Have you ever had a MONDAY that lasted all day?
I had one a few weeks ago and it wasn’t pretty.
I woke up crabby. I took my son to school crabby. I went to Pickleball crabby. Then the crabby turned to sad. I ate cookies sad. I read a book sad. I took a nap sad.
Eventually, I wandered into my office ... Read More
Being lost is such a scary feeling.
I remember being lost in the hilly one-way streets of Athens, Ohio a few days after we had moved to town. The panic started to rise in my throat until it reached my eyes and flowed out as tears. I pulled over and called my husband at work. Repeatedly. Until he finally answered.
His voice ... Read More
I need a Year of Jubilee. How about you?
What is a Year of Jubilee, you ask?
Think of a Mardi Gras celebration that covers the entire nation for an entire year.
Now take away the sex, booze, and parades. Add in a whole lot of forgiveness.
That’s the Year of Jubilee.
In the Old Testament, we learn the Year of Jubilee happened every 50 ... Read More
I can remember my anger like it was yesterday. It happened 29 years ago, and yet I can still see myself yelling, stomping and slamming a bedroom door.
I was a junior in high school and a boy invited me to visit him at his college two hours from our hometown.
We weren’t dating. We were just friends and he thought I’d ... Read More
I’ve talked a lot about my mom over the last ten years. The falling apart and the coming together and what God can do to mend fences, and the way he changes my rotten wood attitude before he hammers in that first nail.
This weekend, I got to visit my dad.
Five years ago, my dad had a stroke that left him ... Read More
I’ve noticed something over the past nine years of writing this column. Acts of Christmas kindness seem to have a special ability to stay with us throughout years and even decades.
Two women have shared just those types of kindness with me in the following stories. The first is from Gretchen Robinson from South Hill, VA.
“My kindness story happened ... Read More
Someone out there today needs an important reminder. Maybe it’s you. Here it is:
God is still in the business of miracles.
God is still providing a way.
God is so big and yet concerned about the tiniest details in your life.
I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes because of a miracle He has produced in our lives. Someday I’ll get to ... Read More
There’s a pretty big celebrity living in my neighborhood. I hate to brag, but the president lives just a few doors down from me. If you weren’t aware, you might drive past his house without knowing it.
His name is Dawson, and he is president of the student body at Lincoln Elementary School in Aberdeen, S.D.
Back in October, Dawson ran for ... Read More
I don’t love social media.
If anyone from my kindness team is reading this, they are rolling their eyes right now, because that statement is a massive understatement.
I love having real conversations with real people, but anything over a computer feels a little forced to me. (Can you tell I was born before home computers were a thing?)
I used ... Read More
When I first started writing this “Kindness is Contagious” column nine years ago, I misunderstood what “weekly” meant.
The publisher said, “It’s a weekly column.” I heard, “Write it when you have something to write about.”
I asked readers to send in their stories of kindness, but I quickly learned to become an investigator of kindness in my own life so I ... Read More
