Why I Don’t Do Devotions
When I was a fledgling Christian, I was advised to do devotions. Twenty years later, I don't do devotions anymore. Here's why.
“O Come Let Us Adore Him” – Advent Week Four
O Come All Ye Faithful Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels; O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord! Come Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a friend’s father. While I had only met the man once, I shed many tears during the service as friends and loved ones shared, especially hearing about his passionate love for Christ and others. The church was overwhelmingly filled with people who had been recipients of that love, and it was truly humbling to see the impact…
“His Law is Love and His Gospel is Peace” – Advent Week Three
Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy name. Won by Love Though I grew up in a Christian home, I did not become an official follower of Jesus until I was in middle school. Sure, I had begged Jesus many times to come into my heart to save me from Hell, but that fear-based decision wasn’t a conversion at all. It wasn’t until I was an…
Why I Couldn’t go Through with Sleep Training (and what Happened)
I remember the severity of his cry. It was lusty, desperate, and terrible. Hearing it made my insides writhe. I knew that he knew that I was right outside the door, and he was terrified as to why I wasn’t coming back in. Though I had been advised to let my baby cry alone, to self-soothe, I couldn’t do it. I flung the door open and we were reunited, tears streaming down both of our faces. I held his small body against mine and, while he calmed down quickly, it took a while for me to deescalate. This, of course, is not an affective way to sleep-train your child. I…
God loved Noah. Period.
“Are you kidding me?” My two year old turned and looked at me, wondering why I had stopped my usual story-telling cadence. “Read, Mommy,” he said. I couldn’t. The colors were bright. The illustrations cute. The story, an ancient one, and entirely familiar. I still am not sure why so many Christians are devoted to telling young ones the record of the annihilation of the earth as a happy story about animals, though I’d come to accept it, for better or for worse. But this, I could not accept. At the bottom of the page in a book about Noah read these words: “God loved Noah because he was good.” Maybe…
