A Table Blessing
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
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In Praise of Generalists
The average person logs into Instagram and sees an array of delicious, healthy meals, beautifully decorated homes, children in embroidered clothing with perfect hair — all made possible by the woman behind the camera, dressed in the latest trend, and sporting perfectly applied makeup.
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Mythopoeic Grace
The Bible tells us that grace comes through faith, and that faith is the conviction of things unseen. It could be argued, then, that grace is the result of faith in something our modern culture would consider a myth (the unseen world).
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Stomping the Grounds
But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see.
-C.S. Lewis
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How to Accept the Passing of Time with Children
On the end of summer, children aging, and missed opportunities The summer break is coming to an end for me and my family, which means that another season of memory-making is closing, my children are getting older, and I have to come to terms with how I spent my precious time with my family. Which…
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Change Inexorable
*in· ex· o· ra· ble (i-ˈnek-sə-rə-bəl ); adjective: not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped :RELENTLESS When I was about four years old my parents changed out our rectangular dining room table for a round one. The reality of the situation was the rectangular table was from their newlywed days, and the round table was…
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Catching the Book Habit
I wasn’t a big reader as a kid. I read a few of the Great Illustrated Classics, because they had big font and pictures on every other page (Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, and King Arthur were my favorites). I also read AR books in school for points to win prizes. And thanks in…
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The Day Help Came
I was nearing the end of my walk, approaching the last bend before the wide-open field, when a voice startled me. “Guys, I need help!” a child’s voice cried out from beneath the bridge. I paused, looking toward the direction of the voice, when a group of kids, like a swarm of bees, suddenly appeared…
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If You Had Been Here: A Poem for Holy Week
(Editor’s note: we’re interrupting regular programming this week to bring you some contemplative pieces for Holy Week. We’ll be back to regular posting next week. A blessed week to you and yours.) This poem is best accompanied by a reading from John 11. The full text of the poem can be found right here. …
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Quiet Invitations
When my kids were young, I wanted them to choose activities I knew to be enriching: reading, drawing, building, creating, piecing together puzzles, inventing imaginative games. But when boredom came and I would suggest said activities, my ideas were often met with disinterest. Maybe it was because they were hoping I’d suggest something that required…
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That Joyful “No”: Stories of Resisting Temptation
I was eight or nine, sitting at a beige plastic desk, a copy of the MCAS (the Massachusetts standardized test for elementary schoolers) test book on my right and an answer booklet full of bubbles under the pencil in my right hand. These testing sessions were times of great pressure (“Do your best!” “No cheating!”)…
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Pack Horse Librarians Deliver Hope
Why do kids in western North Carolina need books when they don’t have drinkable water? It was hard not to wonder this after the historic flooding from Helene had dumped up to 31 inches of rain on us at the end of September 2024, washing away small towns, taking the homes and lives of neighbors,…
