When our two daughters were ages three and five we began taking some time every day to connect with God as a family. I didn’t know anyone else who did this, so we just made it up by scratch. We kept up this practice until our daughters went off to college. I have a firm…
A little Intentional Quiet: Soul Sculpting Project
Sometimes I walk on winter days when the snow absorbs so much sound that the silence is palatable. When I stand still all I can hear is a bird pushing its wings against the air above me. In the late fall I walk in the aspens. All summer long the birds and leaves spend their…
A Tiny Launch Out of Lazy: Soul Sculpting Project Lent Week 7
Sloth is a complicated sin. In the 7 Deadly Sin List it originally came under the word acedia.That’s a word we don’t even use any more Acedia is related to tedium, melancholy, joylessness, discontent, and apathy. Particularly apathy towards the spiritual life. Theologian Thomas Aquinas called acedia a “sluggishness of the mind which neglects to…
Angry? Breathe, Invite Wisdom, Listen: Soul Sculpting Project: Lent Week 6
Does Jesus ever get really angry? Yes. Remember the famous time when he flips over all the market tables at the temple. And then there’s the time when Jesus’s disciples decide that He is too busy and important to bless little kids, so they block a group of kids from getting to Him. Jesus gets…
How I Learned to Eat at Glacial Speed: Soul Sculpting Lent Week 5
I don’t know why I grew up to be such a fast eater but by the time I reached college I could walk into the cafeteria, inhale my dinner and be out of there in record time. I think I felt proud of my speed-eating skill. The last year of college, however, I ran into…
Gratitude: The Antidote for Envy: Soul Sculpting Project Lent #4
Envy doesn’t even sound like fun to me. Some of the other 7 Deadly sins like gluttony, greed, pride, lust, and sloth at least have the lure of promising pleasure and fun. At the start, that is, before the life-sucking consequences set in. But envy just sounds miserable from the start. And then there are…