13 Hours of Rain

Dear Children, I was scared into the Kingdom. At the age of six, I sat in church, doodling on my Sunday School papers when the preacher got to me. "You are a sinner." Yup, I'd agree. "You are heading to Hell," came the fiery conclusion.  Uh-oh! Don't want to go there. Thus, THE "Prayer" was said. And right there and then, I was officially "Born-Again." I don't doubt my conversion experience. That moment was life changing for me. My memories of that time are vivid! However, I kind of wish I wasn't scared into believing. The reason for my regret is I think this experience as well as a lot of theology I was taught as a kid contributed to my image of a God hell-bent on punishing His creation. Grace was a foreign concept. Now kids, let me set the record straight. I am not denying that the concept of Hell exists (i.e. separation from God). I just question how it physically looks like. But this post isn't about dissecting the...

Dear Children, Sometimes I wonder how you will turn out, let's say, twenty years from now. Will you be fighting over toys or whacking each other to prove a point? I sincerely hope not! Instead, I earnestly pray that you will HONOR each other. Your Daddy and I are reading a book together entitled, "Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes... in you and your kids!" by Scott Turansky & Joanne Miller. It is a parenting book, one of the few parenting books – wait a minute – the ONLY parenting book that we as your parents are attempting to read together. There are many parenting resources out there, found in numerous self-help aisles, websites, and magazines. And every parenting unit seems to have its own style. Sometimes it can be very overwhelming to figure out WHAT to do! Anyway, last spring one of my friends came to visit me. She brought her four children along. And it was fascinating to see how her kids interacted with each other. There were moments...