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May the Lord Bless You and Keep You: Praying for My Children
~by Jill Clingan A couple of months ago I was talking to my mom about an essay I had written for my blog over at Grit magazine where I admitted that I prayed for my chickens. Here is an excerpt from...
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Lessons I Keep Learning
~ by Lee Hull Moses There are some things I will apparently never learn. Every winter, I have to ask our property manager to remind me how to adjust the heat in my office. I can never remember if...
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Increased Accountability
~ by John Tramel I graduated with my master’s degree in social work toward the end of my first year of marriage and was excited to forge these new journeys both personally and professionally. A...
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Reflecting on my Teenage Faith
~ By Joanna Harader “Wow! I sure was fed some crap theology when I was a teenager.” I came to this realization while going through an old chest full of letters, notebooks, and other papers from my...
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Overcoming a Parent’s Guilt: Parental Self-Care and the Bible
~by Horace McMillon “Train up a child in the path of the Lord and when s/he is old s/he will not depart from it.” Coming up in the African American Church at the time I did, this was one of the go-to...
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Releasing the ‘Should’
~by Rev. Arianne Braithwaite Lehn A couple days ago, I heard a young mother talking to another young mother. Mom A works full-time outside the home, in addition to prolific writing . She is the mother...
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Packing It In
by Christine Gough A few weeks ago, we loaded up and hopped on a plane to the Bay Area. It had been two years, to the day, that we moved to Oregon from California, and our boys, now 4 and 8, had yet to...
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Beginnings and Endings {and Melancholy and Hope and Apprehension and Nostalgia}
~by Jill Clingan Yesterday was a day of endings and beginnings for me—for us as a family—and this morning I feel a strange mixture of melancholy and hope and apprehension and nostalgia. . Yesterday...
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Fitting In
~ by Julia Roller A few years ago, I was out for a walk with my son and we happened upon a little playground we’d never visited before. He hopped out of the stroller and started to play. After a few...
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Parental Self-Care, Redemption, Restoration, and the Cross
by Horace McMillon I’ve found parenting to be a long journey filled with twists and turns, joys and sorrows and outcomes unknown. I’m blessed to be the father of two – Julia, a sophomore in high...
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The Clean Plate Club
~ by Bromleigh McCleneghan We go to my folks for dinner most Sunday nights. It is our Sabbath ritual. The weather is still nice, so the girls play outside with their cousins, feeding the birds and the...
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nce you What Are You Going to Make at the Free Art Table?
~by Christine Gough Last Sunday our church kicked off the new Sunday School year. Public Schools began as well and the fall routines jump-started us all back to “reality.” Packing lunches. Afternoons...
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Still Learning Grace
~ by Corey Fields For any parent who prioritizes faith, those rites of passage or decision times for our children are very important and meaningful events. For some it may be confirmation, first...
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For I Remain Convinced
~ by Horace McMillon Monique, Horace and Julia (my wife, son and daughter) finally wore me down. We have a new puppy, named Rose. Rose has stepped into the void that our last dog of 14 years left...
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The Treasure Within the Putty
~ by Christine Gough Almost every Thursday, I pick my youngest son up from Pre-K class and trek out to his Occupational Therapy appointment. Many days it is a struggle to extract him from his friends...
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Do Not Worry
~ by Julia Roller I sat on the couch, staring at my newborn baby’s nostrils. There it was again—that flare that meant she was having trouble getting enough air. She’d had a cold for about a week, which...
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No Asterisks*
~ by Jill Clingan I can count on one hand (one finger, actually) the number of times that I have woken up in the middle of the night with an idea for an essay. Last night, for whatever reason, I...
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It’s December: Time to Put on Your Oxygen Mask
~ by Dena Hobbs December is a tricky time for me. Though Advent is my favorite church season, December is the hardest month of the year for me emotionally and spiritually. How can this be? For...
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Christmas Shopping
~by Joanna Harader Every year I’m conflicted about Christmas gifts. On the one hand, I want to honor the spirit of Christmas and avoid being part of the crass commercialism. On the other hand, I really...
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A Dad’s Advent Longings
~ by Horace McMillon I am particularly looking forward to this Christmas. My oldest, Julia, has been away at a boarding school in another state. She has made solid progress. We look forward...
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