With pictures from my Daddy's Bible. Dear Jesus-following friend, It’s good to read your Bible.  I assume you’ve got one (or most likely, you’ve got at least five, if you live here in America) and since you follow Jesus, I assume you already believe the Bible is important and you believe that God somehow used imperfect humans to jot down His story and compile it for us so we could get to know Him and learn how to live. I’m not saying you don’t have your doubts, or that there’s some things in there that you just flat out don’t understand, but I do assume that you’ve tasted His words, so to speak, and found them nourishing and life-changing and good. It’s good to sit a spell, just a little bit each day if you can, and take His words in. For one thing, we’ve got all this freedom, you an[...]

We're resting here, now. All of us are resting. Even the kitty. Well, I'm writing and everyone else is resting, but writing is restorative for me. Especially when my mind is busy thinking about lots of things. The last few mornings have been rough. Maybe it's because we're getting antsy from all the snow and cold.  I've got this little boy with all this energy and he doesn't understand why he can't tear through the house at full whirl boy speed and yell at the top of his lungs and crash his cars into the walls. He really needs to go outside, but the snow is practically up to his waist and it's just too doggone cold. So, there's been a lot of yelling and wailing, sobbing and stomping and I've sort of been at a loss. Except that God is here with us and I've been asking Him how [...]

I see you there, crumpling up that sheet of paper, tossing it into the waste basket and wondering if anything good will come out of your life. Or if there will just be this broken record, repeating "failure" and "you don't measure up" and "you don't deserve anything good." I see the way you try. The way you keep getting up and dressing up and showing up and hoping that things don't screw up, again. You get so tired. You're running out of energy and it's had for you to enjoy your life. Do you mind to sit down for just a minute and let me tell you some things? Some true things? Some things that could perhaps restore your soul and give you some hope? Some things that could help you keep going and maybe even set you free? You really can cease your striving. You need soul-rest.[...]

Dear Jesus-follower, Remember the King. When you rise from your pillow and draw up the curtains and pour up the coffee and open your computer. Remember Him. Jesus has claim on you. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. You belong to God because He made you. And you belong to Jesus because He purchased you with His blood. So, you are doubly His. This doesn't mean that God will hijack your personality. He made your personality. He made you with a brain that reasons and an imagination that creates and a will that chooses. He will, however, bring you to your full potential and help you become the best version of yourself.  And as you follow Him, keeping company with Him, He'll make you fully alive. So, remember this. Remember the King. When you're setting t[...]

      It's so cold here. Just so cold. Today the wind blows the snow from the trees and everything is still the whitest white and I've been staying inside much more than I care to admit. I've got these daydreams that keep me warm. I'm there at the camp lake with my kids. They're playing in the shallows and  hunting for shells and tadpoles while I'm sifting sand through my toes with the sun on my cheeks. I'm smiling in my daydreams. And I'm warm. Toasty warm. About this time every year I start wondering why in tarnations I moved to the north country and what the winter is even good for anyways. But, I've got this friend who strings wooden beads in her hair and paints with hemp and she tells me that there are so many good things about the cold and winter. This friend who grows [...]

When I was born, I had a different momma. And I don't know the circumstances of her life, exactly, when she first conceived me and then carried me around in her tummy before I was birthed out and into her arms. I just know that she was broken. Painfully so. But, still, she gave me life and she kept giving me life as she held me close and let me nurse, my eyes blinking awake in that hospital room, adjusting to all the light. I remember her well. The last time I saw her, I was five, and I can still vividly recall her giving me the white birthday cake with the blue roses made out of icing. She had her problems and her addictions, but when she was sober, she was gentle and loving and kind. When she wasn't sober, she was angry and cried a lot so I sat on the floor and cried, too. I re[...]

Samuel found his feet the other day. He was pretty impressed. I loved that I got to witness it--the first time he reached out to grab hold of his little toes. And once he figured out that they were there, and that they weren't going away, his toes became his new favorite toy. All day long, he'd kick his feet up and just stare at them in wonder and I was tickled that he could be so easily amused. And a couple weeks before he found his feet, he had discovered his hands. I had left the room to go grab something and when I came back, there he was with his little fist curled in front of his face and he was just staring so intently. I tried not to make much noise because I just loved watching him watch his own movements. He's still in utter amazement over his appendages. It's the coolest [...]

The world is cold outside my window, and a little bleak. I'm thankful for these walls and this roof that hem us  in, keeping us warm and sheltered and held. I step out into a new year and of course, I want to carve out  new paths. I notice that the wind has swept the snow all night and our footsteps from yesterday are covered now. Unseen. I've got this profound sense we can all start out new again. Because God's mercies come running up again at the dawning of a each new day. We've already begun a new routine. We now have a laundry folding party every night. I do the washing during the day, then heap the clothes in the baskets. And after dinner, we dump them on the living room floor and everybody gets to folding and toting clothes upstairs to put back into the drawers. Hope's and Gi[...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPI_DIqICP0 A good song to listen to, while you're lookin' at all this... So, if you will, press play, scroll down... Thank You, God, for all of this. And thank you, friends, for sharing life with us.