30 More Days of Grace

Mean Girls Kate was four the first time she asked me why girls are mean. We were in the car on the way home from her babysitter’s house.  We had just gone around the corner by the house that’s always for sale and never finished.  Like everyday, she was recounting the events of her day when she paused for a second before breaking the silence by asking me, “Mom, why are girls mean?” Crickets. More crickets. Defaulting to a complete parenting cliche, I responded with the “we’re all mean sometimes” terrible cop-out of an answer.  I’m sure our conversation continued, but I can’t remember what we even talked about because my mind was reeling with the fact that, at four years old, Kate had already observed girls being mean and had already started to question why it has to be this way.   I could and can relate. I’ve never been good with girls.   I didn’t have close girlfriends in elementary school. My interests were never “girly,” ...

This Thing We Call Life Do you ever think about all the ways people describe this thing we call life? A Journey Hills and Valleys A Roller Coaster I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been thinking life is more like trying to get through a corn maze that doesn’t actually have an exit while blindfolded, intoxicated, and with a screaming toddler hanging on to your leg.   Yep.  That seems about right. Or maybe it’s like trying to navigate a river full of twists and turns in the night, while it’s storming, and you’re being chased by hungry alligators. Uh-huh.  That’s pretty accurate too. And, honestly, there was a point where I started to think that all was lost and the boat was about ready to sink, but Grace showed up.   Because Grace always shows up. Grace in Christianity I spent the majority of my 39 years knowing simply of Grace and then the last few years merely knowing Grace as a casual acquaintance.  Throughout my childhoo...