General Blog Posts
In the movie Overcomer, Thomas asks John, “Who are you?” This question caused me to wonder how do I define “who am I.” John starts listing his titles: basketball coach, history teacher, husband, father. Thomas presses on. “No, what if you are stripped of those, who are you?” When John says follower of Christ, Thomas…
How do you remove weeds in your life? Just like weeding a garden or field, you must pull them out one at a time. Pulling horse weed out of my son’s oat field reminded me of the Parable of the Weeds told in Matthew 13:24-30. Unwanted growth poses strongholds in fields and people alike, but…
Home movies trigger lost memories. We capture our moments in videos and photographs so when we are older we can remember what love looks like. On Mother’s Day, we brought out some old movies featuring my two eldest, starting when they were three-years-old and four months, respectively, and continued to when my second son was…
A year has passed since my last day as a homeschool teacher, but since March, my children studied at home again due to COVID-19. I’ve heard many discussions about the home-based education measures taken because of the pandemic. Views vary to the extremes. But major differences exist between the two: responsibility and investment. I still…
Ah, books. How I love them. I love the feel, the smell, but most of all, I love the adventures within their pages. Because reading benefits our lives and moods, it is a habit I hope gets instilled in children at a young age. Let’s encourage them to read wholesome books that help them grow…
Using your God-given gifts brings you joy, but not everyone understands what drives you. I perused books on a shelf debating on a purchase when someone I knew greeted me with her hand on my arm, laughter bubbling through her words. “Don’t you want to write books some day? And how’s that going for you?”…
Have you ever won against the odds? In elementary school, shy and nonathletic, I stood on the perimeter of the crowd of kids on the playground watching my classmates race to the schoolyard fence and back. Memories get hazy, but I recall getting called upon to participate. The popular girls’ comments reflected their certainty of…
I remember myself as a teen crushing on a boy from afar or wishing to be included in a certain group of girls. We never outgrow the need for acceptance. Somehow through the decades, we still yearn to be valued, included, seen, accepted, wanted. Today acceptance might look like belonging to a certain group or…
I wonder what the repercussions will be for this isolation mode we are in. It isn’t healthy to avoid others in person-to-person communication for too long. Good health requires physical touch. It’s a proven fact people need each other. We need to see each other, shake hands, hug, play sports, and dance, etc. To be…
In 1 Thessalonians 3:2-3, Paul says that they sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage people in the faith so they wouldn’t be unsettled by these trials. These words struck me that such a time as we live in now needs people to strengthen and encourage others because the trials are unprecedented, unsettling. Advice to strengthen…