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“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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One of my greatest joys in life is to be able to use the gift of writing to share lessons from God’s Word. I love to spend time hearing what it is God is saying in His Word & writing to relay to you, the reader, what His message is in this particular moment.  Isn’t it telling of the God we serve, to position men and women who’ve been so gifted to be used to share knowledge we need to be victorious and free?

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I am currently parenting my youngest child through the middle school years, which I think we can agree are maybe not the most fun. There’s a lot of emotions and hormones running the brains of middle schoolers, as they start seeking more independence and making dubious friend choices. There’s a lot of teeth-gritting on my part as I remind myself that my other two kids survived these years, and that we will muddle through somehow.

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There comes a time in every Christian parent’s journey of raising children, where we have a revelation. A loud voice booms suddenly inside our heads, shaking us to our very souls: “What if I’m not good enough for my kids?” Or more specifically, “What if my parenting isn’t good enough to save them?”

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As we turn the corner on 2019 and begin another new year, I find myself in a sober mood. It’s early on New Year’s Eve as I write, and fitting to reflect on the previous 12 months. The holidays have always been a time of happy reunions and celebrations for my crew and 2019 was no different. But for many it’s a profoundly difficult time.

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