There’s No Excuse for Unkind Words

When I’m exhausted or in pain, my tolerance for anything disruptive tends to be very low. I find myself apologizing to my husband for being grouchy and snippy. I hide in my bedroom to get away from my family. I just want to avoid all interaction until I feel myself again.   As my mother…

It’s a Wonderful Life, Job

The book of Job concludes in a most satisfying way. Job’s re-reversal of fortune always makes me sigh with contentment and dash away a tear or two. As I read the last chapter, I noticed a verse that reminded me of the final scene from It’s a Wonderful Life, when George Bailey returns home to…

The Transformative Power of Poo

Yes, you read right. Poo has the power to transform. We’ve had a little flock of chickens for several years, and we have accumulated quite a pile of manure-laden straw cleaned from their coop. Last spring, we spread the composted straw and manure mixture over my perennial flower beds. It was a dirty and laborious…

Parenting According to Job

About fifteen years ago, when my two oldest children were toddlers, a violent windstorm swept through our neighborhood while my husband was at work. I recall looking through our large picture window as it rattled in its frame, seeing nothing but an opaque mass of swirling gray mixed with hailstones and bits of debris. I…

Slight Adjustments

My family spent Memorial Day morning on a nearby lake, in our shiny new kayaks and an older canoe. Conditions were great: a bit overcast (not too much glaring sun), a little breezy, warm, and mosquito-free. My older two kids paddled along well in their single-person kayaks, while my husband and I piloted the canoe…

Lives That Inspire: Job, a Dinosaur, and a Dragon

The first thing that used to come to my mind was when I considered Job was, poor him. In one day, the flocks that made him wealthy and the children he loved were taken from him—not because he had done anything to deserve such tragedy, but, well, just because. And when that all wasn't enough…

Memorize and Meditate: Job 42:2-5

It's a rainy Monday morning here today, typical spring weather. We welcome the rain, though, for the sake of the farmers that surround us, and for the sake of our well! My choice of a passage from Job this week was inspired by fellow blogger Stephen from Fractured Faith, who is currently reading that book…