Have you ever stopped to think about the growth of a tree? Through bitter cold, blistering heat, blustery wind, beating rain, and blazing sun. Through good years of plenteous rains and lean years of drought. From tiny and tender seedling, to soft and supple sapling, to young and vigorous greenwood, to old and sturdy hardwood. A tree withstands so much. Though its bark and wood may show scars from wounds or disease, with its roots running deep and branches ever reaching toward the sun, a strong tree can heal and thrive. Its branches spread. Its leaves give shade. It brings…
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Yesterday my son wondered why there was a police officer on duty at the church we attended. Today he overheard a video on Instagram referring to the tragedy in Las Vegas last night. On both occasions I had to tell my son that there are some bad people doing bad things in our world today. We are not even safe at church, perhaps less so, actually. It is so hard to have these conversations with my children. I want to shield them from the hard, scary realities of these times in which we live. But they need to know the…
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I have been thinking a lot lately about the different ways people worship within the Christian faith. Since moving, and even before that, within the broader Christian homeschool community, I have come into contact with more people who practice their faith very differently than I do mine. Orthodox, Catholics, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Lutherans, etc., etc., all having traditions, practices and rituals that differ widely from each other as well as from my own Baptistic practices. Yet we all worship the same Savior. We all believe basically one common thing at the end of the day: that salvation comes by grace through…
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There really isn’t much we can depend on these days. Sure, there are plenty of things we take for granted in modern American culture–electricity, running water, a strong wifi signal–but nothing is really certain to last. The power does go out. Water mains break. And we might move to an area without good internet service (ahem). The only thing I can truly depend on is God and His amazing grace. Even though I mess up and fail, even though everyone else flakes out on me, he is still there, waiting for me to stop panicking and to seek Him. He…
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Creeeeeeak! Oh, sorry, that’s just the sound of my rusty brain and typing fingers trying to get warmed up. It has been far longer than I planned to be away from the blog, and I feel a bit out of my element as I try to start writing again. For starters, I guess a little update on our current situation may be in order. Our little family completed our move successfully a couple of weeks back, thanks to help from a few friends, new and old. We feel pretty well settled in to our rental house now, and it is…