Up the Sunbeam

-- My Mama-heart trembles with questions that toss and jumble. I try so hard to make sense of all the conflicting, confounding concerns for my children that clamor for my attention. Which concern takes precedence? Which need is most important? In a world runaway with its own insanity, how do I as a mom, how do we as parents help our kids navigate the mine-fields of their generation's culture wars and the enemy who would love to derail them? It feels like the movie scene that gave me nightmares as a little girl. Snow White, fleeing from the wicked Queen's murderous plot, runs through the creepy dark forest with the tree branches grabbing and grasping at her cloak with evil intent. That is sometimes how I see the world my children go into every day when they walk out our door. Sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence are everywhere from TV to the school yard, packaged in profanity and peer-pressure. Not only that, but ideas, influences, attitudes and ideologies come at them ...

I am the very blessed daughter of parents who will celebrate their 49th Anniversary next month. In their front yard stands the enormous weeping willow tree in this picture. It has stood through many storms, and sheltered generations of us in countless ways since my family moved there in 1972. In many ways it reminds me of my parents--their marriage, like that awesome willow tree, has stood many storms and sheltered our family too! Not only have they stayed together in proximity, but they have stayed so together in spirit, and are still so happy with the choice they made 49 years ago to get married, to share the rest of their lives with one another. Their relationship has been a blessing and an example to me and so many other people who have had the privilege of seeing them together over the years. I am thankful beyond expression for the pattern they have given me. Thankful too, that my husband and I (more than 21 wonderful years together) are just as committed to our marr...