Blogger and Writer: Capturing Stories of God's Grace
I’m over at Pick Your Portion today, writing about what happens when you feel like you’ve heard from God, but it feels like you’re just going in circles.
Have you ever felt like God was leading you so directly . . . but then the path took you on chaotic twists and turns, detours, and maybe even what seemed like a dead end? You were doing your best to listen to your spiritual GPS, but somehow you just weren’t getting straight from point A to point B.
You can read the rest of the article here.
I’m over at Pick Your Portion today, writing about beauty and worship. Is there a place for making things beautiful? Or is God purely practical?
A friend of mine has a gift for seeing beauty and then capturing it with the lens of her camera. She can catch a particular scene, in a certain light, with just the right color pattern, and she somehow manages to tell a whole story through the images. She can capture the joy of a couple on their wedding day, the pink-toed wonder of a newborn baby, the golden glow of a field of daffodils.
When she and I chatted the other day, she was reflecting on her career choice. “I feel passionate about what I do,” she said. “But sometimes I wonder if it really makes a difference. I mean, some people help the underprivileged or teach God’s Word or serve on the mission field. And here I’m just making things pretty.”
But as I read today’s passage from Exodus 37, I’m struck by God’s affirmation of beauty—and those who create it.
You can keep reading here.
Have you ever wondered if God plays favorites? I’m over at Pick Your Portion today, writing about Genesis 25.
Time magazine recently ran a cover story with the evocative title “Why Mom Liked You Best.” In it Jeffrey Kluger makes the claim that all parents—even those who vehemently deny it—have a favorite child. Since Kulger’s Time article came out, scientists, psychologists, and parents have engaged in heated discussion about whether this is indeed the case for all parents. It may be difficult to prove his theory scientifically, but there is no denying that parental favoritism has been around since nearly the dawn of time.
In ancient Greece and Rome, parents who knew they couldn’t care for all their children would commit infanticide, killing their newborn daughters in favor of their sons.
Princess Amelia, the youngest of George III and Queen Charlotte’s fifteen children, was widely known to be her father’s favorite, and she was treated as such from her birth.
Author Charles Dickens felt the effects of not being the favored child. His family didn’t have enough money to send both him and his older sister to school, so they sent his sister to school while he slaved away in boot-blacking factory.
But perhaps one of the most well-known cases of parental favoritism dates back to the book of Genesis.
To read the rest of the piece, you can visit Pick Your Portion here.