We attended "back to school" night for our high schoolers last week, and something we heard in the girls' choir class stood out to me. 

"You'll see your students' grades kind of go like this," their teacher said, making an up-and-down motion with her hand. "This is by design."

Sensing the rising intri...

The toddler who is learning to walk doesn't ask for help.
The loving parent simply reaches down and offers a finger to hold. 
Tiny feet, chubby thighs, wobbly knees all work together as they learn to fight gravity -- 
all while the loving parent smiles, delighting in their progress
because they know th...

You can get a decent view of the sunrise if you're facing South, but you might wonder where all of the bright colors are. Turn 90 degrees to your left, and all of a sudden, bam! Right there, all along, are the vibrant corals, pinks, purples, oranges, and blues you had hoped to see. 

If we're not gett...

I was given a fantastic gift this weekend: a new outlook on Sundays. I'll preface by saying that I've historically enjoyed them -- mainly as a change of pace from the regular rhythm. 

But yesterday morning, I had the random thought that I wanted to start really focusing on personal development on Sun...

Each of us is born with remarkable natural gifts that serve as superpowers in our lives and help us make a unique contribution. Additional gifts can (and should) be developed, but these gifts are hardwired in us. Science and philosophy call them lots of different things -- aptitudes, innate abilitie...

I'm in the middle of creating something new, and it's a decision I have felt divinely supported in. Even with this powerful assurance, my mind still cycles back to what I've seen and known in the past, then doubt creeps in, and then I start to sink and choke on the waters of "but what about..." It's...

The last 48 hours at our house could be summed up with 1 word: unexpected.

Nothing major, and a good variety ranging from potentially-amazing to, "Oh wow. That actually happened."

At either end of the spectrum and everywhere in-between, we had expected something different. If we had been clinging to o...

Not going to lie...I've been feeling pretty crummy the last couple of days.

I caught some sort of bug, and I feel like I've been hit by a bus. I forget how amazing healthy feels until it's gone.

It's crazy how a microscopic virus can wreak such havoc on my system. 

It's also crazy how many microscopic...

It's "back to school" day here in Virginia, and last night we bid farewell to the amazing summer break we enjoyed. This was probably my favorite summer we've had so far (more to come in a future post about the details), and it would be bittersweet to say goodbye if I didn't feel like we could build ...

I went to a workshop at a women's conference years ago, on the topic of the power of prayer. During the discussion portion of the presentation, an audience member shared a story of a "lightbulb moment" she had experienced. The simple gem she shared has proven useful to me hundreds (possibly thousand...

Embryos look more like aliens than babies, but we know this is the first phase for every human. We don't doubt that, even though it starts out looking nothing like we envision.

Our creative projects are similar. They start out looking like aliens, with all kinds of potential that we don't see. We wan...

A beautiful gift can be given and not received.

The giver can want the recipient to accept and cherish it, but that doesn't mean they will.

This doesn't tell you anything about the gift or the giver. 

It simply says that the recipient wasn't ready or able to accept the gift.

God's gifts are everywhere,...