Someone asked me recently how I talk to my daughter about modesty. It was a conversation morphing into how to help our daughters see their bodies as important, but not too important. (See this post, Naked Truth about Body Image.)
Incessantly telling her she’s beautiful—though I honestly believe she is–doesn’t seem to be the answer: “Don’t worry about looking beautiful. You’ve got that one down!”
As we prepare to celebrate Good Friday, I’m marveling all over again at these paradoxes bound up in Jesus’ death: all we gained through his loss.
Hope it increases your overwhelming adoration like it does mine.
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So some of you parents are thrilled that your kids are home. And some of you would like to be thrilled, you really would! You are definitely working on being thrilled.
Especially if they would go fight somewhere else? Or maybe pick up their cereal bowls.
This week has been a tough one for me. So I’m creating some art to anchor my soul. Want some? I’m hoping you can sink your toes and yourself deep in truth from the Psalms.
Up here in the Rockies, spring looks like it could be a long time coming. But let’s fake it with some art, shall we?
Many thanks to FreePrettyThingsForYou.com for the free watercolor clip art!
Tomorrow, another one of my kids turns 13. (Golly, I am getting old.) I’ll let you in on a little secret. One of his friend’s moms and I decided to share planning a small party for both of our sons together–because it turns out neither of us likes planning parties.
Birthdays seem to require a sudden push of adrenaline, past the normal working-mom-with-four-kids schedule. (It is no doubt a sign of my lack of margin.) So far, I don’t know that my kids have had a birthday that didn’t feel special. (Gosh, I hope not.) But days before, I’m always like, Shoot. I really need to do something!
Blogging can be a little too much like having an imaginary friend.
Picture sitting at the smallest table at your coffee shop. (I’m having a seasonal special with half of the pumps, decaf. …Because as someone told me, with natural enthusiasm like mine, I should remain uncaffeinated. You?)
As we waltz into December, it’s meaningful to me to look back on this year and ask my soul a few questions. How you doing in there?
David Benner, in The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery, writes,
Christian spirituality involves a transformation of the self that occurs only when God and self are both deeply known. Both, therefore, have an important place in Christian spirituality. There is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self, and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God. John Calvin wrote, “Nearly the whole of sacred doctrine consists in these two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
I love that we still celebrate a day of gratitude–and I never want to skip over it and scurry on to Christmas. I’m grateful for you, readers, as you pursue healthy, real relationships with God and the people around you. Enjoy celebrating with your family–and perhaps these can help. If you like them, feel free to share.
Many thanks to FreePrettyThingsForYou.com for the free watercolor clip art!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Those of you who are married: Remember that moment where you piled all those fluffy white layers into the car with tin cans clanking on the back? Or maybe you loosened your tie and pressed on the gas with those rented shoes, rose petals or rice or birdseed flying off the back.
There was something about finally closing the door, muting the noise, and looking at each other: Finally. After all of that craziness, we are married.
It was a little weird. Like, is that it? Stood up at the church, shook a bunch of hands at the reception, and now…my identity is different?
Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.
Mindset of the man too busy: I am too busy being God to become like God.
Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God
![Now You're Speaking My [Love] Language](https://www.janelbreitenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/love-languages-text-1.jpg "Now You're Speaking My [Love] Language")
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