Does it seem at times like the whole world is a powder keg about to blow everything to bits and pieces? Yet, it’s the personal kind of powder kegs, when life feels out of control, that shakes us the most. It rattles our foundation, and leaves us weak and surprised. “The Lord is with you, […]
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I remember the clingers. I can feel those little arms that hugged tight around my neck and the legs circling my body. I remember the process, of disentangling a hand, then a leg, then the other hand and leg, as if they were glued to me, those little clinging people. My son commented as he […]
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Three of my grandsons love baseball. And that is an understatement. Growing up they lived it. They chewed wads of gum, memorized plays, and spit. Yes, those little guys could spit with the best of them. Although today they are past the little boy stage, I still have frozen in my memory pictures of their […]
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I heard the door open and my husband’s heavy footsteps slowly ascend the steps. “Hi Honey,” I greeted at the top. “How’d it go?” We were young with a newborn in a new city, new apartment, and he had a new construction job. “I swept floors,” he said. And that whole first week at his […]
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My dad used to have some succinct sayings to get his points across, as in, “ain’t got the brains God gave a goose.” This pronouncement, often hurled at politicians, portrayed a questionable bias directed toward a certain variety of bird-brained intelligence. As I heard it, I felt a sympathy toward all geese. And another, […]
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I have some dear friends, whom I love very much even though they run. I mean really run. On purpose. Because they like it. They have a few years up on me, yet they are forever completing some big mileage run. They do this with smiles on their faces. And they look good. And they […]
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The words stop me when I come across them, … “the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people…” They make me pause and close my eyes. I relate so well to such a paradox of emotions. I understand joy dwelling with heartbreak […]
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His big round eyes followed me. His little face filled with confusion, fear, and betrayal. I read his silent plea as if the words had been spoken, “Don’t leave me.” As I turned from the classroom, I remembered my son’s first baby vaccination, when those trusting eyes looked at me, startled, hurting, and as if […]
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Oh tomato plant that towers many feet above my head. Where is your fruit? I grew up on a farm in Kansas, and at the risk of embarrassing all my Kansas friends and relatives who put into canning jars what they can’t eat or give away, I couldn’t grow a bean or kernel of corn […]
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“Gotta be thick-skinned to survive ministry,” advised a pastor to my young husband. “I’d never have continued if I’d let every criticism get under my skin.” As a pastor’s wife and mother, I found criticism and church-goer barbs dug deep when slung my way. They seemed to hurt even more if they were hurled at […]
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