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We’ve been tackling lots of house projects lately – windows, floors, closets. So I find myself thinking a lot about this home we’ve created, this place we became a family. There is a deep joy in making a house a home, a fulfillment I never imagined when I was an energetic twenty-year-old, hauling tattered boxes…

I recently read Fred Edie’s Book, Bath, Table, and Time: Christian Worship as Source and Resource for Youth Ministry for my research on vocation and youth. Drawing from his theological work with teenagers at the Duke Youth Academy, Edie writes about simple ways to retrieve the holy things and practices of the church to engage youth. I’m…

A few days before Lent, I sat my son down for a serious conversation over crackers. “So buddy, Lent starts on Wednesday. Lent is a time when we get ready for Easter. And during Lent we don’t sing Alleluia. So we’re not going to sing Alleluia for a while.” His sea-blue eyes sparkled up at…

I planned to seize the year’s extra day with all the gusto I could muster. When the Winter-That-Wasn’t lobbed one last Hail-Mary of a storm, cancelling my meetings and leaving us with a snow day to enjoy, I envisioned curling up with the boys, a cup of tea and a pile of good books. An idyllic day…

My babies were each a few days old when I placed them in their great-grandfather’s hands. Seated each time on the same couch in my in-laws’ living room, he and I gazed down together at the peaceful beauty of a sleeping child. Their bodies hardly noticed the transfer from arm to arm: heads simply flopped from…

2:00 am (after a night of naps): My head is going to EXPLODE. How is that baby screaming again? I cannot handle his yelling. I’m going to lose my mind. Didn’t I JUST get up and feed him? Sigh. I could sleep for weeks and still not get enough. God as my witness, I am…

There’s nothing like a season of travel to make you appreciate home. We spent Christmas with one family, New Year’s with the other. Paused briefly for a week to unpack and pack, then jetted off for a vacation to sunnier climes. Timing wasn’t ideal, but that’s how the planning shook down. Each brought celebration and…

The elderly woman shuffled down the aisle, pausing at the end of our pew as she buttoned up her coat to brace herself against the winter cold. She watched as our toddler lunged across his father’s lap to topple a stack of hymnals, nearing knocking his already-screaming baby brother to the floor. I was trying…

Where have you found yourself in the Christmas story this year? . . . Some years I’ve been like the wise men. Seeking. Searching for a sign. Stranger in a strange land. Some years I’ve been like the shepherds. Having to trust what others have told. Wondering what to believe. Some years I’ve been like…

Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes – Some have got broken – and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school. There are enough Left-overs to…

Two of my dear friends recently gave birth to babies. Thanks to the technology of Facebook and Google Chat, I knew of each labor as it began. I waited impatiently for updates over the hours. I rejoiced with a loud whoop when I read that baby had made a safe entrance to this side of life.…