My head was pounding. My eyes hurt. My stomach didn’t feel so hot either. I marvel at the creativity of human beings and how—even in our off hours—we tackle difficult challenges. There were still gobbledygook lines showing very prominently on the site of “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit,” which looked very much like Latin. But I’m told it is actually nonsense, used as fill-in lines that a designer uses to illustrate a typestyle, or “font,” until a writer writes the real thing. A writer like me, not a Web guru. So what was a 60-something woman, a […]

Most of my Another Way followers know of my book Whatever Happened to Dinner (Herald Press, 2010), which looks at the ways eating together regularly strengthens families and children. A number of you actually helped me write the book with your wonderful examples, stories, memories, and ideas about what keeping family meal time as often as possible did for your family. In groups where I’ve talked about this topic, audiences have no trouble coming up with ideas about what eating together as a family does: fosters togetherness, establishes traditions, and leans toward better nutrition, companionship, conversation, and camaraderie. In churches as in […]

Last year I paid passing tribute to two of my daughters’ first Mother’s Day without going into detail. For those of us who are privileged to get to the place in life (and it is a great privilege that I hope I never take for granted—no one should) where we get to see our kids being parents, well, as they say, it is a very happy place. Mostly. When it’s time for me to go to bed and they’re visiting or I’m at their house, I can just go to bed and not worry about having to get up for them. […]

Editor’s Note: Michelle Sinclair is the daughter of columnist Melodie Davis; she is married and works in Washington, D.C. She and her husband have a toddler son. It was a long, bitterly cold winter where we live. Every night, we fell asleep to the sound of our furnace humming to life. Next, we’d hear the gas jets ignite, and then, a few seconds later, the blower pushing heat through the vents of our home to keep us warm. In spite of the ensuing hassles—staying with friends and family for nearly two weeks while our home warranty company took its sweet time […]

What can one woman do to halt the sad practice of children as young as 9 or 10 working long hours in roasting or freezing factories in countries around the world where few rules and regulations prevent it? Adults, as well, work in inhumane conditions all around the globe, sometimes even in North America, where production demands mean getting up at 3 a.m. and working 12 days straight. No weekend off. Eleanor learned early on about buying gifts which helped women and children have more opportunities for schooling because of fair trade. Eleanor Held is one young woman who, as […]

Editor’s Note: Jodi Nisly Hertzler writes occasionally for Another Way and is a college counselor, tutor, and freelance proofreader. Jodi and her husband have three children. There are four women at the table. Only two share a blood tie, but we’re all family. I’m in the seat tucked closest to the wall. Across from me is my mother. That connection is molecularly deep and eternal—I feel it almost physically, an elastic cord that links us together, expanding and contracting as needed, but never torn. To my right is my sister-in-law. We’re different in so many ways (she’s a vivacious Latina with eternal […]

I was maybe six or seven when I broke the bathroom scales in the home of my parents’ friends when we visited them out of state for an overnight stay. I moved the adjustment mechanism too far and the scales stopped working. The story of the adult David’s sexual sin strikes us as so low, so despicable, and so unbelievable that it is a wonder it is even included in the Bible. I was mortified, but couldn’t bring myself to tell my parents or our hosts. I always assumed they wondered how their scales broke—perhaps they blamed their own children. […]

Has your child (or maybe you) ever taken a class where he or she asked, “Where or when will I ever be able to use this?” The problem solving skills that math teaches you are irreplaceable. You need the analytical ability that math develops to solve almost every business problem. Lauren is a longtime church friend who recently posed this great question on Facebook: “One of my sons is questioning why he needs to learn algebra. If you use upper-level (algebra or above) math in your occupation, please give a brief response as to what and how it is applied!” […]

If you or your church is at a transitional point—like seeking a new pastor or formulating a new vision statement, or desiring to branch out in new ways and shake up the same-oldness— sometimes it is helpful to go back to basics and study the words and life of Jesus. Our longtime pastor (24 years) retired last year and we are in this phase. This winter I helped to team-teach an adult Christian education class on The Upside-Down Kingdom by Donald Kraybill, taking an in-depth look at the historical and cultural context for Jesus and his teachings. Kraybill is a […]

I was only in the second grade. A friend had borrowed the pretty, red tennis shoes I kept at school in my cubby for physical education, if my memory serves me correctly. She wore them outside at recess without asking me and got them very muddy. I can still remember her looking up at me from the floor of the classroom as she attempted to scrub the mud off with a few wet paper towels she’d gotten from the restroom. “It won’t come off,” she pleaded with woebegone eyes. For most of us, freedom of speech does not include the […]