My husband tosses me softballs every day—okay, not literal softballs but the easy playful banter with obvious flirty responses I could hit back to him. If only I were that savvy! He tells me I’m really bad at flirting. Now THAT, I can respond to! I tell him he should be thankful I’m so bad at it. At least he can rest easy that I’m not flirting with anyone else if I’m so awkward flirting with him. [Read more…]
Sadness Has a Purpose
My two-year-old grandson and I “watched” Inside Out recently. More to the point, I watched as he ran around looking for things to get into, but I found myself intrigued by the psychology. This movie really is a graphic dissertation on human emotional development. The main point? Emotions grow more complex as we age. That complexity means all the emotions necessarily function simultaneously and bump into one another, often contradicting. [Read more…]
A Spoon Full of Vinegar
…like vinegar poured on a wound, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. Prov. 25:20b
Her quick response deflated my already burdened heart as she cheerily chirped: “It’s another opportunity to trust God.” True words, but not the ones I needed in that moment. At that moment, I was struggling through something that seemed insurmountable [Read more…]
Recovering Baptist: Keep Those Pedestals Close to the Ground
I call myself a recovering Baptist because of all the turmoil and scandal I’ve witnessed in my life worshiping in the Baptist church; however, I probably convey an inadvertent meaning. I actually love the people I’ve met in those churches, and many are still dear friends today. There is an unsettling trend though, in church broadly, that I happened to witness in those Baptist churches because… well… that’s where I was. [Read more…]
It Couldn’t Be Done
Edgar Guest published nearly 12,000 poems in his career with The Detroit Free Press in his “Poem a Day” column that eventually went into syndication. I ask my students what they would think if someone told them they had to write 12,000 poems in their lifetimes. I teach online, so the chat box lights up with pithy little comments questioning the sanity of anyone who thought they could achieve such a number [Read more…]