Real Life Reflections

This is my son with his wife and their son (taken over a year ago - note to self: take pictures of your children, not just your grand children at family gatherings!) My son's birthday is coming up, which as birthdays do, causes me to reflect on him and on his life. If you read my last post, A Letter to My Son , you've probably figured out that he wasn't the golden child that all his teachers dreamed of having in their classroom. At times, I feared that he wouldn't graduate (at least not with his class). I shed a lot of tears during those first eighteen years of his life. So did he. At the end of this month, he will turn thirty. Thirty. (Yikes!) Not only did he graduate high school with his class, he graduated college too - in four years. He's married to a wonderful woman who is totally crazy about him (and he, her). They have an adorable son. She is a pediatrician. He is a well-respected audio engineer - the type that gets called out of the blue and offered

This is my grandson (I know. He's pretty dang cute, right?) His daddy, my son, posted a picture of him on Instagram with a caption stating that he could not love this baby any more. What he doesn't know, what he can't possibly know right now, is that he will... Just wait, my dearest son, just wait. When his kindergarten teacher mistakes his inability to sit still for rebelliousness. When she pulls you aside on a daily basis to tell you all that he's done wrong that day. When she gives him eleven demerits in just three hours of school. When she keeps him in from recess day after day, although recess is what he needs most in his structured day. When he's in trouble so often that you find him lying on his bed sobbing and wondering why God made him, and he says, "I should just kill myself" - in kindergarten. And your heart breaks. When his best friend finds a new best friend. And your heart breaks. When you walk by his 5th grade classr

The three of us stood there talking after service. It's what we do at my church. Little groups of people standing around throughout the sanctuary catching up and making plans and meeting new friends. I was speaking with a long-time friend and my sister-in-law. The long-time friend is one of our ministry leaders who has a passion for The Cure by Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol.  I've read The Cure .  I didn't like it.  My sister-in-law is currently in one of our women's bible studies. They're studying The Cure. Long-time friend asked Sister-in-law what she thought. I started to feel oh-so-uncomfortable. What will I say if he asks me if I've read it? What do I say that is both supportive and honest? The next service was about to begin. We needed to move out. The moment passed. Whew. On the drive home, my thoughts zeroed in on that conversation. Over the past ten years or so, I've read countless books with the same message as The Cure . It's not the