Every holiday season we go back home to visit my parents who still live in the same house that we moved into on my 4th birthday. Going home means being taken care of, good smells, and holiday decorations everywhere. Home is memories and cookies and knowing some things don’t change. I realize that, for some, […]
How Your Unmet Needs are Weighing You Down
I have the hardest time answering on-the-spot, superlative questions like, “What is your favorite movie?” or “What is your biggest challenge right now?” My problem is two-fold: 1. I overthink the answer because “favorite” and “biggest” seem really heavy, and I don’t want to get it wrong. 2. My mind goes blank and can’t think […]
How I put task ahead of people even when I shouldn’t
It’s easy to be overcome by the holiday task list. Here are four tips that may not shorten your checklist’s length, but may give you longer vision. As an Achiever, parent, and Christian, I have read my fair share of parenting books, which extol the virtues of having a family devotional, so naturally, I read […]
Choosing between the Right Way and the Jesus Way
In the 1980’s, “choose-your-own-adventure” books were very popular. As a kid, I read quite a few of these books… and I hated them. I found them tedious because I never knew what page to turn to, and I hated that there was more than one way to read the story. I wanted there to be […]
Why Rule-Following Achievers Actually Hate Following Rules
What my daughter taught me about rules and why I have a love-hate relationship with them. One year, our daughter came home from school saying that her teacher had a lot of rules. She told me that there were four rules for how to stand in line and that, “We have to look at our […]
Learning to Live Lightly: 4 Truths to Abandon the Weight of Worry
In the suitcase of my life, I pack away a lot of things. I pack joy, silliness, and laughter. I also pack my failures, my unforgiveness, and last but not least, my worry. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says we must cast off our worry to live lightly, to not pack worry into our suitcase. He […]
Learning to Live Lightly: Shedding the Weight of Unforgiveness
For those of who have a hard time forgiving ourselves and would love to remember that we are God’s girl. On our trip to London and Edinburgh, my husband and I lugged four suitcases, a backpack, a bag and a purse across 5,400 miles, three airports, and two continents over the course of 10 days. […]
Learning to Live Lightly: Living without the Weight of Failure, Sin, and “Should”
I have one item packed away in my life that is getting too heavy for me to carry. Do you carry this weight too? After a recent trip to the UK for our 40th birthdays, my husband I learned the value in living (and packing) lightly. This principle applies to my right-now life so we’re […]
How Comparison Leads to Shame, Fear, and a Faulty View of God
Today I went on a run/walk, and while I was walking, I passed a man in his 60s… running. I thought, Hey I ran a 1/2 marathon a few years ago and here I am walking like a schmuck. For crying out loud, this grandpa is running. I should be running too. I tell that […]
What I Learned from the Best Boss Ever
Achievers tend to bristle against authority because we like being in charge. But there was one boss who shaped me in ways that have impacted me to this day. When my husband’s job moved us to Fort Smith, Arkansas, I left behind my dream job at the Houston Astros. I eventually landed the director of […]