30 More Days of Grace

If I Learned One Thing in Prison: Lessons from Behind the Fence: Lesson 1: The Truth will set you Free I spent the last 8 months in prison. Literally. I spent the last 20 years in prison. Figuratively. And you know what?  The figurative prison was much more difficult than the literal prison.   For real. The Truth will Set You Free...Except when it Lands you Behind Bars I spent my 20s and 30s living what appeared to be the perfect and somewhat charmed life to the outside world.  I smiled when I was supposed to smile. I cried on cue when I was supposed to cry. And, like so many strong and good Christian women, I sacrificed everything that made me for the sake of everything everyone else needed.   And it ultimately destroyed me. It broke me into a million little pieces. And then the pieces shattered into dust.   I got married at 20, graduated college at 22, got a teaching job immediately, and started teaching...

“If God closes a door” and Other Cliches that should be Retired: I grew up on Christian cliches. They were plastered on posters in my Sunday School rooms, tossed around freely at church camp, and generally spouted every time the church doors were open. “God will never give you more than you can handle.” “If he leads you to it, he’ll lead you through it.” “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” “Let go and let God.” “God helps those who helps themselves.” “If it’s God’s will…” “Jesus, take the wheel.” Okay, that last one might be a country song and not a Christian cliche, but it fits, right?! I’d love to take apart each one of these cliches, and maybe someday I’ll do a series on them, but today, today I just want to think about one of them. The first one. The biggest offender. “God will never give you more than you can handle.” False. Not true. Bold-faced lie. “God will never give you more than you can handle,” but... I’m not entirely sure where this cliche originat...

Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Other Lies we tell Kids: I ’m not sure if I ever believed in Santa. Growing up, my family members were professional sarcasm slingers and outstanding kings of creativity.  Consequently, it took immense amounts of discernment to actually know when the truth was being told. I spent years with my brother telling me I was adopted and from a different planet.  I think it might have been his sole purpose in life to destroy every one of my childhood paradigms! So, you can imagine what he did with Santa.   I was probably around five or six when he systematically tore apart every detail of the Santa myth for me.  I don’t know how much I actually believed in Santa at that point, but I know that I was done after that! What’s funny about this, is that he spent hours of our childhood trying to convince me of all of these random tales my parents would have killed him for, but when he had the opportunity to expand on the Santa tale, he ...