My grandmother paid me to memorize some of the Psalms. One, in particular, was the 23rd Psalm. She would sleep in the extra bed in my room when she would come stay with us. As we would lie there, she would say, “Do you still remember the 23rd Psalm.” “Yes, Grandma.” “Let’s say it together.” I was so tired, I […]
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. I recently heard the news that the KKK is coming to Charlottesville, VA this summer. My first response was anger. I don’t want them here. I don’t want them to have the right to come […]
I like action and results. I can’t stand when I see things being done wrong, and I am almost always convinced I could do it better, unless of course that thing is parking a car or building something.
This is a problem because I end up trying to do way more than I should. Even my blog is a reflection of this. I write about teaching, church planting, parenting, and running. I can’t even stay focused on one topic for the blog!
My tagline is grace and imperfection because I need a lot of grace for all the areas of imperfection.
So, here is my latest confession of an area in which I need to give and receive grace.
Tonight, I want to quit teaching… but I won’t. I work really, really hard to create active, engaging lessons. I read over 150 pages of student writing a week. I give detailed feedback on style, tone, organization, and grammar. I also comment on what students say about themselves, their worlds, and their ideas. I know my students. I LOVE my […]
There are people in my world who understand the word defying emotion I feel… particularly now- shortly after Mother’s Day. It is playing cards and laughing about a song written for a funeral. It is the melody of “It is Well With My Soul.” It is an unused diaper bag in the closet. It is Thanksgiving with a smaller crowd […]
I totally bombed this Sunday.
I preached a sermon on the value of a broken hallelujah. The main point was that God uses our weakness.
I was the sermon illustration… not on purpose though.
I am fully capable of putting together a really good sermon that is presented well. This is not what occurred. I spent last week as single mom since Jon had to go on a last minute trip to NY to repair some recent storm damage to our rental property….
Brokenness… who wants to talk about brokenness on Mother’s Day? Me. That is the sermon I am preaching. We are finishing the Our Broken Hallelujahs series this Sunday. We started the series immediately after Easter. That made sense. But Mother’s Day?!?!? Shouldn’t we talk about all things lovely? I’m not sure we planned out our preaching calendar that well. Maybe […]
I was punched in the stomach today. Not literally, but figuratively. I won’t get into the details. The essence is that someone I thought would be one of my biggest supporters basically said my book isn’t worth study. Ouch. Did I mention, Ouch? Yeah….. it stung. The crazy thing is it came after an amazing, God ordained service based on […]
I thought a student said, “My Mom’s Hand” as a title. He actually said, “My Mom’s Ham,” but if I’d heard him right, this post wouldn’t exist. When I was erasing the board after class, the title caught my attention. My mom’s hand… Over the years her hands have washed me, been run through my hair, wrote notes and cards, folded […]
Easter is the climax of a story about mankind’s complicated relationship with nakedness and shame. A fateful fall Adam and Eve had open community and access to God in the Garden of Eden. They also had freedom of choice. When they chose to eat forbidden fruit they became ashamed of who they naturally were. They had been naked all along, and […]