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Sorry, Not Sorry
She came in from playing outside, her cheeks flushed from the southern sunshine. “Please go pick up your room before dinner,” I asked. My four-year-old turned, made an angry face, with fists at her sides, “I don’t want to!” Giving her the ‘mom’ look, I started towards her. She quickly ran to her room, continuing to shout and whine. I followed her, trying to maintain my patience while I explained that she will not speak to me like this and that picking up her toys is her responsibility. She yelled, “SORRY! But I . . .” And I listened to her little rant, gently corrected her attitude, and modeled an…
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Nothing is Wasted – How God uses Hard
Nothing is wasted? Really? God uses all the awful stuff in our lives? Trusting God that nothing is wasted is sometimes more than hard. Sometimes when life is on an easier street, we do a good job feeling like we’ve put it all in His hands, but when the speed bumps start coming and getting bigger and bigger, we start to ask questions. We start wondering “Why me?” or “Why him?” or just “Why?” And it gets downright disastrous. How can a loving, merciful God let THIS happen? Whatever your THIS might be. I have a lot of “This”es in my life. (Heaven not Harvard shares links as a participant…
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Skipping the Scale
Has your news feed been filled with friends making New Year’s Resolutions? Ads for diet pills and gym membership seeming to overtake every commercial break? I feel a bit bombarded. I can’t remember a time I didn’t start the new year wanting to lose weight. I might have been twelve. Some years, it’s been a few pounds. Other years, January first has started a desperate attempt to drop half of a normal human being. This is one of those years. I may not be normal; it’s hard to tell from inside my own head, but being overweight makes me feel like less of a person, not just less valuable, but…
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Jesus as Clark Kent
My inner geek is going to show for just a second here. I love superhero origin stories. My favorite part of the story is watching them learn who they truly are, struggle with their powers, choose the responsibility of sacrificial heroism. Can you imagine Jesus as Clark Kent? Jesus is the ultimate hero, but we really don’t know what his life was like before he was the teacher we know. I really wish we could see those early moments of Jesus’s life. Talk about the origin of the hero of all heroes! This advent, I’ve been really focusing on Christ’s coming to earth, becoming human, really imagining what that had…
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A Change in Perspective
Heaven Not Harvard started with my acknowledging that all the world’s pressure on my parenting was creating unnecessary stress, weighing on me, pushing me to be cranky and insistent with an incorrect perspective, trying be a perfect mom based on imperfect standards. Inside my head, I yelled, ‘stop!’ And I shifted my parenting away from a generic “Harvard” goal and prioritized my focus on a “Heaven” goal. Over time, that mantra has shifted my focus in a myriad of ways, including my goals for myself, including my perspective on my marriage, and including events like Thanksgiving. Today, I simply wanted to focus on being thankful, with a peaceful attention on…
