Sometimes at night, when darkness has settled outside, Zoe and I dream of glittering crowns.  “Glittering’ is almost too dull a word.  These crowns are other-worldy—piercing, as opposed to just shining; stunning in a way that we will feel instead of simply see.  These crowns would make human beings shield their dimmed eyes, still dulled as we […]

I need to be weeded daily by the Spirit of God, with a Word-shaped knife so sharp it divides my soul and spirit.  And this is why I cling to Him so passionately: I really hate weeds. Nearly every Tuesday, I make my fingers sore yanking them from the soil, digging into the dirt so […]

Aggravation is Riley’s favorite game, but not for the reasons you might expect.  She plays by a few simple rules, and Sunday, God wrote them on our hearts: It’s really important that we play all together. When Kevin played Aggravation years ago, on this very same board, with his younger brother and his grandparents, he had all those […]

I’ve been disowned. The letter came while I vacationed on the coast.  It blew in cold and hard, and the words cut like a knife.  Others have walked away before, but this is my first rejection by association.  I’ve never actually been in conflict with this person, never shot them an angry look, never even […]

I see God everywhere on the coast.  I talk to Him, standing at the water’s edge watching, listening, feeling.  “You gather all this into jars (Psalm 33:7).  You alone rule over the surging sea (Psalm 89:9)… The seas have lifted up, LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding […]

Adam hates waiting. When he was in first grade, he often got to be the line leader for his class when they left the classroom.  But Adam didn’t like to wait, so when the teacher said, “Line up at the door,” he’d just open the door and leave.  Every reminder, “Adam,wait,” he met with frustration.  “Please, wait!!” […]

“And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ~Simeon (man “moved by the Holy Spirit”) to Mary (mother of the Savior of all mankind) the gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 35 She could not have known.  Standing there, with her baby just over a month old, showing up as she was for obedience—Mary […]

We’re sitting in a circle, you and I, with half a dozen other people we love.  It’s late at night, past the hour when everyone started yawning, past the time when we all ambled into the kitchen looking for snacks, all the way past pitch dark and silence to that hour when the world seems […]

This morning, Adam couldn’t find his favorite math worksheet. “Three Steps?” he said to me, his face a few inches from mine, his body leaning in to where I sat sipping my coffee on the porch. Adam and I had communicated enough about Three Steps in the last week for me to know (finally) that this […]

lav·ish [lav-ish]–adjective 1.expended, bestowed, or occurring in profusion: lavish spending. 2.using or giving in great amounts; prodigal How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!~1 John 3:1 I came into this world on Easter Sunday, the same year my dad started his business.  My dad is a Certified Public Accountant, […]