I grew up in a musical-theater-loving family. Not that any of us were in musicals, mind you, but we went to these shows regularly, watched the movie-versions religiously, and sang along to show tunes in the car and at home. For the most part, a great way to grow up. Except for one part, well, [...]

If you scroll down a couple posts, you’ll see a comment from Dawn, who’s wrestling with church roles. She’s been on my mind a lot lately because I think her note personifies exactly what a lot of us go through in various forms, in various ways. I’ve been wanting to respond to her–you, if you’re [...]

Tonight I participated in a prayer service at my church. I was asked to pray for the “groups” at my church—the young, the old, the married, the single, and so on. It’s kind of a weird thing to write out a prayer beforehand–and even weirder to practice it in the kitchen!–but this tapped into something [...]

If you’re a person (or maybe I should just say “a woman”—men probably get a different answer) who’s ever wrestled with your identity and if you run with the church crowd, you’ve heard this:
Find your identity in Christ.
Am I right? As part of the book I’m working on, I maintain that this is a good answer to the wrong question. And [...]

This morning I overheard one of the moms from church preschool trying to explain to her child why there were trays full of peanut butter by the coat racks.
“They’re for people who can’t afford to buy food,” she said. “But those people are rich in other ways.”
Her daughter asked, “What ways?”
And she answered, “I have no idea. [...]

I’m not usually one to go about making New Year’s resolutions because I don’t believe in setting anyone up for failure—myself included! But looking back over the past year, I realized I’ve got a few things I really need to work on (plus, I’m itching for a reason to use my cute bug bullet points again). [...]

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
—Luke 2: 34-35
Last night these [...]

A couple days ago, in the midst of the zillions things going on, I panicked:
Oh, no! Christmas cards! 
I totally forgot. So I figured I had two choices:
1. Stop everything and bring all kinds of stress and Christmas chaos into my house just so I could get cards printed, labeled, and out the door on time. 2. [...]

I’m not huge on tears, but tonight my church made me cry. That’s not a good thing. The “leaders” in my church just voted 17-13 to continue to bar women from the offices of elder and deacon. And this hurts. More than I thought it would.
I had prayed that these men would “hold open the doors” for women, [...]

A few weeks ago, my five-year-old son asked, “Mom, what’s your pebble?” 
“Huh?” I asked back.
“Your PEB-BLE,” he said. “You know, like how my left foot is smaller than my other one…” 
I resisted the “huh?” again, even though I had no idea what he was talking about—pebbles or foot size (his feet are the same size, essentially). 
So I tried [...]