I stared blindly at the ceiling as I lay in bed and thought of the evening I’d just spent. Sleep didn’t seem to come easily. Or soon. I couldn’t stop thinking of them… their tender, lineless faces, bright smiles, dark hair and the playfulness of youth in their eyes. And, I couldn’t help but — for a moment — wish that I were once again in the place they were last night — once again a young mother with seemingly limitless opportunities before me — a young mother with a vast clean slate before me. As I stood there sharing…
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That might sound like a strange title to a message I want to share with you today, but perhaps by the time you finish reading this letter, you’ll have an idea and perhaps realize some things you’ve been wanting to take care of for some time. So, what’s pulling on your apron strings? You know… the thing or things that nag at you or that seem to be pulling at you from one direction or many. You may be attempting to work around your home and keep having interruptions or distractions that prevent you from accomplishing what’s really needful. You…
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I know. I’d probably grimace if one of my kids started an essay: “Stuff’s going to work out.” But, it’s on my mind today: stuff — and how it works out. But I want to begin by saying: stuff’s probably not going to work out how you thought it would — or even how you hoped it would — but, truly, in the end, stuff’s going to work out. Last year, the year you’ve heard me describe as the most sorrowful year of my life, I heard a song… it was one of two songs that so resonated with me…
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To my precious children… how strange it is to be apart from you this day. How interesting that the Lord would, in His wisdom, goodness and mercy, have us to be a million miles apart on this day. But as I have held you in my heart from the day you were born, so also, I hold you in my heart this day. And I am missing you terribly. But I also know that the Lord is in the details, having orchestrated this whole trip, this is His doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. I genuinely rest in…
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An excerpt of my reading today, finishing the book of Joshua… in light of Mother’s Day tomorrow and in my absence, praying for my children. Joshua 23.6-24.15 6 Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left; 7 That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them:…
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Living long. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. I’ve been wondering to my self: what would I be doing today if I had been living long for the last thirty-some-odd years? What would I have accomplished or done differently had I been living long all these years of marriage and motherhood? This train of thought is the sort of along the same track of thinking as the question: How would God have used me (or my life) had my whole life been yielded to Him? Where would I be today if my whole life had been yielded to…
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I received such a beautiful card yesterday. It was a birthday card — but yesterday was not my birthday — well, not technically, anyway. But in a way, it was my birth-day, for twenty-five years ago yesterday I gave birth to our first daughter — third child, first daughter. As I look back, nothing and everything prepared me for that day. O, it wasn’t the gap between her birth and the birth of the son five years previous — though it was. It wasn’t that I knew I was to have a daughter — I didn’t know that; it…
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I snapped this photo one day when one of our little boys was doing dishes for me and when I came in to check his progress, I noticed the dishes weren’t loaded properly — an error that was glaringly obvious to me. Funny thing was, it wasn’t obvious to him. He was actually very proud of how neatly he had put the cups and glasses into the dishwasher rack. I showed him that, while they were neat, they weren’t going to get clean inside because they would only fill with water, they would not be washed out by the sprayer…
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When Timothy was born, there was a brief hush over the delivery room — enough time for me to realize there must be a problem. Fearing the worst, I asked my husband if the baby had died. No, he said, he’s going to be fine. As Timothy was born, the doctor could see that the cord was wrapped around his next and as he loosened it, it was obvious that there was also a complete knot in his umbilical cord the hush was their surprise that he was just quiet and still — completely fine. The team of attendants appeared…
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Maybe you do this from time to time: see a photo of yourself and wonder how could that have been you? Or read something you’ve written and say: I recognize the writing… but how could I have forgotten that!?! Recently, while putting away fresh laundry, I stopped and looked up at photographs I see — but don’t really see — every day. And so there I stood a long time — gazing at the framed photographs that hang on the wall above my husband’s dresser. I was sort of transported back in time and was so longing for those days. …