It is 1995. I board my first international flight to teach elementary school in Paraguay. There, I fall in love. It is NOT with someone tall dark and handsome. I fall in love with the Paraguayan people, international ministry, and myself in a foreign context. I gustily sing Marcos Witt with the worship team, preach once or twice in Spanish,…
When I read “Men Prefer Debt-Free Virgins Without Tattoos”, I immediately knew why I didn’t marry until I was 39, even though I wanted to get an MRS with my BA. My problem: I went to college, where I was taught to be “independent, loud, and immodest,” according to author Lori Alexander. My alma mater, Grove City College, though Christian,…
Today I’m hosting Ann Duncan, a fabulous friend and current seminary student. She asks the question, “What is femininity?” and comes up with a non-boxy answer. Here’s her take. Every day I wake up to different voices on the tv, radio, ads online pulling me towards their style and type of woman, but what does it really mean to…
I did it again. I compared myself to her, and I lost. I lost big, and now I feel crappy. I innocently opened up a copy of the academic journal and saw that she just published another article. Rather than “Wow—I should read that,” my response was “She just had a baby, too—how did she have time to do another…
She told me of a sexual action she took that she knew was probably not the smartest decision. “But YOLO,” she said. I was reminded of ROLOs, that yummy caramel center wrapped with milk chocolate. I didn’t get how ROLOs helped her to come to this unwise decision. Suddenly needing chocolate and caramel, I asked, “YOLO?” “Yeah. . . You…
My story of relationship failure is about to be published in the book Everbloom: Stories of Deeply Rooted and Transformed Lives. I’m honestly not sure how I feel about it. Everbloom is a book containing the personal stories of female authors who form the group Redbud Writers Guild. It will be released on April 25. But, as a preview, Redbud has published an…
It was a cold early morning in 1993 when I got on the bus leaving my college campus. I was excited. I had paid money to go on this trip, and we were about to March for Life, as so many did yesterday. We filled that coach bus for what we thought was a really good and clear-cut cause and…
Today, I’m hosting Chelsea Geyer, Nyack and Woman Rite of Passage alumna, passionate nonprofit founder, and all-around interesting person. Not too long ago I was sitting with some of my closest friends eating dinner and drinking good beer – we were in Colorado, after all. At the table, two of us were single, the other four married, and one of…
I’ve often wondered why “thou shalt not covet” is on that list of ten commandments. It seems so much less important than actions like killing, lying, and the like. Why is coveting, wanting what someone else has, being jealous, even on that list? I mean, if we were to make a list of ten things we really, really didn’t want people…
I don’t know about you, but I don’t much like waiting. I don’t like waiting in lines, so I shop on off-hours and avoid amusement parks. I don’t like waiting for the bread to rise, so I tend to bake it too soon—every time! I don’t like waiting for others, so I blaze ahead—often to my detriment. I especially don’t…