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Complex Pain
My life is full and rich. Every day, I have a healthy baby who wants nothing more than to be held and cuddled (and fed and changed 😉 ). And more than any other interesting adventure in her life (like making a fort in a downstairs closet and reading for hours yesterday), I have another daughter whose delight is to snuggle with me and talk, sing, read, pray … just be together. On top of all of that? I have a husband who has stuck with me for 14+ years and who is unfailingly faithful and kind and I have been saved from my sins by the very Triune God…
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Wonderful Christmas Gift Idea — Calvinist Still Life by TJ Lynde!
If you haven’t checked out Taylor Lynde’s fine art store lately, you are really missing out! (Especially if you are looking for a stunning, thoughtful, and extremely inexpensive gift for someone you love. TJ offers these smaller-sized paintings on ebay to help those of us who can’t afford gallery-sized works still get to have gallery-quality fine art in our homes.) Please click through and check them all out — there are a number of Montana scenes that are just lovely. But my favorite is this Calvinist Still Life. (I wish I could put a photo of it in here! TJ & Samara—if you read this, email me a photo, OK?…
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Come With Me in My Death
After reading this quote in a RZIM Slice of Infinity from this week, I immediately prayed it for my friend’s mother (and their entire family) as they walk through the suffering of end stage cancer: “Lord Jesus, come yourself, and dwell with us, be human as we are, and overcome what overwhelms us. Come into the midst of my evil, come close to my unfaithfulness. Share my sin, which I hate and which I cannot leave. Be my brother, Thou Holy God. Be my brother in the kingdom of evil and suffering and death. Come with me in my death, come with me in my suffering, come with me as…
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No Words To Say
My dad and his wife have left for the airport. I can’t really come up with words to describe how I am feeling right now. I’m not sure I really WANT to figure out what I am feeling. Sometimes the layers of our hearts just get peeled back a little more and a little more, don’t they? We had no overt conflicts. Everything went “fine.” We even talked about the gospel in very direct ways on three occasions. But right now? I just don’t have words to say. So I’ll sign off. Sorry to be a non-blogger again. It’s been quite a month, eh? Hope you are all doing…
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UPDATE — Please pray for my mom — Aneurysm Surgery Tomorrow!
I would greatly appreciate your prayers for my mom, Kathy, as she was taken to the hospital by ambulance today for unexplained and profuse bleeding, transfused, admitted, and will be having surgery for an aneurysm in her abdomen tomorrow. All this after fighting off a MRSA infection following an arterial bypass surgery last month and dealing with a wound that won’t heal (and requires daily wound care by an in-home nurse). Poor mom! I know it’s going to be a long night in her hospital room tonight. (I keep trying to reach her just to check in one more time, but so far I haven’t been able to.) Your prayers…
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Family Conflicts and the Holidays
If you’ve ever listened to my testimony, you know that I come from a bit of a challenging family background. Thankfully, I have a good relationship with my mom, dad, and sister now. But every once in awhile, waves of emotions related to my past will splash over me (and often feel like they’re drowning me). This is especially true around the holidays. I don’t know why the holidays can be so tempting to feelings of sadness, loneliness, and dissatisfaction with family relationships. Maybe it’s the canned, fake sentimentality of a “Folgers Christmas Commercial” perfect family. Maybe it’s genuine grief over the effects of sin on this fractured life in…
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Presuming the Worst
Fred and I recently had a helpful and relatively profound epiphany—at least it’s been profound for our friendship and marriage. We realized that at the heart of many of our recent quarrels and fights, we were presuming that the other person was upset, unhappy, or frustrated. With us. And usually? We were presuming that the other person was extremely upset, unhappy, or frustrated. So then we either backtracked into some sort of “make it all better” over-reactive mode OR we became quickly (and disproportionately) defensive or even attack-y, so before you could say the word IRONIC, the other person WAS upset, unhappy, or frustrated. Needless to say, this was not…
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Barthel Men
Fred (the youngest) and his brother, John (3rd of the 5 Barthel boys): Can you tell they’re related? 😉
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Not Accept Prison as a Normal Part of Life
Walking through the tailgate area outside of Candlestick Park last Thursday for the 49ers-Bears NFL game was quite a cultural experience for me. For the most part, I really tried to just be in the moment, relax, and experience something new and interesting. But every few feet, I would instinctively cringe in response to the extremely coarse / vile / crude language and sounds being blasted from various speakers. Of course, I have known intellectually for years that “out there” is an entire culture of music filled with blasphemous M*F* language and s*xual sounds. But reading about something in an article and having it forced into my ears and mind…
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Marks of Maturity
HT: Pastor Anyabwile at PureChurch for linking to this great post by Al Mohler on The Marks of Manhood. He makes thirteen points that are all worth reading and reflecting on: 1. Spiritual maturity sufficient to lead a wife and children 2. Personal maturity sufficient to be a responsible husband and father 3. Economic maturity sufficient to hold an adult job and handle money 4. Physical maturity sufficient to work and protect a family 5. Sexual maturity sufficient to marry and fulfill God’s purposes 6. Moral maturity sufficient to lead as example of righteousness 7. Ethical maturity sufficient to make responsible decisions 8. Worldview maturity sufficient to understand what is…
