MomminginMinistry

  I’ve said this before, and I’ll say this again. I’m not good at making decisions. I’m pretty much the worst. I remember sitting in Donald Miller’s Storyline conference and hearing him say something to the effect of “Good characters make clear and quick decisions. They don’t waste time on the things that don’t matter.” Within a few minutes we’d broke for lunch and I stood in the cafeteria of Point Loma completely paralyzed for what felt like an eternity, deciding whether I wanted bread with my salad, and if so what kind? A roll? Croissant? Texas Toast? White or wheat? Or should I go all in and make it a half sandwich? Crazy, right?! In that same conference I heard that Obama used to wear the same suit and eat the same boring bowl of oatmeal almost every morning. Because he knew that he had important, world-changing decisions to make every single day and he wasn’t going to waste that kind of mental energy standing in his closet or weighing cereal choices. I envy that. In my defen...

 2020 doesn't hold a candle to 2012 for me. Well...yet...we'll see what happens with this meteor thing, or whether the murder hornets settle in my yard. It's a long story about a lot of things and there's been other blog posts. But, joy wasn't a theme for me in 2012. I'm pretty sure I burned that calendar, or at least cut it up in tiny little pieces at midnight on New Year's Eve. The week after Thanksgiving 2012 I began removing the maternity clothes I'd just put into my closet. I quit leaving the house for awhile or talking to people on the phone. And, for a few days, I quit reading my Bible. I'd spent so many years believing that nothing happens that God had not ordained, and that He would never give us more than we could handle. If that was all true, I didn't want to talk to him. I knew that the Bible was where I should find comfort, but I wasn't sure that I really wanted to be comforted. Because I was a mom who's baby had died before ...

This weekend I had the amazing privilege and experience of attending the "May We Be One" webinar put on by NOW movement- a Church of the Nazarene grassroots movement for pursuing justice. In my pajamas of course, which is the new business casual. I learn best by teaching and the process of sharing helps me remember. So, please indulge me with this week's first blog post as I put some of my biggest takeaways into words. And forgive me, and feel free to correct me, if you were there and I have understood something incorrectly. The general session speaker for this, Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, came to us from a place of brokenness, having just lost his mother the day before. I can not imagine holding it together throughout this, but I am so thankful that the Lord allowed him the ability to do this, because his perspective in that exact moment, brought something especially beautiful to the table. Dr. Rah set the groundwork by going over the "Hermeneutical Circle for Practic...

I am not a scientist. I did a lot better at English and Literature classes than at Chemistry or Biology. But, God, in his wisdom, and maybe his witty sense of humor, entrusted me to be the mom of a kid who is allergic to everything. EVERYTHING. And, because God wastes nothing, I think He is using this to stretch me outside my comfort zone.  So, I read books written by doctors, and listened to people who have way more years of college than I do. And I've learned a few interesting things.  I'm still not the most qualified person to explain how allergies work, but here is what the Mayo Clinic says: " Allergies occur when your immune system reacts to a foreign substance — such as pollen, bee venom or pet dander — or a food that doesn't cause a reaction in most people. Your immune system produces substances known as antibodies. When you have allergies, your immune system makes antibodies that identify a particular allergen as harmful, even though it isn't. When...