My coffee table is covered with pictures of monkeys, goats, a spaceship, a glued-together horse and carrot and a lot of confetti-like pieces of paper. My grandson Gabriel was here today. It occurred to me the last time I was at Target that he’d never been properly introduced to the pre-schoolers’ friend: a scissors. It…

She’s adorable – no doubt about it. Come on – just look at that skirt! But how did she become our prototype for the Proverbs 31 woman? I was always pretty freaked out by her, because I thought I was miles away from ever being her. I used the Scripture passage as a sort of…

It started in a trailer behind a church building. It now resides in a converted grocery store in a small strip mall in a leafy neighborhood full of 1960’s ranch homes and apartment complexes. Part of the strip mall is given to fairly mundane tenants: a realtor, a coffee shop, a small independent bookstore, some…

In recent weeks, I’ve run across a new phenomenon in church leadership. It is that of the long-distance Pastor. As in, the person with the title of Pastor jets back and forth every week between his/her home in City A and his/her employer, a church in city B. These people tend to be the Communicators…

So I should start right off by apologizing. I’m sorry, O people of the Libertyville, IL DMV. I’m an oldest child, which means that I have a finely-tuned sense of justice. I am not a habitual line-butter. I have practiced waiting my turn in line from the time I hit elementary school and we had…

I have had a case of mild existential despair when it comes to my writing “career” these last months. As if the intense drama surrounding my mom’s illness and death in September, the sometimes-Screamin’ Eagle ride of young adulthood Van Loon-style, and the exhausting slog of looking for a church home weren’t enough to push…