• Engage

    My One New Year Resolution

    Unproductive. Sidelined. Missing the mark. Behind in my work. Self-critical thoughts assailed me during a period a few years ago when my husband and I were both sidelined by injuries in a couple of mishaps. I think of myself as someone who grants myself and others a lot of grace. But sometimes life ambushes me and I don’t accomplish my goals, invest effectively in the people around me or live up to my own or to what I perceive as others' expectations. At those times, I realize that while I grant grace to others, I tend to measure my value by what I do. However, in the Lord's economy, when…

  • Engage

    Women’s Wars and Personal Value

    I felt worthless as a teacher. In my first semester of teaching English as a Second Language, I discovered one day that all my students had made D’s and F’s on their first lab assignment. My stomach tightened into a knot and I considered stepping down mid-semester to allow someone else to take over my class. Later that day, I discovered that I had misunderstood the grading chart and that every single one of my students had made either A’s or B’s on their lab assignment. Since most classes have a very small portion of A’s and B’s on their final grades, I felt that I had done a pretty…