I ironed your graduation clothes today. Khaki pants you’ve almost outgrown—you’ll wear them one more time before I move them to your little brother’s closet. A new button-down shirt, a tie you borrowed from your dad. You tried on everything to make sure it fit, and maybe what you saw in the mirror was simply…
parenting
It All Holds True
The sunlight lengthens across the dining room table where I sit and write. It’s late afternoon and in this part of the world, we’re enjoying that gold stretching of light at the end of the day. I couldn’t sleep last night, tossing and turning and trying to figure out why I’ve had so much trouble…
Jesus Is In the Boat
I took my laptop to the hospital. I don’t really know what I was thinking. When I’d packed it in my tote bag, I figured there’d be lots of sitting and waiting—and there was. But did I really think I’d do anything but stand next to my son’s hospital bed? Because that’s what I did…
Christians Survive Differently
I well remember the exhaustion of brand-new motherhood. When my first son was born, I didn’t pick up my Bible for months. I was so sure that I’d arrive at the magical land of discipline later when my baby wasn’t so needy. I didn’t realize that keeping the habits of Bible reading and prayer when…
Parenting, Unpictured
I remember what I was wearing the first time I held each of my children. Not hospital gowns, for my kids didn’t come to me that way. With my oldest, I wore a black blouse with white stitching around the neck and arms. I had a short, angled bob with blonde highlights at the time….
How Paul Taught Our Children to Pray
“Family worship” is a term we use a bit loosely for the dinner table devotions we enjoy as a family each night. My husband usually reads some Scripture, one of the kids prays for a neighbor or someone from church, and we all sing the Doxology together. The highlight for my two boys is to…
Dinnertime Devotions and Gospel Hope
I made too much chicken. That’s how it started. Too much chicken. As I cooked dinner last night, I thought through my day, mentally adding things to tomorrow’s to-do list, stepping out of the kitchen periodically to address sibling squabbles in the next room. Moving between tasks, I prepared twice as much chicken as our…
My Prayer for My Children
The world is in your eyes, all is fresh and new. You take me by surprise, uncomplicated you. There is much that I desire though some would be unsure. Success does not appear in this my prayer for you— Be broken, humble, set apart. Fear the Lord with all your heart Of flesh instead of…
To the End of the Age, to the End of This Day
I navigated the drop-off line at my son’s new school with a bit of trepidation. One lane split into two, and I carefully rolled to a stop at the crossing guard’s persistent arm-waving. My son opened the car door and paused to tell me goodbye before leaving the safety of my presence. On the way,…
Our Only Hope in Life and Death
I never heard the word ‘catechism’ until I was an adult. Well, that’s not entirely true. I remember reading the word in a book once as a child and wondering what it meant, pronouncing it cat-a-CHism in my head, with a hard CH, like in the word cheese. I grew up a Southern Baptist and…