The Fish Tank

It was a cold snowy and icy day about two years ago. I was at work and got notice that my oldest was on lockdown at school. A man had threatened his girlfriend, pulled a gun on someone, stolen a jeep, painted said jeep, broke into a few houses, and was on the run. He went through a few cities before ditching the jeep and hiding in the woods a couple miles from my son's school. This man was a known felon and dangerous. I knew my son was safe but was freaked out nonetheless. I get my littles home from preschool (they were three and four at the time) parking my car at the bottom of my driveway. My steeper-than-any-mountain-you've-ever-climbed driveway was covered in ice and I knew I needed to be able to get back out to pick Jack up as soon as the lockdown ended. I get the babies out of the car and we jam inside closing the garage and locking the door behind us. The boys were gathered by the back door so I went to shew them into the house. As I did this, I heard the garage door op...

A few months ago, a friend of mine shared her story with our Bible study group. She fearlessly told her story to almost 100 women. Her journey began in a dark places and had many twists and turns; the kind that you can't wrap your head around. Her story was a compelling ride from despair to redemption. At the end, she encouraged each lady to be brave and share their story. She talked about how our stories have value and meaning and matter even if you are not fully healed. She discussed the story of the ten lepers from the Bible reminding us that we do not have to be healed in order to share our story or for our stories to have meaning. Luke 17:11-19 says, Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yoursel...

Have you ever played or heard of the game Telephone? You know, the game where you start at one end of the line and tell someone a secret in their ear passing the secret from person to person until you get to the end and see if the original message made it all the way down. I recently got hooked on a podcast called, "Serial." Apparently I was the last one on that train, but got so enthralled in the story. In 1999, a high school boy is accused and sentenced to life for murdering his ex-girlfriend. The podcast is a series of reports on the broadcaster's findings after all these years. She goes through evidence and interviews many of the key players from that time. She asks the witnesses to remember a key point in time fifteen years ago. It's like a really good game of telephone. One person says they were with someone else in that twenty minute time stamp while another completely rebukes their story and remembers a totally different scenario. Could you remember what you w...

I was running the other day and completely fell. Let me be real here. I am a complete klutz. When our instructor told us to run backward, I knew I was in for it. I was running along when my heel hit a lifted piece in the pavement and down I went; imagine a big ugly fall. It stung pretty bad, so I sat there for a minute and then knew I had to get up. What I really wanted to do was cry and give up. But I couldn't. You see, I had convinced my husband to come to this class with me and when I work out with my man I become my 18-year old self where I have to impress him looking like Wonder Woman. So, I get up and try to walk it off. I get to the corner of the building where there is a bench longing to sit down. I had what felt like the worst Charlie horse from my left hip down my hamstring to my knee. I wanted to give up because it hurt but knew the moment I sat down I was done. I decided to try and walk it off and it worked. I jogged a little and felt better with each step I took. I got...

I received a Bible from my parents when I graduated high school. The verse inscribed on the front was Jeremiah 29:11. This verse has followed me throughout life these past 19 years. Every so often, Jeremiah would creep in with a little reminder that I have a hope and future and that life is not completely about suffering. I figured I needed to break this verse down if I really wanted it to be a part of who I am. So, here I go; a girl on a mission to discover what her life verse is really all about. "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11 Let me start by saying that I completely misrepresented this verse at first. When these words were first spoken over me, I took them to mean I would never face disastrous things because I was following God. I thought my future would be great and all sunshine and rainbows. I knew I would face challenges, however, I though...

Scott started his MBA program the first year we were married. He was assigned to read a book entitled, Changing Minds . The running joke was that he was not, in fact, reading the book for school, but instead, reading it for me. The joke was now that we are married, he was working on me to change my thinking to his. Of course, this is all fun and games and hilarious, but how often to we go into relationship, or even simple conversations, expecting to change someone's mind? I do it every day. I have three young children. You better believe I am trying to mold their minds. I was thinking today that while I think I have brilliant ideas, you do too. What may look and feel right for me, may not be the same for you. My job on this earth is not to change you. My job is to show you. Where am I going with this? Well, there seems to be a notion that if we do not bend to each other's ways, we are intolerant. I see this on all sides of the spectrum. One minute one side is heavily accus...

I was a teacher in my past life. I used to teach elementary school. Then I had Jack and he turned my life upside down. I decided to stay home to raise our kids and we moved halfway across the country in order for me to do so. When Jackson reached elementary school age, I had many ask me if I was going to homeschool. Homeschool was becoming the thing to do; especially in the Christian community. I knew, however, that was not our family's calling. I also knew that while it is one thing to teach other people's kids, it is quite another to teach your own. 'He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.' Mark 16:15 Each year as we add one more Fish boy to the public school system, I ask myself if I want them to be in the public schools or homeschooled. Part of me wants to keep my babies all to myself because time goes by entirely too fast and another part of me wants to protect them from the evils of this world. And then God presses M...