Marriage always provides fresh opportunities for personal growth, especially for people like me who forget what they’ve learned so quickly. Sin, after all, isn’t just a threat to present and future behaviors; it’s a threat to our past as well, a threat to our memory. Learning lessons isn’t always what’s difficult for us; remembering them […]
Taylor, you are so gifted and skilled and bright, but you don’t always believe in yourself. God has made you special and unique. Have confidence in how God has made you. Not pride, which says, “I don’t need God,” but confidence, which says, “with God’s help I will be all he has made me to […]
I wrote the following letter in my journal, when our youngest, Heidi Mae, was only a few months old. I found it lifting me up today, so I thought I would share it. I’ve been up for an hour and a half, hearing you grunt and twist in your little rocking sleeper. I kept rushing […]
I lost my father to cancer when he was 47. I was in the living room with him, my mother, and my brothers when his respiratory system finally gave out after two hours of moaning. The hospice nurse even counted his last three breaths for us. That was the most bizarre “three-two-one” I’ll ever experience—a […]
I have wanted to write about this for some time, but felt that I should hold off, out of respect for the family. One of the chapters in Finding God in the Ordinary is about the memory of God. In that chapter, I write, “The Trinity never forgets.” It’s a simple idea, really, with profound implications. And […]
One of my favorite songs is Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” His plain harmonica still cuts through a contemporary ocean of music that espouses materialism and seduction. Amidst the fleeting fancies of popular culture, there are things worth pursuing, things worth striving after. A heart of gold, I think, is one of them. Of course, what is a […]
I’m continually amazed at my own hypocrisy as a parent. Part of parenting, a big part, is realizing how childish you still are. Here’s the most recent lesson I’ve picked up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said the following sentence to one of my children: “You don’t seem to change until you’re […]
My three-year-old daughter likes to dress up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast and play pretend. She usually has me be Gaston (Gee, thanks). Then she tells me that she doesn’t want to come look at my trophies because she has to go help her “fodder” with his invention. But yesterday afternoon I noticed something […]
I hadn’t planned on talking about 9/11 with my four-year-old son, so I had no idea what I might say. The topic came up unexpectedly in a children’s book we were reading. National Geographic has put out a series of books that address the curiosities of children with simple explanations and pictures. On one of […]