Faith
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moreWhy Doing Lent This Year Is What You Really Need . . . . . (and a Free Family Lent & Easter Devotional)
On Tuesday, February 12 th, 2013I can’t seem to follow through in giving up for Lent. Which makes me want to just give up Lent. Which makes me question Who I am following. Which may precisely be the point of Lent. Last week, I’m standing on a table, snapping the shutter on a bouquet of roses, when by brother calls. Levi picks it u...
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moreWhy Weak is the New Strong: Radical Right Where You Are {Pt4}
On Wednesday, February 06 th, 2013So I fell extremely anemic in the fall. Could hardly drag out of bed, felt like jello, looked like a gaunt ghost, and got winded walking from the sink to the stove. I’d draped arms around the Farmer’s neck and told him I was sure I was right broke. ...
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moreGod Made a Mother and You — So Farmer On!
On Monday, February 04 th, 2013I sat beside a girl in Mr. Seuter’s grade nine math class who said she was getting out of here. She was getting out of this no name little farming town and she was getting out of this hick place with its hick boys and she was getting free of everything her daddy ever was. I knew her daddy. He was known for planting row...
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moreWhat Radical Christianity Looks Like Right Where You Are {Pt. 3}
On Wednesday, January 30 th, 2013You can beat your hard chest over the slaves in night streets. And over women beaten down for her one beautifully snapping mind, and over oppression that crushes the gasping lungs of whole nations. And all your chest banging can sound clang hollow, and I think this over a sink full of crusted pots. The water is hot. And not at all hot enough. And where do you find the blasted t...
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moreA Life Plan When You’re Overwhelmed: Sanity Manifesto Printable
On Saturday, January 26 th, 2013So I’m a mess and we’re all failures — at least all the honest of us are. And the truth is, no one ever runs before they take baby steps. So I scratch down these 25 points, like my own sanity manifesto, and there are a thousand ways in a thousand seasons to make a life glorify God. I scrawl out mine, which would be different than yours, and make a place for...
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moreHow to Breathe Through the Hard Times
On Tuesday, January 22 nd, 2013They were born the same week. Both of them, days apart, two miracle years ago this week. My scribbly little book and her loveliest little person. And my sister had said to me, said into the phone, during early labor — “Tell me I can do this.” And I wait for her to breathe heavy through the mother wave crest...
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moreWhen You are Weary of Vanilla Christianity
On Wednesday, January 16 th, 2013For some ridiculous reason, I keep carrying around green sparkly earrings in my purse. Like I’m hoping someday that I’ll get to wear them — and there just ain’t no Dave Brown way that’s going to happen this side of the great divide and I’m the best with this. Big Mama, she’d wrapped them up and sent them from the great state of Texas ...
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moreHow to Keep in Time with God
On Monday, January 14 th, 2013There wasn’t a morning that she didn’t flick off her bedroom light and find it right there on the edge of the table outside their bedroom door. One round vitamin C that he’d leave out for her, before he went to the barn and his udder-dripping sows. Like he thought she could just take it and keep the day from being infected with grief. Like there was a way to i...
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moreHow to Be the Parent You Want to Be: 40 Things Every Child Must Know Before They Leave Home
On Friday, January 11 th, 2013Dear Son — You have to know how your unfolding from me was a miracle. That’s the miraculous thing about miracles – they really do happen. How is it in this crazy, holy world does a girl-woman bear a boy-child? How does she raise a squalling boy-child into a man? What can a woman know about raising a man? And this the thing: there’s only so much t...
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moreChange the Prepositions in Your Life & You Change Your Life
On Thursday, January 03 rd, 2013The morning after Christmas, what I want most is to forget the saran-wraped left over turkey in the fridge and the pine needles tinkling Charlie Brown-like off the mantle, and just run away. Just high tail it out of Dodge and mid-life and strangling regrets and the centri...
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more2012: A Year in Photos {and 7 Links for 2013}
On Saturday, December 29 th, 2012From calendar page to calendar page, the moments are our lives and the years are blinks. {just a few photos from the farm and 2012:} ...
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more‘Jesus is the Greatest Gift’ Christmas Gifts for Neighbors: Free Printable
On Wednesday, December 19 th, 2012The kids have Adore Him playing and th...
