We sit there in the Jeep for like half an hour in front of our friend’s house. They’ve invited Brent and I to a Christmas party and we’re supposed to go inside but right now we don’t like each other and we’d rather not pretend. We don’t agree. We don’t agree at all. He parents the kids one way and I the other and at the moment I’m thinking that what he does is absolutely terrible and what I do is not bad at all. After all, he’s the sinner and I’m the saint. But, really, I’m just full of pride and pride always makes the neck stiff and the nose go in the air and points the finger and heaps the blame.  We’re stuck. He’s not budging and I’m not budging and I begin to feel awfully sorry for our kids who might  grow up dazed and confused and perhaps a bit disillusioned. Then comes[...]

A box came in the mail for us. A very big box and we were very excited with very big excitement.  Well, we were excited until we were informed that we could not open the box until Daddy got home, and then we went into shock and our cheeks started doing this weird twitching thing and we started staring off into space and our brains went numb. We knew that we loved the box and we refused to leave the box. So to make the time pass quicker, we sat on the box and decided what in tarnations we could do for the next million years until Daddy got home. And we just knew we had to do something with this box.  And after 10 seconds of thinking we got so tired and we just couldn't take it any longer so we took a break from brainstorming and we just let our cheeks twitch and our brains go numb[...]

The secret to happiness...Can't be found in all the stuff.(For after all, haven't you noticed that we always just need that one more thing?)And it's not in the flattering accolades and descriptions behind our names.(Because validation only makes us feel good for a moment...and then we're hungry for some more.)The secret to happiness...Is realizing that it's never very far away. Sometimes it's just right there in front of you.You just have to slow down enough to see.

Lord, I want to be like Zacchaeus. That little guy in the Bible who climbed up a tree just to catch a glimpse of You coming round the dusty bend. Grown men don't climb trees but that street was awfully crowded and his heart was hungry and yearning for Your coming. He knew he might scuff his knees or rip his shirt and people would laugh, and though he was the guy who was known to have everything, he didn't have You. He was just a shorty pants in a world so big, so he had to take a risk and go out on a limb and crane his neck so he could see. What a surprise he must have felt to discover that You who came to find the lost were coming right for him. (Luke 19) Lord, this day gets awfully crowded with things to do. And sometimes I lose my way and feel afraid and small, but my heart, it yea[...]

My Pa is a mechanic. He's pretty much always been a mechanic. Ever since he was a young man, thirteen to be exact, he remembers helping his Pa put a motor in a car. (Well, he helped his Pa by handing him the tools. Before you can be a mechanic, you have to first be willing to be the tool-handler.) My Pa is a mighty fine mechanic. He really knows what he's doing. Did you know that mechanics don't actually know what's wrong with your car when you tell them what noise it's making? You can mimic the best broken car noise you know how, and a good mechanic will stand there, give you a courtesy nod, and then chuckle at your ridiculous antics and facial expressions later. One time when I was like 16 or so and I was driving my car around town, I got scared. I got scared because my car [...]

Our apologies, Mr. Lowe's Man. But we didn't actually come to your store today to purchase anything. We're just here to do a little inspecting. We came to check out all your refrigerators. And I do mean every. single. one of them. Cool, this one has blinky lights! And ooooh, you can get some tasty water from this one so you don't have to walk all the way over to your sink. Oh no, that's okay, Mr. Lowe's Man. We don't need any help.  Nuh-uh. We know exactly what we're doing. We always inspect the shower heads and turn all the little knobbies. Just call us the Quality Control peeps. You can pay us on the way out. Yep, I think this one will do just fine. Plenty spacious enough. You could fit like a jillion rubber duckies in here and still have room to slip-n-slide off the back.[...]

Thank You, Lord for the way You showed up when I looked out my kitchen window today. I had forgotten how much I love all the sky showing through bare limbs. You have been my Helper and You are good.

Bubby decided to take up running. So he ran, and he rather liked it. He ran with gusto.He ran with glee.He ran with the wind at his back and a song in his heart.He ran because he was alive.He ran because he was free.And he ran because he had recently eaten way too many cheetos.His running spirit was so contagious that his lovely sister decided to join him. She thought she would do her big brother a favor by becoming his running buddy.She thought she would help him out by pretending she was a scary clown with dragon breath.So she chased him and he fled.And boy did he flee.He fled like a wild gazelle on the mountains of Horeb.  And she continued to pursue like a scary clown girl with fire breathing dragon breath. She breathed her dragon fire on him and Bubby grew weak.He grew tired.He g[...]

When I was a little girl, I would play for hours in my yard or in the woods after school because there I felt the remedies of God in nature. I still do. Even now as I sit at my desk and scribble these words down, I can't help but look up again and again to drink in all the beauty filling up my view outside this window. There's just something about all the wild things. God speaks volumes to me through a tree, a leaf, a blade of grass. I know it's strange to say, but when I'm outside, something inside me heals.As I've grown older and have looked around at life, I've found that most of us go about our days with this busy rush of living. I wonder if our frantic pace has impaired our vision? It isn't that we don't see enough, it's that we don't see well enough. The sky [...]