• Heartprints

    1 Way Parenthood Is Like Noah’s Life of Faith

    Judah, my middle child, is a rocks, sticks, leaves, tree-climbing kind of boy. On one of our Fall walks a couple years ago, He picked up an acorn and with an excited smile, said, “Look!” As he handed them to me for safe keeping. What I thought were simple, brown acorns, the kind with tops that look like hats, he thought were beautiful seeds of possibility. A Simple Seed I began to think about how I felt like that acorn. Tossed. Un-noticed. Set-aside from the hustle of busy, important people, going to busy, important places, doing busy, important things. Did my holding a fist full of acorns matter? But then,…

  • Engage

    Depression and Spiritual Emptiness

    Recently I’ve been walking through life, walking through marriage and walking through ministry, floating, watching, and just a little bit empty. I can’t quite find the leak in the balloon; it feels as if my passion, my energy and sometimes even my faith, is slowly deflating. My house is dirty. I keep trying my best but it just stays that way. I’m snapping at my husband and I am ashamed to admit it, but my tiny toddlers have become tiny terrorists to me. I don’t know what to do with them so I do what I can until it’s time to put them to bed. Then I’m left wondering what to…

  • Impact

    The Parenting Wilderness

      Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Wilderness Wanderings Series: Learning to Live the Zigzag Life Among all the books on parenting that are floating around these days, there is one missing. It’s hard to believe that we’ve overlooked anything, but we are lacking one vital title.   I’m not sure how the publishers would respond to this, but in this time of self-publishing, they are not as dominant as they once were, which means this book might make it to the market.   The title? Parents Who Did Everything Right and Got it Wrong. There, I told you it would be a best seller. Well, maybe not. Unwanted…

  • Engage

    Mothers Have to Grow Up Too

    A couple of months ago, I had to pick out eight pictures that represented the last 17 years of my daughter’s life. The yearbook staff at her high school kept sending me reminders of the deadline for the senior ad. So I did what I didn’t want to do—I pulled out photo boxes, inserted photo CD’s into the computer and I sorted through a lifetime of memories.   There among the piles of “maybe,” “for sure” and “no way, she’ll kill me,” I remembered some of the advice I received as a young mother. Well, more like warnings than advice:     Just wait, she’s cute right now, but when’s…