You will never see me teaching Sunday School to children. It took me years to be able to say that without embarrassment. What kind of person isn’t willing to teach children? Does Gina not like children? Does she not see the great potential in shepherding young souls? These are the questions I was sure people would ask. When my kids …
What No One Told Me About Parenting Teens
Since we have two teenagers in the house, I’ve realized there are pieces of information about what this parenting teens gig entails that no one told me. I suspect this is because the ones who know are too busy trying to manage it themselves, those who are past it have forgotten, or maybe people have tried to tell me but I just …
Finding Your Own Voice
Thank God for those mint green Converse shoes. Do you know what they mean to me? The fact that you wanted them means you are learning to know your own mind. My girl, who so often fears choices because they might not be “right,” you knew that you wanted those. And then you wanted to wear them with your dress. …
Stop Telling Me to be Amazing
I saw a shirt at Old Navy once that said, “Be Amazing.” It felt like way too much pressure. And that’s coming from an Enneagram 3. My husband says 3s are driven by “the need to be awesome.” It might have felt that way because I was in the middle of power Christmas shopping that should have been spread out reasonably …
What Being a Soccer Mom Teaches Me About Parenting
I have embraced what seems to be the natural calling of an American mom. Outside the home, I watch soccer. That’s what I do. Every weekend, sometimes more than once, I am in my camp chair with a water bottle and a phone in hand to text updates to my husband. I approach each game with a certain amount of trepidation. …
Seeing God in Legos
My title is not meant to imply that I have seen the face of God in a Lego creation, a la the Virgin Mary in a piece of toast (especially not the creepy little guy above, courtesy of Ethan); rather, that in watching a young child play with Legos, I saw a bigger picture of Him. We start our conference days …
Why I Need a Dog
Sometimes I imagine a conversation between the Father and Jesus that went like this: Father: I think we should give Gina a dog. Jesus: I don’t think she would like that. I think she would find it disruptive. Father: Exactly. Jesus: Oh, this is going to be fun. Oh yes, she’s been disruptive. She’s required countless hours of training, walking, …
The Good Life
The world would have us think that a good life is a “significant” one. It is one in which you have bigger, better, more; you have some combination of fame and fortune. I believe God would differ. And I agree with Him, especially after reflecting on the life of my grandmother. The night before her funeral last Saturday, we sat …
Better Things Ahead
This week has left me a little speechless. On top of the emotional roller coaster of starting our kids in school and Erik being gone, death came twice: a dear family friend, and my sweet grandma. The first was wholly unexpected, the kind of death where you say, “But I just saw him . . . but he just . …
Learning
The garbage disposal in my parents’ kitchen clogged two nights ago. This was inconvenient on a number of levels, such as: my parents were gone, my husband was gone, I am not good with tools, and oh yeah, after 13 years overseas I lack certain skills most people have gained by this point. In other words, I haven’t interacted with …