Gift List
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moreHow to Really Live
On Monday, August 13 th, 2012It’s like an awakening. That right in the middle of the Sunday sermon, while the pastor’s preaching what salvation really means, I can see a woman in a pew ahead of me flipping through the pages of an Avon catalogue. I can only bow my head. Because there are a thousand ways to be lukewarm and there’s a reason I know that. I’ve been ap...
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moreHow to Make Sure Your Kids {& You} have the Best Job in the World
On Tuesday, August 07 th, 2012After they left, there was the laundry. There was the laundry on the line and there was the wind and there was the clipping of each pin to the line,and it was like a staking. How do you find your place and point in this world and what’s your real work in this world and how do you not miss it? The hens are pecking in the grass somewhere behind me, clucking low, looking, pe...
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moreThe 1 Thing You Have Got to Know… When You are Looking for Answers
On Monday, July 30 th, 2012The day our 6th child is born, a straight line wind rips through and tears trees in the woods straight out of the ground. We name the baby born in a storm, we name her Shalom. Her name means peace in Hebrew. We name her Shalom and she is born the day a storm mangles all our countryside, tears the roofs off a half a dozen barns, and Shalom means wholeness – a...
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moreA Letter For All the World’s Daughters
On Monday, July 23 rd, 2012I wouldn’t have gone to the gold fields if it wasn’t for you. If you hadn’t handed me Advil for my fever and sore throat, a glass of water for the Advil, a promise that it’d only be 10 minutes and I’d be sorry if I didn’t go to the fields. We brought the food you’d made for the men. One plate for your Dad in the combine and one plate fo...
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moreThe Blessing
On Monday, June 25 th, 2012There is much afoot at the farm this week — that all involves an invitation to all of you to come to the farm {more on the grace of that soon! Pray?} … So if all the friends will be invited ? Today, first inviting one of my oldest and most cherished friends to the farm, pulling up a rocking chair on the front porch and listening to Tonia Peckover tell just this:...
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moreHow to be One of the Strong …………… {and What Christian Sacrifice is Really}
On Monday, June 18 th, 2012That’s the thought that struck me standing there with all of them under the sky. That collapsed all the clouds into this one loop of surprising wonder. How could I have ever known he’d be a father like this and in Christ, is anything ever really a sacrifice? ...
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moreBonhoeffer & Counting One Thousand Gifts
On Monday, June 11 th, 2012‘Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual ...
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moreWhat if Joy were always Possible?
On Monday, June 04 th, 2012Joy is the fruit of gratitude. And gratitude is rooted in perspective. And when one’s rooted in Christ, one has been given the gift of the eyes that really see. So joy is always possible. As long as than...
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moreBecause Hard Days are White Horse Days
On Wednesday, May 30 th, 2012When that window shattered into 7 billion pieces, a sliver stuck my heart and maybe a sliver is all we ever have? It wasn’t so much that our farm boy had turned the tractor too sharp. It wasn’t that he’d backed the tractor into the auger of the wagon hitched behind him. It wasn’t even so much that the steel auger had slammed into the full window of the tractor — e...
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moreThe Best Way to Start the Week
On Monday, May 28 th, 2012If we aren’t thankful to God for now — why would we be joyful for more? The dandelions keep shaking out their happy manes on the lawn, roaring summer’s triumphant entry. There are ...
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moreWhat Grateful Love May Look Like
On Wednesday, May 23 rd, 2012The bride, she always wears white. And the day I get married, I do, yet most of my life I’ve worn black. I know who I’ve been. The first memory I ever held was the blood of my sister running, ponding, everything alive draining away. I came from there. We breathed grief. Black fears formed me. There were years I cut myself along the thin skin of the wrists, wild for a way ou...
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more3 Ways to Be a Happier Family …… {because we all are a bit broken}
On Monday, May 21 st, 2012to print photo 1 and photo 2 :: The kids laugh loud and the floors shake a bit with the stars and the laundry sprawls across the mudroom floor. I pick up pencils and socks and all these pieces that k...
