The Secret to Thriving in the Ordinary

Can I remind you of something: Mundane doesn’t mean unimportant. Sometimes a hard life is just an ordinary one. The ordinary is where our faith is lived out. “It does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint – to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred of us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have…

Birthdays, Cupcakes, and Gratefulness

What I’ve learned this birthday weekend…. First, Pinterest is always telling me how much I’ve failed. If I’m comparing myself to Pinterest, I’ll always fall short. I made a Monopoly cake based on a Pinterest idea I found, but I kept comparing mine to the original. No one saw the original. It wasn’t about that anyway. My son’s response: “I don’t like it mom, I LOVE it!” Success. Not a failure. And he did see the original. Second, I felt…

When Social Media Lies about Loneliness

The conversation at the dinner table was heading in a crazy-talk spiral. I mean, when we start discussing nonsense I can just feel my brain cells dying. Literally, as I’m eating my cold pasta, I feel them burn away into oblivion. Listening to their conversation, slowly feeding the baby, it hits me hard.  Some days I feel snappy and frustrated at the mundane. I am distant and irritable. Sometimes it creeps in slow, making its way into my heart and stays…

Sippy Cups And How To Be Empty

Their plastic sippy cups are always on the counter. Ready to be filled.  Everyday. They come, asking me to fill them. So I do. I pour the milk. Again. And again. A house full of kids. A husband with 12 hour shifts. A sinus cold. High temperatures. No leaving the house. I drink my coffee and take some medicine to help, but inside I feel so…..empty. Out of energy. Strength. Patience. Joy. I pray for the LORD to fill me up,…