in the love of Christ

Last night was a tragedy. I’m sure that the presidential debate sparked many feelings across the board for every person in this country. Even people watching internationally had to feel some kind of guttural response to what they were seeing. The behavior from both sides was, at the most, un-presidential. I get a little nauseous thinking of how many people actually thought it went well or there was a “winner” at all.   But, as I sat there watching and considering turning the TV off, the moderator asked a question point blank of the president of this country. He point-blank asked him to denounce white supremacy. Each second after that question that the president of the United States of America did not give a clear answer was like an eon for me. I waited and waited and then both his opponent and the moderator re-asked the question to put it plainly. His response sounded more like the commands of a general to stand back and stand by for some future interaction than a man who was condemnin

We all change. I just folded another load of laundry and realized that, at some point, the way I fold towels has changed. There used to be one - and only one - way to fold a towel in my life. You hold it up, fold in one third onto the middle third then the last third onto that to make one long panel that you would fold twice on top of itself. That...sounds ridiculous when I write it out but that is the way it was! I looked down at my stack of towels today and realized these towels look nothing like my pristinely folded towels of early marriage. Why did I change my pattern? Have I gotten lazy and this is less intensive? Or did my circumstances change? Have we bought towels of different shapes recently? Yes! I see it now. My little window sill in our Irish bathroom with just enough ledge to hold our towels and no cabinet space to be found. I changed my technique to fit that window sill because no one wants to run down the hall to the hot press (hall closet...kindof) naked and

I have been looking to my left, through the wide windows of our bedroom turned in-home office, for three weeks now. I think it has been three weeks. Four weeks may have already passed uncounted by my occupied mind. So, I am sitting down to take an inventory within. From the sounds of my conversations and the looks of our social media feeds, it is clear that none of us really know if we are doing this season of life correctly. There is certainly a sense some days that we made it through work at home, church from home, school at home, physical distancing and social connection where able with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude. But, there are other days that feel so unsettled, unaccomplished and uncertain that I can only cling to the command to take heart in Jesus. I have tried to be careful what I share publicly - there are so many feelings and opinions. Reluctantly, we shared that we are expecting another baby because at 20 weeks on the fourth pregnancy (I write fourth