These are the (Mon)days of Our Lives

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This is the sight that greeted my husband at the end of this Monday. He did not appreciate his daughter’s blossoming practical joke skills.

My daughter is a slow hand-washer. She does not want help and likes to do it all by her lonesome three-year old self.  She, like Peter, not only washes her hands, but her face, and legs, and back, and tummy, and feet, and hair, as well. Her thoroughness consumes about 20 minutes a pop.  She leaves the bathroom dripping wet, and has a tendency to slip or cause others to slip with her excess water. We are trying to teach her not to do this.

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I’m a Proverbs 31 Failure

“A wife of noble character, who can find?”

Recently, as my husband read aloud from Proverbs 31 over the breakfast table, I wondered if maybe that was a rhetorical question. As in, “can anyone find this woman?” She has an extensive list of accomplishments and abilities. She seems to be able to “do it all,” with skill (check out all the details here). Am I really supposed to be like her?

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A Father’s Prayer

by Jonathan

I love hanging out with teenagers.  In fact, I think I enjoy being with teenagers more now than I did when I was one.  But anyway, I’m beginning to notice how many teen girls view themselves so negatively.  They don’t see themselves as God sees them: cherished, loved, special, and beautiful.  When others say they’re inadequate and lacking, they listen and believe.  I’m the older brother of seven sisters, the father of two daughters, and the husband of one wife, so this is personal.  (In fact, my wife has written on her struggles in this area here.)

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Twizzlers for Everyone (or How I Missed the Point)

by Jonathan

It’s often called Golden.  It’s too simple.  It’s nearly impossible to implement in real life, but according to Jesus, it sums up pretty much the entire Bible (at the time of writing).

It is, of course, the Golden Rule, and it goes something like this, “Do for others what you would like them to do for you.  This is a summary of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.”

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Don’t Be Afraid of Me, Please (and other lessons from the Valley)

by Jonathan

Recently, a friend asked me to write more on the topic of grief, and since this particular topic is so much fun, I did.  I took a stroll back down into my own valley of grief and asked some questions:  What was helpful during my mother’s terminal illness?  What wasn’t?  What were great things kind people said to me after my dad passed away?  What things could have been (and should have been) left unsaid?

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