Story Warren Weekend, Vol. 14, Issue 5

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Around the Web

If you feel like motherhood feels impossible, you’re not alone. Here are a few reasons why. “If I had to tell young mothers one thing today it would be this: your work is holy work, raising up sons and daughters of God, and whether you have worn the same sweatpants for a week and the bookshelves are a mess and the dishes aren’t getting done, and whether your kids are crying and you can’t follow all the Perfect Rules for Parenting, just be faithful and love your children and accept that there is grace.”

Now that we’re into February, you might be evaluating those goals you set a month or so ago. If so, you might be helped by this Old Advice for a New Year. “In the typical flurry of secular articles about the new year, two messages seem loudest. Half the articles triumphantly declare that this can be the year you become the best version of yourself and achieve your dreams. The other half reject the hustle; they tell you that you’re enough as you are and that you should enjoy life instead of striving.”

Around the Warren

A. C. S. Bird brought us reviews of two different books about Charles Dickens and his world. “The books below manifest their creators’ love for the patron saint of storytelling, but their virtue lies in more than their subject matter. Their own charm, wit, ingenuity, and, above all, heart, does just homage to the timeless Victorian author.”

And to finish off our Dickens’ birthday week offerings, Kari Cope drew our attention to the relationship between Great Expectations and the upside-down kingdom we see in Scripture. “It is a story about Pip becoming his true self. Dickens clearly sees sin as a corrupting force, which keeps us from being fully ourselves. Pip’s attainment of a right-side-up perspective is gradual.”

Something to do with your kids

Apparently these muffins were a hit in the Olympic village in Paris. I haven’t tried them, but if you do, can you report back to me?

Something to watch

A story of “The Outsider”:

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side.

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Kelly Keller

Kelly Keller is the managing editor of Story Warren. She has her BS in Elementary Education from Messiah University and has taught various ages, but her favorite was worldview and literature with high school students. The “gap” in her resume is actually a window of eighteen years of homeschooling, which she recommends as an effective, though demanding, way of expanding one’s home library.

When she’s not behind her laptop, Kelly enjoys live music, baseball, reading great books, and traveling with her husband, David. Kelly hails from beautiful snowy New England, but after nearly two decades in North Carolina, she feels right at home.

She invites you to subscribe to her newsletter, On the Common, or to follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

Latest posts by Kelly Keller (see all)

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