The Consilium Blog
10 Thoughts for a Better New Year
Have you made any resolutions this year? Have you already given up on carrying them out? I never make them because I know I won’t keep them. We all need encouragement at one time or another but especially at the onset of a new year. Here are ten thoughts to inspire...
Christmas Presence
I love the Christmas season. I love decorating the tree with the quirky ornaments our kids made years ago, and I love the fond or funny memories they evoke. I love gathering with friends and family, and I love the food. All the food. I love selecting meaningful gifts,...
Oh What a Great Love
December brings us hints of beauty, great anticipation and wonder in celebration of the birth of Jesus - the true treasured Christmas gift. Everywhere we turn songs remind us of His amazing love as we exchange crosses for nativities. It would be years before the world...
Traditions and How They Change as We Age
There is no other season more jam packed full of family tradition than the holiday season. When my husband and I were raising our three daughters, any new family activity we did during this time of the year became a tradition to be repeated, at least in the minds of...
Learn from Me: A Journey Into My Past
I grew up believing I didn’t deserve God. It wasn’t anything verbal it was just how I dealt with the abuse. I wanted God, or at least what I heard from the church podium, the Bible sounded like something I should revere. Not to mention religion seemed like a better...
Watershed Moments of Our Lives
Over half a century ago, a 33-year-old father bravely stepped onto a plane in Hong Kong headed for Jamaica, leaving behind his young bride, eight months pregnant and three children, all under the age of five. One month later, I was born into the squalor of that city....
Learning to Bend
“When they reached the slopes of the mountain, Grace and Glory stood still in delighted surprise, for stretching before her were fields of slender reeds, swaying in the breeze and tossing lightly in rhythmic motion like waves or a slightly rolling sea…” Lately, I’ve...
3 Lessons Learned During this National Election Cycle (THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL POST)
God routinely stuns me into silence at the endless ways He teaches me grace. I have learned more about faith, worship, and the active practice of Christianity during this clearly contentious election cycle than I ever imagined possible. I am first to confess that even...
To A Thousand Generations
I lie on the guest room bed at my dad's house, eyes closed, breathing slowly and deeply. Anxiety grips me like a vice and makes me feel like there's a rock in my gut and a weight on my chest. The anxiety itself causes more anxiety, as I wonder why I'm having anxiety...
