On Easter Sunday, we put on our fancy clothes and listened to special music, and with much fanfare, we celebrated that Jesus rose again. This year, as part of my job as Director of Children and Family Ministry, I took the stage to give a three-minute kids’ sermon. I used a pair of bright yellow-tinted […]
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I’m not saying that my decision to put on makeup earlier that morning caused the car accident on the I-5, but as I inched along in traffic, the two events grew more connected. I was on my way to a large speaking event at a church in Orange County. When they’d reached out a few […]
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It was that awkward time during a gathering, when the food is ready and waiting on the buffet table but no one has started eating yet. The adults were clumped together near a table of crafts set out for the children. The kids were running around with their makeshift foam headbands, stickers flying. Soon, a […]
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I wasn’t sure how my reading life would change when I started working full-time for my church last January. I suspected that I wouldn’t be able to read as much, and I was correct! But books have been my main hobby for years now, and I was still able to make the time to read […]
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It was the day after Thanksgiving, and we had just unboxed our tree. It sat bare in the living room while I went to the garage to fetch all the trimmings. My husband strung the lights and I set out the boxes of ornaments, marveling at all the colors and memories, but something felt off. […]
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So much of living well is about waiting well, and this is especially true in the in the lives of those who follow Jesus. We are expectant people, people who long for the renewal and restoration of all things. We are witnesses to the pain and sorrow in our own lives, in the lives of […]
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One day last month, I sank into our couch with particular enthusiasm. It had been after a long day working at my church: I’d been running around the rooms, setting up signs here, laying out a tablecloth and centerpieces there, rearranging chairs, restocking the church pantry, coordinating with the ladies helping with childcare. The work […]
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Last month here in San Diego, parents were hit with a double whammy of circumstances which made proper planning paramount. During the last weekend before school started, when last-minute moms like me were raiding what was left in the Target bins, Hurricane Hillary was due to hit us—the first tropical storm to hit southern California […]
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I cherish my slow summer mornings at our family’s farm in Michigan. I can sip my coffee on the back porch and listen to birdsong, watch the sun rise over the fields. Looking out over the oak trees, I wish that every morning could be a slow summer morning, but I know that eventually all […]
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The scene in the Barbie movie that plucked at my heartstrings and that I can’t stop thinking about is a blip of dialog on a park bench. Barbie has just been cut down by a teenage girl, and—feeling hurt and sad—she sits next to an old woman. The old woman is wearing a dark green […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 