Thoughtful Thursdays

I've had several ideas lately for Thoughtful posts. But it seems like every week, I run out of time, and blogging slips down my to-do list until it falls off the edge. =/ So when I pulled up a new post today, I'm not sure why I typed into that title line "Who We Get...

There's an old-world definition of "living water"--it means water that moves. Dead waters are stagnant--you don't want to drink from them, and sometimes things can't even live in them. For instance, the Dead Sea. Now, this place is pretty amazing in a lot of ways. The...

Over the last few months, a landmark change has come upon me. It started gradually--now and then, out in public. And then it became more common even at home. And now I know it's here to stay. My daughter has stopped calling me Mommy and now calls me Mom. It's a...

As so typically happens, I've been letting ideas simmer in the back of my mind that combine my current Bible reading, things I've been reading to my kids, and conversations and sermons from church. I love when all these lines cross and combine to lead me to a knew...

Last week we passed an idyllic seven days at the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I expected to have a great time--and I did. I had a fabulous time. We generally do. But as a mama, I've also known my fair share of vacation frustrations. Because you don't...

In recent weeks, there's been quite a hullabaloo over statues. It's started in the US and has even spread to the UK. Voices are raised. Blood pressure is up. People are shouting at each other from both sides. On the news the other evening, I heard someone call for the...

Last weekend I had the honor of filling in in our church's pulpit. I sat down to write my sermon thinking I'd base it on a blog post from last August . . . but was in for a surprise as I did some more research. Did you know that the English definition of blessing...

Last weekend, my dad preached on a rather familiar passage in Philippians 4. His sermon was great, focusing on how God can conquer any of our weaknesses and enable us to do the work He calls us to. It was a message full of things you just want to shout "Amen!" to....

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of my 103-year-old great-grandmother, who passed away over the weekend. And while I was teary-eyed and sniffly at it (which is for me the equivalent of outright crying), I didn't leave the service feeling wrung out or devastated or,...

So I've been working through some things this week--and anyone who knows me knows that my "working through" usually involves writing. Where better to compose my thoughts, then, than for you all, right? 😉 I think the kernel of what's been bothering me is assumptions....

So wow, it's been a week of political opinions again, hasn't it? Reporting and misreporting, deciding, shouting, threats of protest. I have sworn years ago that you'd never hear me shouting my political views from my writing platform. And in part it's because I have...

It's that time of year again. The calendar says there's only one more day left in the old year. Facebook keeps trying to show me my year in review. Friends on there are all posting about hopes for 2017, fresh starts, saying farewell to the old. I've always loved to...

I had planned to have something brilliant and insightful to blog about today. I intended to think about this yesterday. Instead I . . . * Took my cat to the vet and ended up leaving her there overnight. Poor kitty has an impacted bowel and needed an enema. =( * Spent...

If this autumn has hammered anything home in the United States, it's that everyone has an opinion. Not that I didn't already know this, but seriously. I heard more opinions this election cycle than I can ever recall witnessing before. Every time we touched a toe into...

Well, here we are, on the other side of the election. The results are in, the new president is declared, and some less-than-peaceful protests are under way. I have friends who are gloating, friends who are weeping, and friends (the vast majority) who say something...

I admit it--I'm sick of it. All the politics on the news, the divisiveness, the fact that I can't go on Facebook without my friends' feed being an explosion of vitriolic "Who I'm voting for and why" posts. It makes me tired. But more, it makes me sad. And here's why....

Our Bible studies are famous for getting off track . . . but resulting in some awesome discussions. Last night our study of Daniel led us to a conversation on why people might lose faith--why, specifically, God might put them in a situation where they end up losing...

I'm not sure when this thought hit me--but it was in the last month or so. One of those things that has niggled and wiggled around in my head and then burst into realization during a sermon in church one week. I'd been wondering about blessings . . . and if we really...

As a writer, I know all about picking the interesting times to write about--we leave out the boring stuff, right? Or the unimportant stuff. We certainly don't spend pages describing something that will never come up again. It's something I've noticed in biblical...

I just got back from a couple days at a church conference, and the director said something in one of his presentations that resonated with something my husband and I had been discussing too. And that is this: One of the greatest perceived failings of the modern church...

A few weeks ago, I heard an analogy about the kind of life we should live; that we should be an oak tree, solid and tall, a pillar of the community, the kind of person people respect and will miss when we're gone, etc. That we shouldn't be a tumbleweed, aimless and...

Life is hard. So often we feel pressure. People are pushing us. Prodding us. Poking us. Sometimes, when circumstances are weighing heavy, we get that tight feeling in our chest, right? Or in our stomach. Stress. Overwhelm. We get tired. We get frustrated. We react....

It's a busy week here in the White House. David's birthday was on Sunday (and I'd like to give a big shout-out of thanks to the Penguins for winning the Stanley Cup that day, which made a fantastic birthday present for that die-hard fan. When they won, I looked over...

When I got married, I filled out a registry. A wish list. It had on it all the things one would expect--dishes and cookware, sheets and towels. All of them, sets. Matching. Off-white plates with flowers around the edges. Matching cups. A set of cutlery. Glasses that...

I daresay we've all read Philippians 4:8-9. I know I've read it many times. I've heard it quoted. I've read bloggers and reviewers who make it their mantra . . . and occasionally I have been seriously irritated when people condemn something using this as their excuse....

Back in the early days of my publishing career, my only books were from WhiteFire. Which is, of course, our company. This meant that in those first years, I knew of pretty much each sale. Individually. I could track my every effort to know which ones were working....

My Monday started out pretty normal--I was editing Giver of Wonders, which made me two minutes late to get our homeschool day started. Had a load of laundry in. As soon as morning classes were done, I ran to get dressed, get the garbage down to the end of the...

I got up this morning and realized it was Thursday. Time to get thoughtful. I opened my blog. Drew up a clean post. And sat. Staring. Waiting for inspiration to strike. Sometimes I know days or weeks in advance what I want to write about on Thursdays. Sometimes I even...

It's no secret that there are a lot of different types of people in the world. That we all have different personalities. Different outlooks. That there introverts and extroverts and whole personality-naming-systems with letters to label each part of your personality....

(First, I'd like to apologize for my blog being abandoned this week--we've had internet connectivity issues, and though I thought I posted, it didn't go through, apparently...so those posts will just be saved until next week, LOL.) In our homeschool Bible reading,...

In October, my husband David and father went to Bulgaria. Their goal was the refugee camp in Harmanli, on the Turkish/Bulgarian border. Their purpose was to interview Syrian refugees and learn their story. The result is a short film called Along the Path. Where my...

I know, I know. Every blogger in the whole blogosphere is reflecting now on the exit of 2015 and the entrance of her baby sister. But under the firm belief that reflection is good for the soul, I must join in. 😉 As I look back over 2015, I see a year full to...

  It's officially the advent season. The time of year when decorations are everywhere you turn, where cheerful lights proclaim Christmas around the corner, where you expect smiles from your fellow man and sales in the stores and happy greetings to be upon lips....

My husband came home one evening a while back with quite a story to tell. He'd met a friend of ours at a local Christian restaurant--a blatantly Christian restaurant, mind you, with a Christian name and which is decorated with nothing but Christian art. They were...