you might like a daily devotional (that doesn't even have to be daily, by the way) during Advent, buy God with Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. It includes reflections from the likes of Kathleen Norris and Richard John Neuhaus, ...

For the past decade or so, my brain has chipped away at my faith. I believe a credible intellectual defense of the basic tenets of Christianity exists. But I also think a credible intellectual defense of the basic tenets of atheism exists. And when I start to think about these stories–of a baby born ...

We went to pick apples again a few days ago. I was struck by the sheer abundance, what seemed like almost a wasteful amount of apples littering the ground and hanging from those gnarled branches. Soon the trees will be bare, dormant. They will enter a season of waiting in which they do not bear any ...

It was the third Sunday after our move, and our kids learned about the fruit of the Spirit in church. We talked about it at dinner that night. They were relishing the memory—a smorgasbord of pineapple, orange, kiwi, and strawberries from earlier in the day, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. I ...

Before going to seminary and then having children, I worked in youth ministry with teenagers for five years. As such, I sat through countless systematic presentations of the gospel in which someone was assigned "the sin talk." These talks varied from camp to camp and speaker to speaker, but a handful ...

"What in Jesus name mean, Mom?" Penny asked after I had prayed for her the other night.

I more or less say, "In Jesus Name, Amen" to conclude every prayer. And I had a vague memory of asking myself what exactly those words mean a long time ago. But when Penny asked me, I was tired and feeling a bit rushed ...

I have an interview over at The Well, a "virtual gathering place for graduate and professional women," about A Good and Perfect Gift. I was grateful to Marcia Bosscher for her insightful questions which included:

In A Good and Perfect Gift you write, "It was as if having kids had become an equation: ...

My husband's mother died nine years ago, and his grandfather died a few months ago. So he is headed back to New Orleans this week to sort through some of his grandparents' "stuff," alongside other family members. We've been talking about this strange process of divvying up an estate, and whether or ...

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 of the North American ...

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 quite like this ...

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 out within a minute or two. ...