Source of Life,Creative Force,Bearer of BurdensWho longs to gather us under your strong, feathery wings:We are tired of being the parent, the pastor,The figure-outer, the fixer.We grow weary of the weight we carry.We are exhausted from being the one in charge.Except, of course, we’re not in charge,Because if we were, things would not be such…
The last time I saw my 19-year-old son*, he grumbled at me in the middle of the public library: “Just stop yelling at me all the time. I’m sick of it. I’m finally living my life how I want and you can’t control me!” For the record, I wasn’t yelling at him. I had told…
If you are Mennonite, you may have noticed that my last name contains an extra “a”–it’s not “Harder,” but “Harader.” And no, I did not add an “a” for fun; it’s always been there. My extended family is not Mennonite and I did not grow up in the Mennonite tradition. Like many who have been…
Just for fun, I thought I’d share a slightly edited version of a piece I wrote several years ago. (How long ago? You ask. Well, the baby who is mentioned started middle school this year.) I am grateful to now have older children and slightly less chaotic holiday preparations. ‘Twas the week before Christmas, and…
My Sabbath prayer time this morning was spent sitting on my back deck in the glorious sunshine. I did a little sketching and a little journaling. Talking with God about some difficult parenting stuff. Most of the struggles right now are with our 16-year-old son who has been diagnosed with ADD and Aspergers. I won’t…
I am involved with a new blog project called Practicing Families. One or two Mondays each month, you’ll find my weekly prayer practice in the form of a family liturgy over on that blog. And never fear, I will always link you over. For my personal prayer practice this morning, I did a visual lectio…
I recently saw an article about artist Brent Christensen and the amazing ice sculptures that he creates. Sparkling walls of ice, up to twenty-five feet tall–the sculptures are beautiful. But it wasn’t the sculptures themselves that most impressed me. It was this little bit of information from the beginning of the article: “The hobby first…
I took a picture of our lit Advent candles for my blog post a few days ago. My 14-year-old daughter saw the picture and said, “Wow. Our house looks pretty in that picture.” Not to say that our house in reality is not also pretty–in it’s own messy, disorganized way. It’s just to say that,…
As an adoptive parent, I feel obligated to write a post about adoption this November–National Adoption Month. And since the month is about over, the post is going up even though I don’t have a lot of warm fuzzy things to say about adoption right now. It’s been a difficult few days in parenting world…
So this is my new “Rule of Life” board. And I know it looks crazy. The thing is, my life is kind of crazy. In a good way, but still. Three kids at two different schools that have different start and end times–and they all get out of school early every Wednesday and sometimes the…
Spacious Faith 