There are real reasons for people to get divorced, but the destruction of a marriage should never be celebrated. In "The Divorce Delusion," an article from the New York Times a few weeks back, the writer reflects on popular culture's recent embrace of divorce and comments upon ...

Over the weekend, a friend asked, "What was the hardest part of writing A Good and Perfect Gift?"

When I sat down to write, I had over 200 typed pages of journal entries from the time immediately following Penny's birth. I recorded the raw emotions, the theological questions, ...

David Brooks has yet another insightful piece in the New York Times. He argues that to the extent that ever-rising health care costs are a major reason for the U.S. federal deficit, the stalled debate in Washington about the debt ceiling is actually the result of cultural assumptions ...

To conclude some of the thoughts I've shared about prayer this week, I want to offer the suggestion of using prayer cards. For a fuller explanation, go to Paul Miller's A Praying Life, but the basic idea is to think of people or recurring ideas in your life that you'd like to ...

Our children are always surprising me. There's William making "art" in the front yard out of a plastic lawnmower, red cones, and a host of tennis balls. Or Penny's determination in the swimming pool. Marilee's recent willingness to inhale large amounts of prunes.

So the other ...

Prayer is exciting. Prayer is tough (at least for me). But as I mentioned in yesterday's post, honesty with God matter more than getting it right when we pray. We can bring our doubts, fears, shame, guilt, anger, sorrow, joy–we can bring our real selves–to God in prayer.

Penny ...

Sometimes I forget that most of the world isn't attuned to issues related to Down syndrome and intellectual disability. I also get tired when I read one more headline about people in positions of power mocking people who have historically been scorned and abused. So when I read ...

I wrote yesterday about the excitement of prayer. And much as I believe that prayer is everything I said–an ongoing opportunity to know God, a chance to see God's work in the world, and a source of gratitude–I still have a hard time praying. Why?

First, there's the distraction ...

I recently read and reviewed Jenell Paris' book, The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex is Too Important to Define Who We Are for her.meneutics, the Christianity Today women's blog. I've quoted from and linked to the review below, and I hope you'll take the time to read it and ...

I write about prayer a lot (I've included a list of past posts at the end of this one if you want to read more). Enough, in fact, that you might get the erroneous impression that I pray a lot. But in reality my "prayer life" is sporadic, like a car in traffic, sometimes lurching ...

I used to think that communication was all about words. Spoken words. Written words. Whispered words. Shouted words.

Then I had children.

And I began to realize that communication may include words, but more often it entails hugs and tears and sometimes screeches and yawns and ...

My friend Ellen Painter Dollar has a guest post on her blog, Choices that Matter: "Beating on the Chest of God: Christian Responses to Infertility and Suffering." It's a poignant and helpful reflection upon what not to say to someone who is dealing with the pain of infertility ...

A few months ago, Peter discovered an ancient songbook (circa 1960) filled with folk tunes and campfire songs. William was fascinated. We started singing some classics–"Skip to My Lou" and "On Top of Spaghetti" and "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." ...

I know the book is finished when the final deadline rolls around. Which, in this case, is TODAY!

My first deadline for A Good and Perfect Gift was last December. I spent the week after Christmas reading the entire manuscript out loud, listening for words that were repeated too ...

Issues surrounding sexuality make headlines all the time. Same-sex marriage in New York State... Questions about children's sexual identities discussed on Motherlode... And, all too often, Christians condemning these conversations.

My fellow her.meneutics blogger Karen Swallow ...