“Mom, I want to study abroad next semester.” Sounds innocent enough, right?  But she had something specific in mind.  As I write this, my daughter is enjoying a semester abroad…in Rwanda, Africa.  No, there was no talking her into a semester in Europe.  So my husband and I prayed.  We prayed about whether we should […]

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This weekend, I’ve been putzing around doing my annual spring cleaning. It usually starts simple, like “Oh, I’m just going to clean the bathroom.” Then, before you know it, I’ve dumped out all the vanity drawers and started organizing the hoarded travel toiletries and expired makeup samples. Simultaneously I somehow manage to uproot my entire […]

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Sometimes we make cookies.  Usually they are not from scratch, and I don’t apologize for that.  I have a lot going on, most of which revolves around my family, so therefore, if I can’t provide homemade cookies for them they will have to cope with that reality in their lives.

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As Christian parents, we know our children ultimately belong to the Lord and we are only given them for a little while.  Easy to say, right?  But doesn’t it create the most important balancing act of our lives?  That tension between doing too little and holding on too tightly?  When my three kiddos were young, they knew Mom and Dad would consider each situation regardless of what “all the other kids” were doing.  They thought I worried too much.  And maybe I did. 

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Yesterday I had two very different experiences. In the afternoon, cars began arriving at my neighbor’s home. As guests poured into the house, the music roared full blast from the radio. The problem was that it blared from a car parked in their driveway, beneath my windows. The bass volume was so loud that my floors reverberated with every beat.

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I’m a first-class worrier! Ask me how I’m doing, and I can prattle off a long list of problems I’m facing, challenges I’m tackling, how busy I am, how tired I am, how overwhelmed I am… Poor me, poor me. I was having one of my ‘I can’t cope with this; the world is falling apart; how will I survive?’ moments, when a very wise and loving friend offered to pray for me.

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