From an article originally posted November 19, 2013…
You there in your yoga pants and messy hair—yes, you. You are amazing! What you are doing today matters. You have no cheering section, no awards, but what you are doing is making a difference. The time you take at night with your croupy baby, your slow reader, your angry, stubborn child is affecting this world more than you can ever imagine.
Note to the reader: This post deals with sensitive subject matter. Please proceed with discretion.
I recognized it long before I acknowledged it—I had heard it before. I tried to ignore it, to tell myself I was mistaken, to convince myself that I was just tired or anxious or something…anything…
But that voice, that quiet voice was persistent, gentle, patient. I hear it whisper to me when I’m praying in the morning, lying in bed, wondering how long I have until my little boy notices I’m awake and climbs under the covers with me for morning snuggles. I hear it when I’m washing dishes and my daughter is “making coffee” behind me in her play kitchen.
From an article originally posted November 18, 2013…
Last week a dear friend texted me some hard questions asking about my heart. Blythe is a warrior friend who bravely asks hard questions, and gently and lovingly listens to my answers without judgment. Last week she asked me many questions that brought needful tears, but her last question has stayed with me. It has grown in my heart and become my prayer. Just as I was writing this, my sweet baby woke upset with a sadness only her mama could calm. Now I hear her peaceful sleep beside me. The question that was asked was, What does my heart hunger for?
On the upper side of the earth’s hemisphere, if you keep traveling north, it gets colder and darker, depending on the time of year. I live in a pretty northern part of the world where winters mean darkness creeping over around 4 PM and sun rising well after 8 AM. Our “summers” aren’t much warmer although the sun stays out for much longer. But rain and grey often damper our summers for weeks at a time.
1 Corinthians 13, perhaps the most quoted book of the Bible. Quoted at weddings, events, funerals, this chapter of the Bible is the happy love chapter. I have not been able to get one phrase out of my mind: love never ends. Do you realize the implications of these three words in scripture? It means never as in never ever, ever.
