Love
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moreThe Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift for a Mother
On Tuesday, February 14 th, 2012When he asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day? I’d grinned and said all I wanted was a clean house. I mean, National Geographics wave across the study like a sea. Boys erupt here, lego this lava everywhere. There are dolls, two girl in this blast of boys, and their stream of scissors, and papers, and...
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moreweekends are for love {books on marriage}
On Saturday, February 11 th, 2012M ay all your wanderings this weekend, kindest friends …. look up and see that banner over you is love. :All is grace because of Christ alone, :: :: Beauty for the Weekend : On a Saturday morning… look at our Father’s World? … Creative Inspiration for the Weekend : Van Gogh’s Starry Night like you...
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more5 Ways to Fight Through to a Loving Marriage {What You’re Trying to Tell Him When You’re Angry}
On Thursday, February 09 th, 2012Ithink we were standing outside the back door, out by the white pickup under the Big Dipper, when I turned and said it. Said I hated him. The dark can make you brave. Or a fool. But when you’re twenty-two and think you know everything, panic can tear up your chest like this howl that has to rip free. “I hate it when you stand there all quiet.”...
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moreWhen Winds Blow & Love Tries to Hold On
On Wednesday, February 08 th, 2012The old threads cut up, laid down, stitched side by side, that quilt, it flaps on the line. A quilt for beds and bodies twined in the dark, hung out here to ride spring winds. The sun warms the back of a bare neck. I feel it, and on my arms. A breeze sways and the wooden pins still hold that quilt on the line. My Dad, he leans against the wire fence watching the windmill pump. ...
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moreHow to Build a House {into a Family}
On Tuesday, February 07 th, 2012They build it with their own hands. They build it in the angling sun and they are loud and happy and they pack in in all the gap...
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moreWhat Is The Best Gift to Give to A Man ? {Married Love & The Principle of Three Feet}
On Wednesday, February 01 st, 2012That’s what your mama had said — that it was the last day of January in the middle of a Canadian snowstorm. And all the farmers up and down the gravel roads had milked their cows in the morning and headed to the city’s Indoor Farm Show. And she had you, her ninth born, alone and late into that howling storm. Today you turn 39. What do you give a man who doesn’...
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moreWhat a Parent Wants to Say Before a Child Leaves
On Thursday, January 26 th, 2012Dear Son — who is called to climb a thousand walls, 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? I’ve never been one of those. And this the...
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moreWhy You Really Need to Think About Losing (Because This is how You Win)
On Monday, January 23 rd, 2012In the middle of a stiff winter wind, she asks to go to the beach. That’s where she says she wants to celebrate the turning of her calendar year. To stand on the frozen snow and turn her face directly into whatever is coming this way. We’re the only ones there. Nothing can mean nothing, and everything means something. Yes — everything. ...
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moreHow Your Work Today Can Last Forever
On Friday, January 20 th, 2012remembering this, this week… When the Farmer slumps against the door frame, slides to the floor, mumbles that he needs me to take him to Emergency, I nod mute. I haven’t the faintest idea how I’m going to get him there. In that exact moment, four of our six children wage desperate tummy revolts. I shuttle to each squirmish with cold cloths, courage words, a pr...
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morewhen sickness knocks quiet…
On Tuesday, January 17 th, 2012When we meet an ill moment with a surrendered smile, it loses some of its sting. I bring her a cup with a prayer and she takes it up and her eyes light and nod. And too, a little tray of beauty, a cool cloth, a few favorite things, and a bud in a vase. Perhaps this is the...
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moreThe 4 Minute Marriage Habit: How to make 2012 the year you fall madly in love all over again
On Wednesday, January 11 th, 2012He 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 pretty.” His stubbl...
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morewhen you’d really like to wear sheer joy
On Tuesday, November 15 th, 2011When Rosa’s youngest, little Liliana, scooped up that puppy right there next to the potato patch, she just hid behind his gaping mouth, eyes all large and laughing. Rosa told us what Liliana had done — that Liliana had found that puppy wandering abandoned — lost— outside her classroom. That Liliana had brought the puppy home to love. That Liliana loved. ...
