Pushing Past Hurts to Build Deep Relationships

Pushing Past Hurts to Build Deep Relationships

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You’ve probably heard this quote by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Many of us dream of having great relationships with a spouse, children, co-workers, neighbors, friends or extended family. Even self-professed...
Change Bad Habits with the Power of Replacement

Change Bad Habits with the Power of Replacement

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Replacement is my new watchword. It’s my key to changing anything I don’t like about my life. This may seem simplistic and even intuitive but let’s see how well we measure up with this little quiz. The Vacuum of Habit If you answered true to any of these questions,...
The “Mundane” Things in Marriage Make or Break It

The “Mundane” Things in Marriage Make or Break It

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I could spit on every romance novel I read as a teenager. They deluded me into thinking that marriage was one, long romantic adventure. What a crock. I’m not down on marriage. I endured four difficult years of separation because I believe so profoundly in marriage....
The Never-Ending Process of Mourning

The Never-Ending Process of Mourning

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I was cleaning out a closet in my house when I pulled out a tub of crocheted items and felt a lump lodge in my throat. My father—who would have turned 70 this week but succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2004—had made the items for me and my daughters during my...
Burying a Friend in the Back Yard

Burying a Friend in the Back Yard

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I’m not usually given to weepiness over a pet. I only have a dog, ferrets, and bearded dragons because I have kids. When my nest empties, the ferrets and dragons go with the kids. (The dog probably won’t live that long.) So you’d think when it came time to putting an...

What’s Your Default?

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If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 100 times: I’m a control freak by nature and–thank you, Mom–by nurture as well. It’s what I’ve defaulted to time and time again when chaos threatens the order of my world. I also default to Oreos and milk before bed,...

“What Do You Say?”

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I received this mini-story in my email yesterday. I liked it so much I have to pass it on. As a wife and mother of three, and with the season of gratitude approaching, it made me smile knowingly.One day a man came home and found his house a disaster. The kids were...

Teach a Kid to Fish

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There’s a Christian proverb that most parents cling to like a lifeline: “Teach a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not turn from it.” It sounds so simple.  The burning question that every parent asks is, what is “old?”  Is it 10, 20, or 50? ...