1. I believe in love at first sight; it happened to me. Okay, maybe not first sight since I am not that shallow, but at first conversation. I knew then, but he did not for many months. Somehow I managed to keep it to myself until he had seen the light! We’ve been married 45 years, and are each others’ biggest fans. 2. I use cotton handkerchiefs and so does my husband. I even iron […]
I shared preaching with two pastors (one my husband!) this Mother’s Day. Here’s what I said: Theodore Roosevelt said “Comparison is the thief of joy”, and he was a man who did not try to match up his life with other’s lives. But for us as women, and perhaps especially as mothers, our lives are often filled with the noise of comparison with others and an obsessive need to be perfect. How can we begin […]
A friend of mine had a baby boy recently, her first. Although she seems young, she is 25, the same age I was when my first baby was born. She is a woman who had some hard times in her teens and began to love Jesus for all she was worth. When the baby was a few weeks old, she and her husband led our church body in worship through music. They are both very […]
My husband is a pastor, and on Mother’s Day this year, he kindly asked me to finish his sermon with a short talk on mothering. Looking over this now, it’s interesting to see that I write differently when I am going to speak the words than when the words will just sit on the paper and be read in the heart and mind. Even so, I like how it came out, as did others, so wanted […]
In my work with mothers of newborns, sleep and the lack of it is a critical factor. These women are so tired: bone-weary, lid drooping, mind wandering tired. And yet somehow they go on. Mothers keep doing what needs to be done past what feels like human capacity. I see it regularly, and I remember it well. The intensity of it never completely leaves you. As they talk to me, as I watch their faces […]
A handful of quietness 