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It is Finished
And just like that…We are finished!One of our 2021 New Year’s Resolutions, starting on January 1st of this year, was to read through the entire Bible in a year as a family. And as of today, we did it! Well, half of us did. 😉 Why am I posting about it? Not just for bragging rights, although we are certainly proud of our accomplishment. Most of all, I want to let you know that it is totally doable and hopefully inspire, encourage, and challenge you to do the same thing in 2022. I posted in my stories the other day that we were in the home stretch, and since then,…
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Attitude Check at 8000 Feet
On a recent cloud-filled flight with my husband the pilot, I discovered the concept of spatial orientation. Spatial orientation is the innate ability of any living thing to determine its relative position to the surrounding environment and regulate its body and posture accordingly. In aviation, spatial orientation is crucial, a literal matter of life and death, as pilots must maintain proper positioning of their aircraft to avoid crashing. Humans naturally and easily maintain spatial orientation on the ground; three-dimensional flight is unfamiliar to our bodies, unsuitable for an inflight environment. After all, we are not birds, and our human senses experience conflict in the air, especially in less than ideal…
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Ryan Reynolds Inspired This Post
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and in 3 days, it will be over. I began writing this blog post in April, with every intention to post it. In a frenetic flurry of activity, May has virtually come and gone. May is insane for everyone (or, as I like to say, “May is Cray”), but especially parents with end-of-the-year programs, recitals, activities, and graduations. Ryan Reynolds, the actor, bravely shared this just the other day, inspiring me to stop and finish writing this post with a few dwindling days remaining on the calendar before droning on with our lives and forward into June. Did you even know that May was…
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The Art of Subtraction
“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.” Mark 10:6-8 ESV We nod our heads in agreement when we hear the phrase “two shall become one” in reference to marriage. We like the way that sounds. We think we even agree with it, and we think we know what that means. I marry him, he marries me, and we take two lives and bring them together and try to make them work compatibly until death do us part. But…
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2020 Vision
You can do anything you set your mind to. Finally, at 43 years old in 2019, at the end of a decade in which we have experienced so much change and growth, personally, globally, culturally, etc., I truly believe this. Do you? I haven’t always believed it. In fact, for years I thought that other people could do hard things, things that they set their minds to, but not me. I just wasn’t cut out for that kind of overachiever mumbo jumbo. Wasn’t wired for it. I was much to realistic for that nonsense. I was one of the less capable. Trust me, I know my shortcomings. I am one…
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Personality Testing Testing 1, 2, 3…
There are two types of people in this world: those who have faith in personality tests and those who do not. I happen to be the former, while my husband, who hates labels and finds all personality tests restrictive, is in the latter camp. I understand that human beings are complex and it is impossible for us to be rigidly constrained into neat and tidy little boxes, prescribed by some dissertation-driven psychology student or over-eager human behavior analyst. People can, do, and should change throughout their lifetimes. However, I have found personality tests to be quite helpful, and think they can be fascinating and important tools for self discovery. Socrates…
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Because of RHE
Early this past Saturday morning, one of my writing heroes passed away at the premature age of 37, leaving behind a husband and two very young children. I was shocked. Saddened. Heartbroken. Speechless. We were busy over the weekend, so I didn’t really have time to process it. But now I sit with her books spread before me, weeping, thankful for her words and what she gave to me. I couldn’t let this tragic event pass by without acknowledging what her writing meant to me. I discovered Rachel Held Evans’ writing at a time when I was lost, confused, and questioning. I was a believer, but my faith had been…
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Confessions of a Skeptic
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1603 By Caravaggio I tend to view people and situations in life through a healthy lens of suspicion and skepticism. Or at least I thought it was healthy. What are you trying to sell me? What’s your pitch? Your hustle? Your angle? What strings are attached? The famous phrase “There is a sucker born every minute” attributed to P. T. Barnum would never be said of me, by Job! I am not sure when this all started, but this has pretty much been the predominant attitude of my adult life. I have prided myself on NOT being an early adopter. I want facts. As much info…
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In the Waiting
I hate waiting. Yet, I find that a good portion of my life is spent waiting. Waiting for appointments. Waiting on children to finish a class. Waiting on my husband to come home from work. Waiting for results to come back. Waiting for answers. Waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. Proverbs 13:12 says that a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. We all want that. But that fulfilled longing can take weeks. Months. Sometimes years. The rest of the verse says that a hope deferred makes the heart sick. Think about that. Our hearts can literally become sick when we are waiting on a promise, hoping for change…
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The Tyranny of Should Vs The Rule of Shall
This sign hangs in my kitchen, strategically near the coffee maker. My brother gave it to me years ago as a birthday present. I love it because it makes me laugh, and I think of him every time I look at it. My brother and I both share the same oddball sense of humor, as well as a profound love of all things strong and caffeinated. Lately, though, I am loving it for an altogether different reason. God is using this silly, ridiculous sign in my kitchen to teach me a life lesson. I love it when something humorous can actually be used as a teachable moment. For far too…
