Tag: mother
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A Book Review: I Love You, Mom
I love you, Mom, written by Blythe Daniel and Helen McIntosh and published by Tyndale House, is intended to be a gift from you to your mom.
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My kids make me feel 16 feet tall
Thinking about my own mothering moments makes me feel 16 feet tall at times. But today, my thoughts are with my friend Kaylen, who is celebrating her first Mother’s Day. She came into motherhood the hard way — not through nine months of anticipation and body oddities followed by “Labor Day,” but merely by falling…
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An afghan as a symbol of regret…
My husband noticed something was wrong. At first I hesitated. Then I told him, “No, it’s stupid.” “I can tell something is wrong, what is it?” “You’re going to think this is stupid. Actually, it is stupid. Ridiculous… [long pause] “… Last night, I dreamed of an afghan.” Lest he think I meant an Afghan…
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My mother was right, of course…
This morning, my 17-year-old son was up before 7, despite having filmed the varsity football semi final and arriving home late the night before. (Woohoo! The Cougars are heading for the state final next week!) Before I saw him, however, I saw the empty packets of Emergen-C and the kitchen shears strewn on the kitchen…
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Praising a woman of excellence…
As my siblings and I rifled through my mother’s belongings this weekend, distributing what held value to each one of us, I searched for something I had made myself. Two books. One titled Focus on the Father; the other titled Praising a Woman of Excellence. Each was a tribute to my parents I created on…
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Memories my mother never mentioned…
Between the ages of 6 and 19, I moved often. When I was in fourth grade, my family lived in one house for just three months before abruptly moving to another for an equally brief period. The reasons we moved were different—my fourth grade year, for instance, high rent necessitated the first move while the…
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“…but what I do have I give you”
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about…
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No longer worrying that “it could happen to me”…
I’ve been reading the book of Job with my literature students recently, and we all agree that we wouldn’t want to claim Job’s comforters for ourselves. They weren’t very comforting. Sure, when Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar first arrived, they grieved with calamity Job silently—but once they opened their mouths, their apparent support for Job deteriorated…
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Mom’s move to memory care…
My mom became a perfect square this year: 81. I envisioned throwing a Pinterest-worthy birthday party, where we decorated in squares, dressed as squares, ate square-shaped food, and framed photos of my mom during her other perfectly square years (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, etc.). It would have been a lot of work—and she wouldn’t…
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Mom for a week…
“A gray head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31, NASB). I mentioned to my mother that she would be going home. She looked at me, sincerely, and said, “Oh, I thought this was my home.” And so, instead of being all here, my mom began perseverating…
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What my mother did right…
I have often complained that I inherited the worst physical attributes of both of my parents. My dad’s acne and digestive issues. My mother’s weak knees and strong chin. But in the personality department, I got the best attributes of both (although, from this one sentence, you must think “modesty” was not among them). Because…
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Sands of time…
A memoir: I am at Caspersen Beach, watching three of my five children play with my sister’s three children. My sister is there, and so, of course, is my mother. It seems she is always there with me. We consider it our own personal beach. On this particular sunny day, we sit and talk about…
All Things Work Together 