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Raising Children in a Success Obsessed World
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Like a Child
I never tire of the mountains. I want to be in them every day-rain, snow, sun-it doesn’t matter. While we don’t own a mountain get-a-way, we only live one hour away, so we try to go as often as possible. And the lack of organized activities this year has allowed for a bit more of that, I’m happy to say. Our dear friends do own a cabin, however, and let us stay from time to time. So, my boys and I snuck up there for a night to be in nature, escape wifi, and hike. It was the first time we’d been there without either their grandparents or my husband,…
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Today, I Will Be #Thankful
Yesterday, we hiked as a family. My husband and I hiked a lot when we first met and married, and now, after years of training, our boys are old enough to hike almost anything. One of my sons has a hurting heel, so we decided we needed to hike something that didn’t involve too much climbing. We decided on a trail we haven’t hiked in years. It was not only beautiful and peaceful but provided that familiar aroma of unadulterated fresh air mixed with the fragrance of pine. When everyone was hungry for lunch, we decided to walk a little further only to realize that the photo my husband and…
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Love my neighbor? I Can Barely Put One Foot in Front of the Other
I sent a text the other day to one of my friends. With the shut down of school (and society for a while) I have lost touch with so many of my friends, especially those associated with my work or my kids’ school. I asked her how she was intending to see how she was dealing with all of the #COVID-related issues, but the response I got was nothing of the sort. Two of her family members living in Africa had just passed away for unmentioned reasons. In addition, she had lost a total of 8 family members there so far this year, 4 in a car accident. As I…
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When Step by Step is All We Have
I love school, in any form. The smell of pencils, crayons, new books, all of it gives me a strange feeling of excitement. In fact, I have never missed a fall in school, not one. My boys have bought into my excitement, and are ready to go back now-especially after spending 6 months at home. But, I have to admit, this fall has a different sentiment, an added feeling of unpredictability I’ve never experienced before. Sure, there are plans, but they are all tentative. I am hopeful we will go back, but there are so many unknowns. How will it work? Masks, schedules, lunches, sports-the questions are endless, and unanswerable…
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When Helping Actually Hurts
When I was 22 years old, I taught high school English. Among my students that year was a 16 year old mother of a 1 year old girl. It was well known that her home-life was rough as well, especially in regards to her own abusive mother. While I don’t remember her name, I do remember chatting with her one day while she was trying to catch up on some missing work and realizing-in a limited way-how little I understood of what her life was like, how little I felt like I had to offer her. Generational poverty, teen parenthood, a sordid home-life, none of these had ever been a…
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#Living Water in Desert Times
When I was 18 years-old, I signed up to work with a group in Yellowstone National Park. We were to work in various areas of the park in various jobs, either housekeeping or food service, and offer Bible studies. It just so happened that I was assigned to work at Yellowstone Lake. Having grown up in Montana, I was accustomed to the beauty of the mountains, but living at the lake that summer was such a serene and awe-inspiring experience. In addition to the hiking almost daily, I spent time every day sitting by this vast body of water, surrounded by mountains, journaling and praying. Now, more than 25 years…
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Rethinking Depression
Depression. It seems we can’t go anywhere, watch TV, read the news without hearing about it. There are endless commercials for anti-depressants and medications to take in addition to anti-depressants if we still feel down. Additionally, there are countless hotlines and programs to prevent suicide. Therapy is an ever-growing field, and now, we can even use an app to get therapy on the go. According to the CDC, one out of six adults struglle with depression in our nation each year. Enter 2020. The fear of COVID-19, shutdowns, job loss, police shootings, and violent riots-as if life wasn’t stressful enough. As a public school teacher, I encounter students each year…
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I Lift My Eyes
Among these people was the man I consider to be the wisest person I know-no offense to the many wise people God has used in my life. He was a reserved, Christian psychologist who had devoted his life to counseling the most difficult, children and teens in our community. Simply working around him was a constant reminder of God’s character. One day the school was having a myriad of discipline problems-usually around the holidays, full moons, etc. . . . –and as soon as one fire was put out another started. I remember I briefly stopped in to his office to vent. I said something like, “Have you seen what…
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Why Does It Feel Like We All Are Fighting a Losing Battle Right Now? It’s Simple: We Have Forgotten Who Our Enemy Is.
Everyone is at war with someone right now, it seems. Just one glimpse of the news or Facebook feed yields images of battles, fought on our own soil, civilian against civilian. The enemy? There are too many to count-the left, the right, the police, the rioters and looters, the media, the rich, the poor, one race or another and many more. The end goals are as numerous as the enemies and the battle plan? Every plan causes someone pain. In short, we can’t win a battle we can’t define, so we all just keep on pointing fingers waiting for something undefinable to happen and satisfy this discontent feeling writhing inside…