The Fish Tank

I sat outside in my chair to do some work on my computer while I watched the boys play. There's been some tension in our pack of boys and I wanted to make sure everything stayed even keel. I noticed one of the boys trying to pull another child away from a game; kind of trying to isolate that kiddo away from the one whom he was playing. Anyway, I went over to the little guy to chat. His first instinct: blame someone else. This didn't work out for him too well since the kid he chose to blame was not even there. When I confronted him on accepting that it was he who made the mistake, he completely shut down. It was torturous to admit fault and blame. Calling this boy out on his mistake was more than he could handle. Like many of us, we don't want to admit guilt. In our culture, we believe there is an innocent race; that we have innocent neighborhoods. This is the root of our problems with one another. You see, there are no innocent people or innocent neighborhoods. Not one....

Social media. I have a love/hate relationship with you. I love that you keep me connected with people: my family and friends from near and far currently and from the past. I love cheering on friends from the other side of the screen; excited for their victories and praying for their hardships. And then there are those that deflate me. If I am not careful, I will follow someone just to watch the train wreck. I may even follow just to be in "the know" of their life not really caring about them deeply. Sometimes I follow some just so I don't miss out on what they may post next. This is totally unhealthy, obviously. What is in your social media feeds? What are you seeing everyday? What is filling your heart and your mind? We like to scroll. Scrolling removes us from reality which may seem too hard, daunting, or hurtful in the moment. Scrolling turns our brains off from the busyness of the day. It's mindless. Or, is it? We are captivated by what's in that littl...

Okay. So my junk drawer isn't that bad. I can't help it. I live better when things are tidy and in their place. It seems I have miraculously become nine months pregnant because I am a nesting and organizing crazy lady over here ever since the boys went back to school. But, let's face it, we all have our junk. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16 I think one of the most difficult things in life is owning our junk. Seriously. Who wants to fess up to the crud in their life? I am not raising my hand. One of our sons made a mistake the other day. He was not happy to talk about said issue and was a hot mess, to say the least. One thing my husband and I kept saying over and over to him was to own it and move on. Doesn't it seem that life is so much easier when we own our junk, learn from it, and move on. If we don't, we find ourse...