For some time now I’ve been giving each boy at bedtime what I call, The Long Hug. I’m not sure when it started, but I know why it did. I was usually doing dishes or working on the computer at bedtime while The Preacher would put the kids to bed, and I found myself giving quick kisses and only semi-present acknowledgements goodnight. Usually, I would often say, “Just go to bed…!” But then, later, after the house was quiet, I’d look back on the day and regret not giving more hugs, not offering more kisses, not saying more “I love yous,” not lingering longer at bedtime, to close out the day. So, now…we have The Long Hug. They’ve come to expect it, wait for it, soak it up. It’s the hug that lasts a good 30 count…and sometimes a minute or two. It’s the hug that pushes past the rushing […]

The Preacher loves books by “dead old guys.”  He’s been meditating on the wisdom found in this little jewel: The Education of A Child from The Wisdom of Fenelon 1687. I love it when that which was true in, say, the 17th century, still rings true in modernity. That which does not go out of style and does not lose it’s truthfulness…is worth meditating on indeed: “It is the home that lays the foundation of a child’s future. And though the strength of the foundation is determined by the virtues of both parents, it is a woman who holds the key to her children’s heart in the early years of childhood. She has the privilege of weaving God’s eternal truth into the daily lives of her children while they are still young and tender. A woman who is a mother, is she not greater than he that ruleth a city? Are […]