Have you ever been stuck dangling from the top of a roller coaster? Our family recently vacationed at a theme park and, being a roller coaster aficionado, I couldn’t wait to ride the new coaster. It promised to be a dizzying, speeding bullet with large twists, loops and a stomach clenching drop. As we rounded the corner to get in …
Barney Fife. Scarlett O’Hara. Inigo Montoya. Huckleberry Finn. Hannibal Lecter. Atticus Finch. Sherlock Holmes. Elphaba. Luke Skywalker. All great characters with vibrant and memorable personalities. All a complex mix of flaws, quirks, dreams and failures. Here’s the thing about finding characters…predictable characters are dull characters. I think most would agree that the above characters are all interesting, memorable and larger-than-life. …
Ah, the infamous ‘comfort zone’. We crave it. We want it. It gives a sense of security and well-being, doesn’t it? But here’s the thing: the comfort zone is actually quite deceptive. It gives us the illusion of security, the illusion of happiness, of comfort. But oftentimes it’s nothing more than a lie spilling from the lips of the enemy …
We did it. We took the plunge. We are homeschooling and I’ve got to say, it’s been rewarding. Exhausting, fun and challenging but rewarding. There were a few tears, a few “I don’t understand…”s and brief moments of meltdown, but I’m feeling better now. The girls are doing great too, by the way. In the homeschooling world, I keep hearing …
I’m a lot more spiritual after I’ve had caffeine. I know it’s sad but true. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve joked about it. It usually gets a laugh because we all know what it’s like to stumble out of bed, hair tangled and blinking through puffy eyes, unready and unprepared to face another day. Sunlight seems like …
The florescent lights in my laundry room died several weeks ago. After unsuccessfully trying to fix the problem, my husband declared that it would take the work of our friend, a skilled electrician, to repair it. Days turned into weeks as my hubby forgot to call to set up the appointment. So here I am, enjoying the wonder of doing …
As I walked down our road for some early morning exercise, I was surprised to hear the distinct cry of a hawk overhead. I shrugged the sound away, assuming he was out for a little breakfast. A minute later, I heard the hawk screech again. Squinting against the sunlight, I shaded my eyes and searched for the source of the …
I recently returned from my second mission outreach in beautiful Belize. I say beautiful because the people and children there have stolen my hearts many times over, and although there are certainly beautiful, breath-taking parts of Belize, the area I traversed is extremely poor—the children are often without electricity, water and only manage to eat, on average, one meal a …
God makes the impossible possible. I was recently studying Psalm 134, the last of the Psalms of Ascent. The psalmist encourages the people to bless the Lord but ends with, “May the LORD, Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.” Something about the Psalm left me troubled and I finally figured out why. I can bless God all …
For each new year, I pick a word to meditate upon, a word to help me dig deeper into the truths of God’s love. 2014’s word was freedom. After much thought and prayer, my word for 2015 is ‘joy’. God has recently impressed on me that our human emotions are rarely in a state of consistency. We are beings that …