You got to leave a tender moment alone. ~Billy Joel ‘Mom, let me see your phone.’ My middle unhooked her arm from around my waist to square up her fingers like a frame around an enormous patch of flowers in every color there is. I know what she’s doing…

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Acts 2:42, The Message ‘Why do we have to go?’ ‘Because they’re family that’s why.’ They’re weird, there’s always lima beans, and I would rather stay home…

I can’t remember for sure but it feels like my first introduction to Jesus was probably to his clear set of rules. In my world of chaos, the thought of some sort of blueprint was appealing even if I thought early on most of the consequences for rule-breaking…

This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before. ~Maya Angelou I’m not sure if it was because of Erma Bombeck or the Kings of Leon begging me from the radio to Waste a Moment, but yesterday evening found me and my youngest pulled over…

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong in the broken places. ~Ernest Hemingway ‘I hope you are sitting down. Because I need to tell you my story.’ This, the first line of an email from a woman whose soul I recognized as my sister even before I hugged…

Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words. ~Saint Francis of Assisi Occasionally as parents, we begin to see the sweet buds of good fruit of long years of the hard labor you sometimes wonder is worth it. While my offspring are still a pack of wild…

‘Things are worse than they’ve ever been.’ Determined to drink in the sights and sounds of the same moment and long line I occupied, these words rode the good waves of strong coffee in the air and fixed themselves inside my ear. Whether curious or nosey I prefer not…

  in a series of letters from Screwtape to his nephew on one of the ways to lure a Christian away from his faith: How can you have failed to see that a real pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet? And that the sort…

It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart. It’s the welcome I receive with every start. Mumford and Sons, Roll Away Your Stone Dear Diary, First, I’m so sorry I haven’t written in you since eighth grade. After Mom read about the time…