Each year as I prepare my sermon for the baccalaureate Eucharist service, I discern which kernels of wisdom I may offer to prepare them for a world of division, plagues, war, political upheaval, and godlessness. I wonder what they will take with them along with their diplomas and Bibles as they graduate and leave chapel.
Expanding Our View of Gratitude
The Stripes are core values in the form of positive rules.
Ordinary, unknown, but remembered
Saint Simon and Saint. Jude *sound* familiar, but beyond associating the latter with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, most of us can’t tell you much about either.
Thankfulness and Gratitude
Like everything else during coronatide, Thanksgiving is a day filled with tough choices.
Prayer Pumpkins
Some days it’s hard for me to think about the last 24 months or so. I have gone from being an 18-month plan-ahead kind of person to a taking-it-one-day-at-a- time kind of person.
I’m Sorry, Thank You, and the Mystery of Grace
Every email to my children’s teachers the first three weeks of quarantine began with an apology.
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale’s Unprecedented Gratitude
Our family likes to celebrate and decorate for just about every holiday.
Our Thank You Pumpkin
Starting on November 1, we take turns writing one thing we are each thankful for in a black Sharpie marker on our pumpkin. This designated pumpkin sits in the center of our dinner table throughout the month of November. It always brings joy and quite a bit of laughter to hear what our boys are thinking about or to see what they quietly and sneakily write on the pumpkin.
Joyful and Ambivalent: Gift-Giving at Christmastime
I want to give my children gifts, but I don’t want them to confuse the fun of getting stuff with real joy.
Pausing in the Open Space – and Giving Thanks
I have taken a break from the myth of my own indispensability.