What’s the best way to teach our children important life lessons? I’m not a teacher and I have no formal training whatsoever, but if I were to guess, I would probably say a lot depends on the child’s personality, where they are in their development, and whether they learn best by seeing, hearing, or doing. However, I was listening to this Brant and Sherri Oddcast episode the other day, and they pointed out how Jesus taught: he asks questions, tells stories, and lets people wrestle with the meaning. And he didn’t have set “classroom times” and “office hours.” He taught

How often do you feel like you don’t measure up? For me, it happens pretty regularly. I feel like I’m not a great mom when I snap at my kids. Or when my focus shifts from trying to keep up on the housework to something else, and I look around and feel surrounded by mess. Or when what I intended to say to my husband came out wrong and led to division rather than connection. And that doesn’t even get into what the world tells me about what sort of woman I should be. It’s so, so easy to get

Like many women, I have struggled with Proverbs 31. I first became familiar with it from DC Talk’s That Kinda Girl : Well I’m lookin’ for a girl who virtuous Cause God laid it on my heart to search for this So I open up the Word to the book of Proverbs The 31st chapter tells me all about her Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain A woman who fears the Lord, she ain’t playin’ Hear what I’m sayin’, cause I’m sayin’ it clearly She’s the kinda girl I gots to have near me Fear the Lord. Don’t focus

Here’s a shock: I’m impatient. I want what I want when I want it, on my time table. I hear myself telling my kids that waiting is part of life, and I know it is both intellectually and experientially, but sometimes I catch myself thinking ahead to what I’m looking forward to, that I don’t see what’s right in front of me. This is especially true with my kids. At ages 3, 5, and 8, it’s not uncommon for me to think ahead to how much “easier” or “more fun” life will be when they’re older. Looking forward to milestones

Last year my mom and I started a virtual Bible study together. Since we’re both busy and don’t always have overlapping time to actually meet, we decided we’d both read the same passage and then email each other our notes. Although it isn’t the same as an in-person Bible study, it was interesting to see what each of us took from the various passages and the perspectives we shared with each other! The Sermon on the Mount One of the passages we looked at was Matthew 5:1-26 , the Sermon on the Mount. As I read through this, I realized