Hope and Be.Longing

Pancakes and Teenagers

August 22, 2017

I came home cold and tired from a long winter run last Saturday morning and there were five teens in my kitchen, four boys and a girl making pancakes. (“Norwedish” pancakes, because in my childhood they were Swedish pancakes, and in my husband’s they were called Norwegians.) I had to navigate through the pitchers of batter, syrup, powdered sugar, and strawberries to make my recovery shake.

I was thankful.

Teenagers need a place to belong, and we want to be one of those places.

It starts with a great relationship with our own teens. And it grows out from there to good friend choices. These two foundations are topics for another post but important to mention first.

Stories of Hope, Belonging, and Longing

Yellow Dot Stickers

August 22, 2017

She stumbled in and immediately dropped down on a bench.

She wiped tears from her eyes as she waited to be registered. The baby girl in her arms was bundled tightly against the cold, against the cruel world. I watched as her four-year-old pulled off bright pink gloves, welcoming the warmth of the church onto chapped hands.

Name tags in hand, we padded down the steps to the children’s area, one slow step at a time. I held tightly to the tiny hand of her daughter, dark brown skin now dotted with the round yellow stickers she had discovered on the ESL registration table.

Stories of Hope, Belonging, and Longing

Kin

August 22, 2017

Kin. Images of family gathered in front of the fireplace playing a board game—this is what comes to mind. To be kin means you belong.

My kin include my husband and boys and our family members all over—but that’s not all.

Kin stretches wider. Kin includes those with whom I share a connection, an affinity, a relationship.

My kin are my friends, the whole passel of them. They include my running partners, my phone call encouragers, my leadership team, my parenting peers. They are my fellow Christ followers, the people on my tiny block, the high school girls I mentor, the refugees I’ve met, the folk in my town.