Never Give Up

Sunday Psalms, Tuesday Thoughts

A Missed Childhood

When I wrote a memoir (Trading Fathers free PDF) a few years ago, I expected to find a readership and a new career of leading Christian retreats. I expected to talk a lot about forgiveness and grief; about the long obedience in the same direction; about how to recover from a challenging childhood.

That worked for a few years. Then, in 2012, I got tired of the marketing required to make a success. And I asked God, “May I stop?” When he said I could, I asked, “And what do I do with the rest of my life?”

“You can have the childhood you missed.”

Really? That had to be God. That thought didn’t sound like me.

And so, for the last few years, I have read a lot of novels, traveled, and not taken on much responsibility.

Unlike the previous twenty years of providing psychotherapy as a licensed MSW psychotherapist, I carried significantly less weight.

What now?

When the pandemic began, in March, 2020, I asked God, “What can I contribute?” And I began to write weekly prayers that slowly assumed a particular shape and began to be part of our liturgy at our small non-denominational congregation.

It’s now been more than four years of writing a weekly Psalm, with no plans to stop. There’s about a year’s worth of videos of reading my Sunday Psalms, with images and music. My practice in the last few months includes a voiceover, along with an image, to the text of the Sunday Psalm.

Gleaning from fifty years of meditation, I also write and design Tuesday Thoughts. Sometimes that’s an image with a thought, other times it’s a short writing piece, on themes related to emotionally healthy Christianity.

What will you get?

Weekly Sunday Psalms and Tuesday Thoughts. Possibly a bit of my poetry and photography thrown in.

I’m interested in frugality and van camping; simple cooking and fine craft; forgiveness and grief; living with an eye on eternity and finding God in everyday life.

My pastor recently said, from the pulpit, that I was the wisest person he knew. So, there’s that going for me. I do love wisdom and my heart’s desire is that my thoughts might spark in you a bit of growth towards Jesus.

Who am I?

I’m a serious orthodox Christian at odds with much of the current cultural milieu, but sensitive to the pain and shame most people carry. Everyone is valuable because God has made us all in his image.

I’m a wife, mother, and grandmother. I’m comfortable in my old skin.

I love wisdom. I try not to love wisdom more than Jesus, himself.

My goal is to speak truth in love.

My hope is to encourage deeper trust in Jesus.

Let’s trust him together through whatever trials, traumas, and joys lie ahead.

No paid subscriptions as long as Social Security and my husband’s pension endures, so I hope you’ll sign up for free.