God has put all kinds of teachers in our path They’re disguised as bosses and baristas, friends and foes, artists and authors. And daughters.
Monday was our daughter, Katy’s 28th birthday. She celebrated with friends in D.C. where she lives. As a mom, celebrating her from afar, I started to think of some of the things she’s taught me in the past 28 years. Here are just a few: Continue reading
The other day I was driving back home after dropping a friend at the airport. On the highway someone merged in front of me into the right lane going about 30 mph. There was another car in the left lane next to me so I had to slam on my brakes to avoid running into the creeper-merger.
I may have yelled the “i” word in frustration and anger.
As I eventually was able to pull into the left lane and speed past the offender I looked to my right and saw what appeared to be a young Somali woman hunched over the wheel, anxious, timid, and clearly unsure of where she was going.
And four words smacked me upside the head: Continue reading
I missed posting on One Word Friday, so on this Saturday, just a few things to remind you that there are people “choosing life” everywhere, every day!
People often ask me who my target audience is when I write this blog. Well, I’ll tell you. The person I think of is a twenty-something who is sitting down at a desk in a secular job and just needs a little reminder that God is there and intimately interwoven in the fabric of their day if they have eyes to see. I pray that it will be encouraging and that it will help us take God seriously, but ourselves not so much.
That said, of course I’m grateful that anyone shows up here, regardless of my “target”!! I write this also to pay attention to the work of God in my life and hold myself accountable too. There are universal themes we all struggle with regardless of our age or season of life.
Anyway, all that to say that yesterday when I wrote about the extremes of being afraid of being a “Bozo for Jesus” or of denying my faith, it was because it’s something I need to pay attention to and try to get better at. I’m going to take a risk and share a tiny way that played out in my life yesterday… Continue reading
This morning I was praying for some twenty-somethings I know who have kind of wandered away from God. They’re really enjoying the partying hard thing, the sex without strings thing, and carpe without commitment. I was praying that God might draw them back to Himself – remind them of the grace and meaning and joy to be found in dependence on Him.
But I have a Confession: I don’t have the gift of “evangelism” and I often think I don’t care as much as I should about the souls of those far from God. The culture of “live and let live” has immunized me. Plus there’s the risk of making anyone feel like a “project” or being labeled one of “those” Christians with pat answers and tracts in place of candy at Halloween that scares me. 
My nickname in our family is “Idea Woman”. Often I am mocked with the refrain “God loves you and Laura has a wonderful plan for your life.”
It’s ok. I’ll own it. I can’t help the way my mind works. Ideas just kind of spurt out like fireworks.
While they were growing up, the girls and I used to watch the old movie “The Trouble with Angels” about Haley Mills causing mischief in a catholic boarding school. We often repeat her line, “I have a scathingly brilliant idea!“ with a gleam in our eyes.
All that to say, in the past couple years I’ve been struck by three things that friends have done that seem scathingly brilliant and I want to share them with you. These are not my ideas. I just wish I had thought of them! Continue reading
As you read this I’m in Florida for a long weekend. Ostensibly for a fund-raiser for World Vision, but let’s be honest, I’ll be with friends and the temperature will be above 30 degrees farenheit. I’m not suffering for Jesus here.
“Choosing life” is easy with beauty all around you. Vibrant color, warm pavement under bare feet, up-lifting conversations. But this week, living in the left-hand picture hasn’t been all Bougainvillea, sunshine, and Calamari. Some experiences felt dismissive, some choices by others that felt unjust. Not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but a little bumpy nevertheless. The kind of thing many, many people experience daily for years and years.
How can we not deny the “death” parts, but still choose life in healthy, non-Pollyanna ways? Still keep perspective? Continue reading
Because I like variety in my devotional life (or more honestly, because I’m spiritually ADD), I occasionally switch up my morning routine and end up like the little kid who picks one cookie off the tray, takes a bite and then puts it back in favor of another. This can result in times when I’m a bit scattered, trying to decide if I should do this Bible study or that devotional, or Scripture memory or whatever.
Currently as I was scavenging, looking for a new “cookie” I landed on a Bible Reading Plan of themes of Scripture from the YouVersion app. Right now the theme I’m on is judgment. I know, you’re thinking “That sounds like so much FUN!!”, right?
Anyway, this morning I was dutifully reading Isaiah 5 as prescribed by THE PLAN, and I thought, “Wow! This is like THE WORD for those Israeli Settlers, illegally cheating Palestinians out of their land! Whoa Nellie!” Continue reading
For a couple of weeks before Christmas we prayed a lot for our daughters, Maggie and Katy.
Maggie said she was afraid she might fail her statistics class in grad school because our family doesn’t do math. This is the Instagram she posted.
And Katy was under a lot of pressure at work because, well, she had to coerce motivate people to do what they didn’t want to do.
I mobilized pray-ers. Family. Friends. The occasional stranger who looked bored. Continue reading
I shared last week that my One Word for 2014 is LIFE (as in “Choose Life!”).
I think LIFE is a really great One Word. (Woohoo for me!) I think it’s at the root of following Jesus. I’m not saying my One Word is better than yours! Noooooo! That would be soooo foolish. Like watching a Bachelorette marathon and eating a bag of Oreos foolish.
I love all the One Word’s you’ve shared here that you are prayerfully living into this year. (If you want in on the fun look here or here and add your Word in the comments!). But I also think that a case can be made that whatever word you’ve chosen, it’s about choosing life – the capital “L” life that God made us for.
Ok, I know some of you are reading this in California, or Bali, or Singapore. The palm trees are swaying and you call a day of sweet warm sun and tropical flowers “Tuesday”. Your Word may seem easy and your burden light. You may have a hard time relating to a picture like the one below, but it exists. Trust me. I know it too well. Continue reading
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