Kyria

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Our Dream Home

We did it. We'd finally "arrived." We'd achieved "the American dream." After 12 years of marriage my husband and I pulled the moving truck into the drive of what we believed would be the last place we'd live. Four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a pool, and a yard the size of a small city wrapped in a six-foot fence was finally ours. We painted, re-carpeted, remodeled, and perfected our new home. ...

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Hospitality for Introverts

I don't have the gift of hospitality. I first truly understood that when I was at my friend Mary's house along with a woman who was in campus ministry. This woman told us of an Indian student who needed housing. As she was telling us this girl's situation, I was saying to God, I don't want to have her live with us, but if that's what you want, I'm listening. But every fiber of my body was resisting ...

Related Topics: Anxiety, Appearances, Caring, Cheerfulness, Home, Self-confidence, Service, Shyness, Welcoming

Hospitality for the Domestically Challenged

What do you do if you want to practice the spiritual discipline of hospitality, but feel as though you or your house is never clean enough, good enough, fill-in-the-blank enough? Kyria met with three women (Carla Barnhill, from Minnesota; Tricia Goyer, from Arkansas; and Caryn Rivadeneira, from Illinois) to find out how they practice hospitality and what it really means to them—in the midst ...

Related Topics: Anxiety, Appearances, Caring, Cheerfulness, Home, Self-confidence, Service, Shyness, Welcoming

Timing Is Everything

People used to feel sorry for Rich and me because of our work schedules. Now they're envious.

If only they knew.

While we dated and when we were first married, I was working a normal eight-to-five office job. Meanwhile, Rich worked 4 p.m. until midnight or later, but with Saturdays and Sundays off, although our weekends didn't start until he awoke around noon. And that was the extent of our time together: ...

Related Topics: Companionship, Compromise, Conflict resolution, Time management

Safe at Home for Christmas

It may not be conventional, but my holiday decorating includes a treasured picture of home plate over my fireplace. Perhaps you don't think of baseball after the World Series, and certainly not at Christmas, but for me it's a year-round source of inspiration.

The large black and white photograph is a reminder of what's important during the holidays. For me, it symbolizes a beautiful revelation that ...

Related Topics: Christmas, In-laws, priorities

Downscaling Christmas

Start close to home

Get on your knees with your family, and covenant with God to simplify your life. Determine to glorify and worship your external Lord rather than the holiday myth of overworking yourself into exhaustion for a "perfect" Christmas season.

Ask family members which traditions they most want to continue, and ask them to give something in exchange. If your daughter craves homemade cookies, ...

Related Topics: Burnout, Busyness, Christmas, Rest

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The Words that Changed My Life

Elisabeth![*] John needs to be changed again." My mother-in-law's voice filtered through my fog of exhausted sleep.

For the fourth time that night, Agnes and I tackled the foul mess in my father-in-law's bed. John was a large man and cleaning him, changing his diaper and bedding, was difficult. It took all my strength to roll him from side to side, holding him in position with one hand while washing ...

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Point/Counterpoint

Editors' note: In the last decade, television has increasingly come under fire as a negative influence on society in general and children in specific. Case in point: A recent study suggests pregnancy rates are much higher among girls who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior. Such findings raise the question: Should Christians watch—or boycott—television? Here, two moms weigh ...

Related Topics: Culture, Entertainment, Family, Leisure, parenting, Television, Time management

For the Record

To an outsider, it looks like an ordinary school notebook. But my friend Birdie McKenzie treasures the journal she and her parents kept together while on a missions trip when she was eight. "I can read how our faith grew on that trip," Birdie says today. "When I see all the exciting things we did, it builds my faith even now. I plan on sharing it with my daughter as she grows, and starting our own ...

Related Topics: Family's Faith, journaling, Spiritual Journey, Spiritual Walk

Family Ties

I lie in bed listening to the whispers from the room next door. A torrent of giggles comes rushing down the hall, and I glance at the clock. Twelve forty-five! Those irksome insomniacs next door are disturbing my slumber. But I smile. You see, one of my tormentors is my 11-year-old daughter, and her rowdy accomplice is her aunt, my sister. The fact they're so obviously enjoying each ...

Related Topics: Communication, Family