I love the part in The Fox and the Hound movie when the fox says that he is independent, and the young dog says that he is too. And then they decide that they will be independent together. This is the basis for a really healthy friendship, and I believe it is what we long for in our relationships with others.

We have a strong and healthy desire to be completely ourselves, to decide and discover who we are, and what we will choose to do. Independence is defined as “freedom from outside control or support.” We want to live in freedom, while at the same time being able to feel closely connected to someone else; to love, understand and unite with them, and not lose our sense of self.
Continue reading Dependence and Independence →

“Lord, I believe: help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24

Can faith really heal? Can wholly trusting the Lord, having absolute faith that He will heal, or produce a miracle, really yield that positive result?

My minister husband and I were just discussing this, and by the end of the conversation, it sure did seem like 100% faith is the source of miracles.

We all have issues – some are major, some minor, but we’ve all got ’em – and, being religious folk (by definition, since we’re reading this blog), we probably all pray about them at some time or other. If our prayers don’t yield the result we want, is it because we didn’t pray hard enough? Is it because not enough people prayed for this particular cause? Is it a critical mass thing, where if you have 9 people praying for you, ah, shucks, sorry, no luck, but if you’ve got that 10th, well, there you go, that’s your ticket! I highly doubt it; I can’t believe that could possibly be so,… but I am pausing to wonder. Maybe I’m wrong? (No, surely not! The Lord is more merciful than that! ….Right??) Continue reading Faith Healing →

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His Work which God had created and made.”
– Genesis 2:2-3

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.”
– Exodus 20: 8-10

This article is being written as a reminder to myself and a permission slip to all women that it’s ok to say no, it’s ok to take time for yourself and it’s ok to rest. Continue reading Rest →

Fall is coming, and a hush falls over the neighborhood playground as children trickle back to school. My oldest is old enough for kindergarten. These days I read a lot about education, shoring up my reasons for keeping her out of full-time school this year.

One author worth reading is Carol Black. Black is a writer, filmmaker, parent, and education activist. Her essays are thought-provoking and exhausting — exhausting because they challenge me to make drastic changes to the ways I think and act.

In August, The Washington Post ran one of her articles, “What the modern world has forgotten about children and learning.” In it, she notes,

“[W]e speak of our familiar school experience almost as though it were an integral part of nature itself, a natural and essential part of human childhood, rather than the vast and extremely recent experiment in social engineering that it actually is.”

Continue reading Saving the WEIRD Child →