RECENT POSTS

7 Non-Fiction Books I Recommend for (White) People Who Want to Understand Our Racial Divides
Lately I have been getting a lot of questions about books that I recommend for people who want to further understand our racial divides, and

For Those Who Worry
For Those Who Worry I used to have a hard time calling myself a sinner. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in sin. Conceptually, I’m

An Erroneous S and the Power of Language: Why My Book Had to be Reprinted at the Last Second
For the past few years, I’ve been working on a memoir about race, class and disability called White Picket Fences: Turning toward Love in a

Why I Wrote White Picket Fences
One of the questions I get asked a lot about White Picket Fences: Turning toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege is why
When Serving Others Means Letting Yourself Be Served
So there’s this famous verse in the Bible where Jesus says he came “not to be served but to serve.” It’s a verse that crept
Why Instagram?
A few years ago, I stopped blogging. I had never been great on social media. I like to take time to think about things. (Which

Penny, Seventh Grade
Everyone told me that seventh grade is just the worst. The nadir of self-consciousness and social awkwardness and everything horrible about tween-dom. And it

What Our Summer Vacation Taught Me
Over the summer we took a family vacation in Europe. It was a wonderful trip where we met up with old friends in a simple

The Invitation to Confess
I shared this short thought on Facebook over the summer, but also wanted to share it here…. Historically speaking, I am not good at confessing

Trust Your Love Instead Of Your Fear
A few days after the Presidential election of 2016, I wrote this post. Looking back on it now, it seems like a great introduction to

New Rules For Screen Time Pt. 2
I mentioned a while back that I wanted to revise our family’s policies regarding screen time in response to a podcast I heard with Heather

New Rules For Screen Time Pt. 1
When I was a kid, we spent two weeks at my grandparent’s beach house every summer. It was a simple cottage with painted wooden
Thoughts from May 28 – June 1, 2018
Here are some of my thoughts from this past week, which include my thoughts and questions about hardship and suffering, a video about what it

The Difference between Hardship and Suffering, and Why It Matters
Recently I have been thinking about hardship and about suffering and how often we confuse the two and how that can get us into

Thoughts from May 21-25, 2018
Once a week I compile the thoughts I’ve shared on my Facebook Author Page into one blog post. As it happened, last week on Monday
Why I Won’t Tell You What Happened When Penny, Our Daughter with Down Syndrome, Went to the Middle School Dance
I’ve read a few comments over the years about how parents stop writing about their kids with disabilities once they are out of the
Thoughts from May 14-18, 2018
May 14, 2018 This video is another 6-minute take on Luke 15, the story of two sons who don’t understand their father. Greg Boyle, author

Is the Word “Buddy” Helpful in Programs for Kids with Disabilities?
The word “buddy” comes up a lot in programs for people with disabilities. When Penny was a toddler, our church said they’d like to get