I didn’t grow up in a church tradition that observed the liturgical calendar and so my understanding of Lent was limited to giving up chocolate and coffee for forty days. Why would anyone sign up for that? As an adult, I’ve discovered that Lent is a much richer and meaningful tradition than I ever knew! […]
Read More
We stood before the painting, side by side, admiring the larger-than-life flowers in a vase on the stool. My husband and I were on a day date while our kids were in school; usually we would grab a bite to eat between errands on a free day, but we were feeling fancy. Other museum guests […]
Read More
Before the angels appeared to the shepherds on the hillside, there had been 400 years of silence. Between the pages of the Old Testament, and the New—a mere second for us to flip—lived a people waiting in anticipation of their Messiah. In those four hundred years, there had been no new word from God, no […]
Read More
For many of us, fall ushers in a new kind of busy. We are finding our new rhythms for the school year. Extracurricular activities are starting up again. Seasonal holiday activities are on our minds. Home and garden projects demand our attention. And all of it crowds around our regular, daily to-do’s. We might miss […]
Read More
This summer, my husband scoped out his family’s farm in Michigan for interesting rocks. Combing through the fields and woods on his family’s land, he discovered several rocks of interest, carting them up to the house in a wheelbarrow. I’m not sure how he sees the potential in these drab stones. I look over the […]
Read More
One bright Tuesday as I walked my dog around our condo complex, I spotted a dad with his two young sons. In front of his open garage, he set out a shiny green bike for his preschooler and a red tricycle for his toddler. In the middle of their street, he had set up an […]
Read More
Last week, a package came for me. Inside was a new Bible and a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. I could hardly wait to open both of them! It used to be that I would have categorized one of the items as sacred and the other as secular, and although I would argue that the Bible […]
Read More
“Play with me, mommy!” I hear this a lot, and I bet you do too. Right after the earnest request, one of my boys will lead me by the hand toward their block tower, or superhero capes, or plastic doctor playset. In recent years, I’ve battled more than my share of beyblades, lost many Nerf […]
Read More
“Dear God, please make him sleep!” I’ve lost count of the number of times I uttered this prayer in the early years of parenting. During nap time, in the middle of the night, my voice sighing with exhaustion, cracked with desperation. Instead of a dedicated time in which to pray everyday—what I used to do […]
Read More
Waiting is a muscle that you practice using at an early age. Counting down the days till Christmas, waiting for your next birthday, waiting your turn, waiting for the weekend. It’s excruciating—feeling that eager anticipation of a reality not yet realized and having no power to speed up the process! Childhood is just the training […]
Read More
Sarah K. Butterfield 