Because I come from a long line of teachers, playing school was one of my favorite things as a kid. The chalkboard easel beckoned, and stuffed animals settled themselves across my bedroom—eager students waiting to be taught whatever golden nuggets of wisdom should drop from my mouth. I love education even more intensely now and... Continue Reading →
Dear Goodness, We need to talk. I'm breaking up with you. No, not with all goodness in general. Just you: the sort I can manufacture from inside myself applying enough blood, sweat, and tears. The pure kind that once offered to cover me like a robe of royalty? I want that back. Jesus held His... Continue Reading →
(This post was originally published on the Baptist Convention of New England’s blog on March 8, 2022. You can find it here.) One in 3,200. That's the statistic: for every 3,200 live births in the US, one sweet baby will have a rare, incurable, progressive disease called cystic fibrosis. On July 1, 2020, my daughter arrived... Continue Reading →
There’s this great scene at the end of Disney’s 1967 hit, The Jungle Book. Mowgli has spent the entire movie fighting to avoid the “man village.” He’s run away from anyone intent on reuniting him with his own kind. Despite his friends’ best attempts to save that scrawny little neck of his from the threat... Continue Reading →
Did you know you're building a hymnal for your life? It's filled with lines from books, lyrics from songs, quotes from movies, and a unique assortment of other odds and ends you've picked up along the way. All such content filters through the grid of your mind and settles into the deepest places of your... Continue Reading →
Call me nerdy, but I just love a good schedule. Give me some stickers, colored pens, and a blank calendar, and I'm a kid at Christmas. There is so much calm in the regular rhythm of planning—a chance to exert order and beauty and life over the chaos of time that doesn't yet exist, an... Continue Reading →
Confession: I struggle with an addiction to judgment. On the giving end, I am plagued by opinions about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. While Southern manners and a fear of conflict keep roughly 98% of those opinions unspoken, they constantly light up my brain like a superhighway. Much of that mental activity is spent declaring myself either guilty or... Continue Reading →
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life — the life God is sending one day by day.” (C.S. Lewis) One of the odd quirks... Continue Reading →
The little one struggled to form the name of his diagnosis. He watched his mama say them one more time, those two immensely difficult words for a four-year-old mouth to wrap itself around: cystic fibrosis. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with dawning recognition. "Oh! Sixty-five roses!" As pride swelled in his tiny chest for conquering... Continue Reading →
(This post was originally published on the Baptist Convention of New England’s blog on February 7, 2020. You can find it here.) God, You're so good.God, You're so good.God, You're so good,You're so good to me. I choked the simple chorus out on Sunday morning despite a lump rising in my throat. Weeks of waiting for... Continue Reading →
The Dwelling Place 