My daughter, Caroline, crept on cat’s paws through the house during the night. Being the only girl, her room was always situated closest to my own. When they were small, both her brothers raised the alarm at deafening pitch if they were ever sick or awakened by a dream. You heard them long before you …
Much More To Say
I watch my girls with my grandchildren. They are often so overwhelmed and I remember! Sleep is elusive and days are long because nights are short. Like so many of us, mothers before them, they’ve been entrusted with these precious lives. They carried them inside their own bodies for nearly a year and now that …
All My Days
How would you sum up your lifetime in just a few paragraphs? I am nearing the end of my fifty-fifth year and though I feel what the psalmist asserts, my life is but a breath, at the same time my years have been full and rich in both experience and emotion. My grandchildren have only …
Destined For Trouble
You’ve heard the saying, “Silence is golden, unless you have toddlers, then silence is suspicious.” I was reminded earlier today just how true that statement can be. Both girls were putting their babies down for a nap in the guest rooms downstairs and since it was too cold to be outside, the toddlers and I …
Leveled
I came home to find a bare spot in my front yard. The extent of the gap wasn’t apparent until daylight the following morning. Autumn and the falling leaves always lets a little more light in from each sunrise but this was a new level of illumination. Even the room darkening shades were no match …
Privileged
“Are you full yet?” I asked. “Not yet,” Thomas grinned. I hugged him tighter and asked, “How about now? Are you full up to your elbows? Your shoulders? Your ears?” I teased in succession, finally tilting his head to peek inside each ear. Teaching Thomas and Amelia passages like 1 John 4:19, “We love because …
Caught
Toddlers are the most dynamic creatures in the universe. The development that happens between two and three is simply astounding. Vocabulary expands exponentially. Coordination improves with each step. Toddling becomes running and balancing, cruising, timidly at first then zooming on balance bikes, jumping and climbing anything and everything. One thing in particular I’ve noticed is …
Stubborn Older Brother
Not long before he was martyred, Peter wrote, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that God has given us everything we need for living a godly life through the revelation light of Christ, the true and living Word of God. His second epistle reads much like a parent’s passionate appeal to a dear child. …
Unrealistic Expectations
“But I don’t want to tell myself no,” stated Thomas flatly. We’ve been memorizing the fruit of God’s Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 with a little song and he knows that self-control means sometimes telling yourself no, even if you really want to do something. Of course, it can also mean pushing yourself to do something …
Fishers of Men
No. No. No. It had been that kind of day for Amelia. Did she want peanut butter and jelly? No. Would she like oatmeal? No. Turkey and cheese? Yogurt? Cheese pizza? No. No. No. We were both tired and she needed to eat dinner, but true to what her mom and dad told me before …
A Fitting Reply 