I’m not special! Those weren’t the words I expected to come out of Etta Rose’s mouth when I scolded her. She’d done something sisterly, but nothing to incite this reaction. What do you mean, you’re not special? I was kneeling now, stunned that something so raw was hanging between me and our smallest cherub. The […]
And now I will show you the most excellent way… ~ 1 Corinthians 12:31 I told my friend to let her husband have it. I told her to unleash and let him know how he crushes her, destroying her almost daily with his hate-filled ways. “Enough is enough,” I’d said… She had every […]
The moment they’re born, baby giraffes fall eight feet from their mother’s womb to the concrete earth. That’s when the real violence begins, as the mother kicks blow after blow to her fledgling struggling to stand… and just when it gets on its feet, she uses her powerful neck to shove the baby down […]
Everyone loves a flawless performance, but it was when a young man named Denim forgot the lyrics to his song that the pure Love of God washed over everyone listening until we were in tears. Until we were in love. Denim was singing, when suddenly his nerves ambushed him and the lyrics fled. There was […]
No one knew what was wrong with me. I was so tired. For months, mystery symptoms plagued me. My joints burned and ached. Fevers woke me, shivering cold. A nauseating headache roared like a train all the time. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. My breath came in wheezes. I was so, so tired… A menu […]
I was almost kidnapped when I was four years old. Back then the local mall had a bookstore on one end and a Hardee’s on the other. I couldn’t wait any longer to use the restroom, so I set out into the forest of legs on my own, dodging purses and shopping bags. I was […]
At a restaurant where we pretend to have manners, my husband Heath thanked God for our meal and I began sawing away at the girls’ steak. Suddenly Selah stopped the action by offering to pray also. So we all froze in place, Etta Rose with a cheek full of food, as the thankful cherub launched […]
I quit God. I got on my knees—bowing—and told God I didn’t believe in Him anymore and I quit. I was afraid to look. My heart slammed my chest as I told the God I didn’t believe in, I was done. The irony of it surely made Him grin, like a father pelted by an […]
In dense, Hemingway fog and nerve-racking school traffic, Etta Rose asked for a drive-thru biscuit. So I swerved into the left lane and weaved through a mile of construction, only to hear her say, “I changed my mind.” I felt a Donald Duck, feathers-flying mommy fit coming on. She knew I was mad. We didn’t […]