THE AWKWARD MOM

because uncomfortable conversations are the ones worth having

Month: May 2018

FREEBIE: Printable Watercolor Scripture Memory Cards, Colossians 1

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I’ve written a lot lately about spiritual disciplines for real families (check out the series here for lots of practical ideas). This summer, I’m creating some incentives for my kids to squirrel away a few more verses in their minds–and hopefully even deeper than that.

Because summer’s here and it’s a great time to try something fresh, I’ve made some more Scripture memory cards (they’re great for wallets and pockets, but great scotch-taped inside the medicine cabinet and the cupboard, too, or even dropped in a lunchbox).

The Breath We Breathe: On Fear–and Trust in the Middle of Danger

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I spoke recently with a friend who’s packing up her family’s life to move to a developing country–a path of utter excitement, surrender, and loss. She described a terrifying kidnapping epidemic in the country to which she’s moving.

In her story, I heard my own. I remember in searing color the fears tearing through me: My kids dying from a tropical illness. The (not always) death-defying traffic.

Christians and the Arts, Part II

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Ever had a conversation flip-flop your perspective entirely? It’s hard for me to pick just one.

But what about a one-sided conversation, like a book? What about…fiction? I have a running list of fiction books altering how I look at the world. Back in fourth grade, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry rocked my world, and my understanding of our nation’s history of racism.  In middle school, I drank in every Peretti novel I could get my grubby little hands on. But of course those I read as an adult have transformed me: Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (still a favorite). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. John Grisham’s The Appeal. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home. Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country.  R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. read more

Raising Kids Who Love God…After They Leave Your House

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Ever feel like you need a “cultural translator” just to get through to your kids?

Yeah. Me, too. read more

Never Forget: Slavery is Now

Reading Time: 2 minutes

In the car last week, my kids and I were discussing the American Civil War–and whether they thought it was initially about slavery or about the states’ rights. Maybe you’re like me in these discussions, or in reading books about abolitionists: Maybe you wonder whether you would have had what it takes to do what was illegal and could put your family in jeopardy in order to free slaves.

Confession: I caught myself thinking of slavery as something that happened back then

As if abolitionists were only needed then. read more

The Stories We Don’t Tell: On Choosing Vulnerability

Reading Time: 4 minutes

In college, I answered a youth crisis hotline one night a week. So many who called in were so…raw. Or embarrassed. Or afraid.

There was something freeing, I think, calling someone anonymously; at finally being able to share the invisible bag of stones they carried around, its weight occasionally flopping over their foreheads and making it hard to see anything else. read more

Christians and the Arts, Part I…and Why I’m Writing Fiction

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Well. I’m going for it.

This week is a writer’s conference, when I’ll be doling out book proposals to agents and receiving manuscript critiques. It feels a little like laying down in the middle of I-25 at this particular moment. And yes, one of the proposals is…fiction. read more

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Of all the vibrancy of being in another culture this week, one of my least favorite is the language barrier. It’s as if I’m constantly stopping myself from asking the questions I want to know of people–from relating.

The late neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi, in his bestselling When Breath Becomes Air, writes of the two areas of speech in the brain: read more

A Good Day

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Today, I woke up in Thailand.

My sister and her husband start their day early on behalf of their community, feeding a bunch of kids breakfast so they can grow up strong. The food is cooked by an amazing local Burmese woman with a heart even bigger than her industrial-sized rice cooker.

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