Building Personal and Spiritual Growth

Building Personal and Spiritual Growth

I hated Algebra in high school. Geometry, however, made sense to me. I really liked ‘if-then’ statements like this:  If a = b, and b = c, then a = c. It works great when you have to find the angle of a parallelogram. But often we adapt...
Why We Lie

Why We Lie

Lying to others is deplorable. It erodes trust, the glue in any relationship. You don’t have to look to the political arena to see it either. Look at your workplace, in your home, and even in your own heart. But lying to ourselves (and to God) is worse than lying to...
Change Bad Habits with the Power of Replacement

Change Bad Habits with the Power of Replacement

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,...
Overcoming the Need to “Medicate” Emotional Pain

Overcoming the Need to “Medicate” Emotional Pain

It is human nature to flinch and flee from physical and emotional pain. And the torment from abandonment, rejection, verbal abuse, and shame can linger long after physical trauma has healed. But because those wounds are on the inside where no one can see them and...
3 Signs of a Tender Conscience

3 Signs of a Tender Conscience

Last week, my husband got into a bit of a funk. As we lay in bed after another exhausting day of parenting, work, household chores, and church activities, he opened up about feeling like he wasn’t doing his best to help our special needs son, to support our family, and in serving others in the community. We can all feel like we are not living up to God’s expectations. We question our…

Two Corpses Walk into a Bar…

Two Corpses Walk into a Bar…

This week I was reminded why I decided to go into teaching. And no, it wasn’t some fulfilling teachable moment I had with a student or the epiphanic stare that tends to follow a windfall of understanding in a 13-year-old’s eyes. It was much more selfish than that. I...
Plucking the Gray-Fruit (and Dealing with our Sinful Nature)

Plucking the Gray-Fruit (and Dealing with our Sinful Nature)

I’m 52. I don’t look 52, or so I’m told, but my hair is slowly surrendering to the inevitable. And other than a single “wild” episode of highlights, I’ve never colored it. So when gray hairs started presenting themselves front and center, I viciously tweezed them out....
A Fish ’n’ Loaf Faith

A Fish ’n’ Loaf Faith

I can be such a twit. I imagine Jesus shaking his head and sighing deeply over me just like he did with the Pharisees and even his own disciples (Mark 8:11-21). They just didn’t get it. About 15 years ago when my son was first diagnosed with autism, we heard about a...