Have you considered that it doesn’t take trauma or drama to break a person? Sometimes a loved one’s relentless subtle messages that “you should change” tear away pieces of you in the same way as a naughty boy might strip the bark from a tree, oblivious that he might kill it! Isn’t change good? Not…
Do you ever look at what someone has gotten themselves into and think, “I’d never do that!” You may have a blind spot when it comes to your own shadowy side or it may be true that you’d never do such a thing, but it’s also likely that the other person would never make the…
Yes, I’m deliberately spoofing the all-time bestseller, How to win friends and influence people. Nothing wrong with the book, except if we truly believe the lie that we can copy and paste some suggested behaviors and produce a predictable outcome in our relationship with anyone. The lie is: If I say “a” to Sally, she’ll…
(Excerpt from Chapter 5—Unboxing Personality in Don’t Change Them, Grow Them) People are like the pieces of peculiar art on Via Padova in Milan, Italy. Most passers-by see only the five yellow metal structures on the sidewalk: two circles, two triangles, and an arrow. However, those who look up at the right moment, when the…
My husband did a fine pruning job on the hydrangea in the corner of our yard last fall, hence the spray of off-white florets this summer. Driving home yesterday, I wondered what was proper pruning etiquette when it comes to prolific, wild flowering like what we have going on here—and a fence. Should one…
If you’ve been married long enough, you will have experienced both: forgiveness and trust issues. These are the hills and valleys of the marriage journey—inescapable, even for the holiest among the ringed ones. Yes, if you’re married, you are ringed. That symbol of eternal commitment on your left hand binds you to a covenant meant…
am deeply touched each Easter by messages about the death of Christ through which we now live by grace. Our host in Tennessee just read an amazing article by John Ortberg (from his book “Who is this Man?”) about Easter Saturday. What was the purpose of the day? He explains it so beautifully. I won’t…
Cape gooseberries grew in my granddad’s garden and sometimes in our backyard. The deepest childhood pleasure came from scouting out the ripe and ready ones. They were the ones whose balloon-like sheaths had turned from green to straw-color. Peeling away the sheath was like opening presents on your birthday. The translucent, papery lanterns held golden…
Allow me to take a step out of my mom suit into my office suit for today’s musing about grace in the workplace. It’s been bothering me for a while that there is a chasm between workplace values and the ones we applaud when we’re in our “spiritual mode.” Could we as Christian business folk…