When most of us think of Advent, or of Christmas, pretty soon our minds start thinking about the crèche, the advent scene. Mother and father, dressed in pristine, royal robes, beaming proudly down …
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The Candle of Love
I love that line in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln where the title character, in a rare assertion of his authority to acquire badly-needed votes to end slavery, loudly declares, “I am the President of …
The Candle of Joy
One of my favorite books we read in high school at Grace is Tale of Two Cities. Some people don’t like Dickens, but his story of sacrificial love and redemption set in revolutionary France has always …
The Candle of Preparation
‘A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall …
The Candle of Hope
My children are older now, but I was reflecting on Christmas past, when they were little. Two memories in particular haunt me in vivid detail. The first was when one of them wanted a …
Cultivating Gratefulness
There are few things that fly all over me when I see them in my kids like ungratefulness. As I’ve been thinking about it, there are a couple of reasons for this. First, like everything else, the …
Suffering and Sacrifice
This past Tuesday, we held our Veterans’ Day commemoration at the elementary (we have it a week early to help ensure a lack of conflicts for our veterans). I am acutely aware that I say this about a …
Stacking Kindling
Being a parent is awesome, life-giving, affirming, and joyful….except when it isn’t. Sometimes, sharing wisdom with my kids feels like I’m pouring liquid gold down a big, sucking, abysmal, mud hole. …
“Teaching Generous”
Okay, let’s face it. Most of us are pretty screwed up when it comes to money. So screwed up, in fact, that many of you will stop reading this blog right…about…now…. Still reading? If so, let me just …
Using Power Wisely
I know! There are too many good things to read…you can’t read everything that crosses your radar! But when I read something that is really exceptional, I just have to share it with others. And, since …
Defending the “bubble”
One of the criticisms I hear lodged at Christian schools in general, and ours in particular, is that it’s “a bubble:” a safe, sterile environment, shielded from the harsh reality of sin and the world …
The Grace in Grace
One of the issues we struggle with the most as parents, and as a Christian school, is the interplay of grace, mercy, and consequences within the context of training up our children. We are …