“For every look at self, take ten looks to Christ.” ~Robert Murray M’Cheyne “So I gaze on You in the sanctuary to see Your strength and Your glory.” Psalm 63:2 “When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary.” Psalm 73:16-17a Yesterday I sat at my desk and wrote…
{what I learned in May}
May wrapped up in a hurry over here, and I found myself wrestling two kids and a full grocery cart this morning on a very hot first day of June. The upcoming month is a busy one for my family as it’s birthday month for 3/4 of us, and our calendar is already full of…
I follow close to You
I’ve been feeling a bit empty lately. A steady stream of writing and pouring out has left me scratching my head and staring at intimidatingly blank pages in all my journals and notebooks. Sometimes the words don’t come, no matter how hard I press down the pen. So I go back to what fills me…
{what if hospitality isn’t your gift?}
Every Christmas during my childhood, my mom threw a gigantic party for her friends. She wrote out long lists of chores for my sister and me, although mostly I did them by myself because my sister had a gift for disappearing when it came time to do any housework. (Not that I’m bitter.) We cleaned…
{on love and loss and going home}
Knotted up in my regrets and my losses are the gifts of love and life that I only have because of the regrets and the losses.
To the Brink: a Tribute to Parents
The first eight months of our youngest son’s life epitomized uncertainty to me. I rocked a baby against my chest every night, a solid fragile weight pressed next to my heart, not knowing if I would ever be able to call him “son.” It was the riskiest version of love I’d ever known. As every adoptive parent…
{Saturday morning levity}
Everything has been a little heavy here lately, so for laughs… Things I have done this week: *Taught fourteen piano lessons (one absence) and held in laughter for two solid hours on my last work day because the excuses for not practicing were so ludicrous. Although, that one about not having a piano anymore was…
{when your joy is off the market}
This morning I picked up my Bible and opened it to Psalm 43. In five short verses, I found freedom. I’ve been working through the psalms for about six weeks, and as I study and notate each psalm, memories often push into my thought process with a powerful presence. I’m one for writing in my…
{yesterday I cried in the Walmart parking lot}
I want to think that I’m invincible. That I’m not tethered to my body that insists on attacking itself. That I have control over the inner workings of my flesh. I don’t. I’m not. I’ve had a slew of tests and imaging over the past month. I lost count at the lab after they took…
{record update}
So, we’ve been working on my EP for like, almost a year. My producer is freelance, and he’s working and taking seminary classes, so he’s pretty tied up these days. Since he’s doing my project nearly for free, I can’t really blame him for working and studying and stuff rather than, you know, making me…