Thank you to everyone who commented with birthday greetings. I promise I didn’t write yesterday’s post to fish for a “happy birthday” from every reader. But the ones I got were a nice side effect. I had a very good birthday, which I will try to post about later. The highlight was a message on [...]

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Yes, today is my birthday. Last night I was all set to write a whiny post about how my husband is thousands of miles away in England and I’m all alone taking care of three ungrateful little trolls and I have a dirty house and all I want to do is sit around all day [...]

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Wow wow wow. You really DO like me! Yesterday’s post yielded the most comments I’ve ever gotten, and you all are so encouraging! … More importantly, it sounds like I stumbled upon something we all deal with to varying degrees: Being “real”. It’s such a tough thing to wrap your brain around, isn’t it? Am [...]

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Something unexpected and kind of cool has been happening with me lately. I keep making friends in cyberspace. And isn’t that just the kind of stuff you’re s’posed to blog about? I think so. Some backstory: I’ve never had a lot of friends. Growing up, I was painfully shy and tended to have – at [...]

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First, let me say that nothing I am about to write even compares to what people in coastal Texas are going through as they prepare for Ike. It sounds like many of those who evacuate are almost guaranteed to lose their homes. Along with their livelihood, their sense of place, and their history. I am [...]

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Today was a beautiful, peaceful day. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and the house was quiet. The kids have been in school for three weeks now, and every day still feels like Christmas morning. Remember that commercial from Staples that they ran at the end of every summer? As the song “It’s [...]

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Happy Labor Day! I hope your three-day weekend has been relaxing. Mine ended up being challenging. So I’m at Publix Sunday when someone cuts in front of me in the pharmacy line. “Have y’all seen a cell phone here?” a heavyset woman my age asks the pharmacist in a thick Southern accent. “I only been [...]

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Last Sunday at 12StoneTM, the theme of the morning was The Gap. As in the store. Yes, our creative team is REALLY creative. As you might guess, Pastor Kevin (PK)’s message was about a gap. But not the retail chain. He examined the gap within us: the distance between who we are and who we [...]

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I haven’t written or blog posted in a couple weeks now. Instead I’ve surfed the web, procrastinating writing because now it’s WRITING, a task I’ve assigned myself, and thus something to be avoided. (But that’s another topic.) I was thinking yesterday during church about my talents. I don’t remember what PK (our pastor, Kevin’s, nickname) [...]

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What is it about the spiritual disciplines that I so strongly resist? I’ve been a Christ-follower for over 30 years. I know how much I benefit from keeping a regular appointment with God. It’s the only reason I get up at 5:30 a.m. every school day — ostensibly to give me time alone to pray, [...]

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