Eighteen years ago, I planted a garden for the first and, as it turns out, the last time. My neighbor at the time, a retired landscaper, offered to till up a corner of my yard with his landscaping equipment. He must have had a lot of faith in my gardening abilities, as evidenced by the…
My Infertility Didn’t End With a Pregnancy
It was a hot July day like today when it happened. “I’m really sorry, but it is unlikely that you will ever have children.” The doctor’s words cracked the stillness of the exam room. I couldn’t put meaning behind what she was saying to me as she wrote a specialist’s name on her prescription pad….
Revisitation
The year I turned eleven, my family packed up our belongings and left the neighborhood where the bulk of my childhood memories were held in a little yellow house with rose bushes growing against the backyard fence. After five years, we’d outgrown that yellow house and my parents had plans to build a larger home…
Ten Years to Get Here
It’s 2016. The scent of brewing coffee wafts through my home. The front door is open. My dining room table is ready with my favorite coffee mugs, sugar and cream, spoons, and extra chairs in case the numbers are better than I hoped. I’d been longing for some kind of regular meeting with the women…
God is With You in Your Consequences
I grew up during an interesting era of American Christianity. I lived in the southern U.S. and attended a couple of different Southern Baptist churches throughout my upbringing.* In our Vacation Bible Schools and Sunday school classes, we were taught Old Testament stories with felt boards and puppet shows, always emphasizing moralisms and character traits…
Letting Go of the Lie in My Right Hand
It was a hot Sunday afternoon, too hot for spring. I try to nap on Sundays after church but I can’t sleep while the sun is up, though come to think of it I can barely sleep when the sun is down, so though I put on my pajamas and lie down in my bed…
Graduation Clothes
I ironed your graduation clothes today. Khaki pants you’ve almost outgrown—you’ll wear them one more time before I move them to your little brother’s closet. A new button-down shirt, a tie you borrowed from your dad. You tried on everything to make sure it fit, and maybe what you saw in the mirror was simply…
Collective Awe and What We Were Made For
I have always loved the night sky. When I was fifteen, I saw a meteor shower forecasted on the news. The internet was in its infancy and social media did not exist, so when I glimpsed the headline on the evening news, I marked my calendar for the upcoming night when the sky was supposed…
Bible Study Changed My Life, and It Can Change Yours.
Growing up in the church and in a Christian home, I knew that studying the Bible was something Christians were supposed to do. My parents and grandparents had modeled faithful Bible reading to me my whole life. But, when I hit my young adult years and tried to put what I’d seen into practice, I…
If You Struggle to Focus in Prayer, Try Praying the Psalms
Most of us have likely discovered that screen usage is decreasing our attention span. These days, we have more trouble focusing while reading, holding conversations, waiting in line, and even watching movies with complicated plots. The increasing focus deficit can make prayer—a discipline that can already feel challenging—seem even harder. We’re not good at sitting…