Now for something completely different...

This has been a year of milestones to make a girl start feeling a bit geriatric. I hit the big 4-0. My eldest child became a teenager. I have more than one or two gray hairs. But what really started to make me feel ancient was my wardrobe. Somewhere along the mommy road I had stopped clothing myself and started just wearing clothes.

For a while I took on the long skirt/long hair of the patriocentric Christian camp. It was a bit like playing dress-up without the foofy princess dresses. Then I adopted the black or brown shirt/sweater/polartec with jeans look. Comfortable and easy, yes. Attractive, not so much. One day this spring, my husband mentioned he was glad I had ditched the frumpy home school mom uniform but wished I'd wear something as colorful and vivacious as I am. I took that as a challenge--to dress as me and make my husband smile.

So in order to have some accountability about actually taking off my workout clothes and putting on something creatively pleasing to my husband, I'm taking the 21 Day Challenge and putting it out there for all to see.

There's only one catch--we ain't got no cash.

So how's this girl supposed to live out the remainder of her pre-walker days with any sense of personal style while raising a family on a ministry income? Thank the Lord for hand-me-downs, garage sales, and the thrift store! At least 95% of what you'll see on me will have been purchased off the rack by someone else. I'm not claiming it will be fashionable, just fun and spirited.

So here goes something completely different!

Le the Little Children Come to Me

If you have children, work with children, or even know children, you must read this post by Wendy Alsup.

It's all grace.

Snowy Day

Tears in His Bottle

My little girl has a sensitive heart. Tears come easily, which is amazing seeing that she was born of two fairly stoic parents.

Tonight as I approached her room for bedtime prayers, I heard her sobbing. "What's wrong?" I asked. "It's all this sin, " she answered, "hatred, disease, and people dying. I wish Jesus would just come back." Upon further probing I discovered she'd been singing the Christmas Shoes song she'd heard on the radio over the holidays and its meaning had just hit her. We talked about the fact that one day each of us will die and that for us, and for the mother of the boy in the song, that means spending eternity with our Savior. More tears came for those we know who do not follow Christ. I affirmed her tears and her mourning over the things that grieve God, emphasizing that we need to be just as upset over the sin in our own hearts that causes our ugly words and actions. "What if I'm not really a Christian?" she asked with more tears. "Who can change a sinner's heart?" I answered with a question. And together we asked for more faith for our friends and for ourselves.

The whole discussion got me thinking: I'm not sure that what we need here in this house (or in this country, for that matter) are stricter rules, guilt producing lectures on proper behavior complete with altar calls, or better planned strategies for family development. What we really need is a work of God. Apart from Him, all we have are our paltry efforts. We need faith and we can't drum it up. But we also need the tears of a 10-year-old girl that cry out for mercy while at the same time weep over the things that break God's heart.

And a little child shall lead them.

If I was a piece of furniture...

I'd be a bookcase--yes, I would--because I love books. I've been surrounded by them for the last 20 years, first as an English major, then as a publishing house employee, and now as a home school teacher. Over the past ten years, I've read a lot of how-to books: how to cook, how to clean, how to raise children, how to raise crops, and so on, but this year I've collected a stack of reads I'm trusting will aid me in pursing God and loving my neighbor.

In no particular order, here's my starting line-up for 2011:


Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just, Timothy Keller

God's Mighty Acts in Salvation, Starr Meade

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, David Platt

Love Walked Among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus, Paul E. Miller (re-read)

Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, Nancy Guthrie

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, Paul E. Miller (re-read)

Cross Talk: Where Life and Scripture Meet, Michael R. Emlet

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp

Caught Off Guard: Encounters with the Unexpected God, William P. Smith

The Promises of Grace: Living in the Grip of God's Love, Bryan Chapell

Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community, Dietrick Bonhoeffer

What are you reading this year?

Random Acts of Culture

I love this! On October 30, 2010,650 vocalists burst into song in the middle of a Philadelphia shopping center. How come this stuff never happens when I'm around?

Refinancing Parenthood

"Secure love understands that loving someone is often inconvenient and sometimes painful. Loving your kids costs money, time, and sleep. It might cost a mom decades in time originally planned to be spent on her career. It might cost her her figure. It might cost a dad a promotion. It might mean that there are some amenities or lavish vacations you must do without. It definitely means eating crow, swallowing your pride, and asking for forgiveness a lot."

~Tim Kimmel, Grace Based Parenting


Twenty-four hours in a day. Eighteen years until they're gone. A mere vapor. Is there truly anything not worth sacrificing in order to show my children the love of Christ?