As the wife of a music pastor, the words “praise and worship” carry a lot of connotations and ideas with them that I don’t have time to go into here. But one of the things about being involved in leading church music is this: Sometimes I have to praise God when I don’t feel like it. And I have to do it in front of people. Now, I know that may sound like I’m saying that I sometimes I’m being fake and just putting on a show. But no. Actually, the truth is that when I get up to sing with…
-
-
Since moving to a more affluent area last year, I have been somewhat reluctant to open my door and invite people over. We currently live in a rather small, shabby old rental house with lots of quirks and annoying little problems that we can’t change since we don’t own the place. I haven’t decorated much since we know this is a temporary situation. It isn’t the color scheme I would choose if I owned the house, and the kitchen is far from ideal. I feel, quite honestly, a little embarrassed to have people over because I know that most of…
-
There are so many “how” questions I could write on. I had trouble deciding which direction to go with this one. But in the spirit of the theme of community, I settled on exploring the question “How are you doing?” These days we commonly ask “How are you?” as a greeting, not an actual question to which we expect an open and honest answer. But I think we also long to have someone look us in the eye and really care about the truth. How are you really doing, friend? How is your health? How is your walk with the…
-
Since one of the my themes for the Write 31 Days challenge is “creativity”, today’s prompt word inspire is the perfect chance to explore that topic a bit. I have just started getting back in touch with some of my more creative endeavors after a period of dryness and feeling uninspired, so the connection between creativity and inspiration is relevant to me. Sometimes I think I have put too much stock in feeling “inspired” to be creative. I am finding here lately that I need to just start doing something creative, whether I feel the desire to do the thing or…
-
I have been contemplating the idea of comfort often of late. There are many ways we seek comfort in life: comfort food, comfy clothes, a cozy blanket on the couch, hot tea on a chilly morning. And those are just examples of physical comfort. As modern Americans, we do not like to be uncomfortable. We like to be happy and healthy. And when we are uncomfortable we want to fix it. I’m not saying being comfortable is all bad. We need some level of peace and rest in life to recover. But this life is not free of pain, discomfort…