Joy Habit
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moreWhen you sort of feel like you don’t belong
On Wednesday, May 29 th, 2013Someone has to be that Mother. That mother who drives a full 3 hours to the border with a packed mini-van and anxious kids and creeps through a 20 minute traffic backup under the hot, beating sun, only to rifle through her wallet and look up feebly to tell the custom’s officer she doesn’t have birth certificates for 2 of her children. So that would be me. ...
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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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more5 Things You Need to Know Before You Begin Your 2nd Term of Life
On Monday, January 21 st, 2013It felt like the second term to her. Her 39 and him about 40, and the first half over, now the beginning of the second. Or of the end — depending how you looked at it. You don’t get to make up most of your story. That’s what she thought at the stove over eggs, over all the cracked and broken things. ...
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moreBest Way to Get Through Hard Times
On Friday, January 18 th, 2013It’s what I sang over dishes. Sang on the days when I felt too weary to take another step, clean up another mess, change another diaper. Keep singing when I need to keep going on. It’s what I sing when the enemy attacks with lies, when I feel alone and scared,...
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more3 Marriage Habits Every Marriage Needs– because it’s worth falling in love again
On Wednesday, January 09 th, 2013He lays his hand on my shoulder. Water drips from strands tousled and a rivulet runs down the small of my back. “I have no idea what to wear.” I’m paying him no mind, standing before the closet with my towel, mumbling words. Hangers clatter. “What you’re wearing is rather pre...
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morePt. 1: How to Begin New Habits {Free Daily Planner}
On Wednesday, January 02 nd, 2013When we read this book , there’s this character that just goes ahead and puts on her “habit.” Shalom pats my shoulder and asks, “What’s a habit?” The amaryllis on the sill, it’s swelling in hope. And I tell Shalom this: a habit is something that is worn. She flickers recognition, nods, turns back to the page. She waits for me to read th...
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moreFirst Up: A Christmas Podcast over at Desiring God
On Wednesday, December 19 th, 2012Because I’m with you, friend, wanting nothing more this year than this: Christmas is not something we wrap up, but a Person whom we unwrap... So! Let’s do Just. That. — you & me both. Three posts today… yes, three because who can contain the comforting joy of Christmas? First up this morning: The grace-filled folks at Desiring God h...
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moreA {Christian} Family Thanksgiving Activity: The Thanks Giving Tree {Free Printable}
On Wednesday, November 07 th, 2012Leaves aren’t ever purely green and not everything is as it seems. The kids and I walk through the orchard and November. That’s what I tell the kids. That all summer, the chlorophyll of the leaf, all that green, absorbs the sun and releases food and it this cycle of chlorophyll that cloaks the leaves’ pure ...
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moreThe Real Truth about the Real First Thanksgiving {Free Printable}
On Friday, November 02 nd, 2012That field of beans west of the barn, it looked gaunt come end of October, bean pods all hanging like bony ribs. Whenever the wind sighed, the whole field just rattled skinny. That’s how my Dad always spoke of a railish man, that you could count his ribs. Nothing in me wanted to count those beans, know the yield, from this spare field. When the Farmer rolled...
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moreHappy November! {November Joy Dare}
On Thursday, November 01 st, 2012Happy Blessed November! BEST month yet? Looking for all His good gifts! {Crazy, eh? That recent studies conclude that keeping a gratitude gift list is *guaranteed* to increase your happiness by 25%? Who in the world doesn’t want 25% more happy? } Print out for the fridge, dare the kids, use these pr...
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more3 lines that are lifelines in any storm
On Tuesday, October 30 th, 2012And on the morning after the brunt of the hurricane, it comes down to just three. Those three that Jonathan Edwards said one had to know about real Christian joy, that no wind should ever tear away from the knowing. And I look out the kitchen window at the corn still standing and I take and make the old preacher’s words real simple and I murmur it quiet...
