Fill up to Spill out

Last year around this time, I came up with this crazy idea of writing my very first book.  My pastor was in his final year of battling cancer, and one thing he would often tell us was to never leave this earth without sharing our story and our testimony.  In fact he would jokingly tell us that if he was the one to do our funeral and found out we had never shared our testimony with anyone, he would thump us on the forehead.  He definitely had a sense of humor, but he was also so good about being transparent and encouraging, showing us not only how to live well, but also how to die well too.  He shared painful lessons of sin and forgiveness, growth and change, fear and faith, bitterness and God's love during the 20 years I knew him.  He taught in a way that was both challenging and inspiring, and we adored him.   I've always been a lover of books and reading other people's stories.  There's something about reading someone's personal journey through l...

We all have questions and concerns about Covid 19 whether we are being directly affected by the virus itself or the way that the world is responding to it.  For me, besides the fear of losing my job or my job as I know it, my 2nd greatest concern is what this is doing to our kids. We are all experiencing loss during this pandemic, and our kids are no exception.  They too feel the personal loss of life the way they knew it.  We as parents are not only navigating life through our own feelings of loss, but also taking on our children's emotions as they experience loss. Loss of school, teachers, friendships, sports and activities, church, community, awards and accomplishments, graduation and celebrations, events they had been looking forward to, routines and structure.  Our kids are also experiencing great loss. What is this doing to our kids?  Will they look back on 2020 and remember the loss, hardships, stress, fear, change, and uncertainty?  Or wil...