“It’s often noted by people on the left that conservatives don’t understand systemic oppression because they think of everything as an individual case. They fail to accept the larger picture that all of those cases create. I agree with this. But the corollary is that sometimes people who are left of center can fall prey to only seeing the systemic and missing the individual. I’m certainly guilty of that.”

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Kirsten Powers, opinion column in USA Today

“It’s often noted by people on the left that conservatives don’t understand systemic oppression because they think of everything as an individual case. They fail to accept the larger picture that all of those cases create. I agree with this. But the corollary is that...

“It would be so much easier if God just handed you the blueprint, wouldn’t it? It would be easier to follow ‘the plan.’ But God is too good for that; too kind. He wants relationship with you too much to hand you a blueprint and let you walk away…So embrace the wildness of your season, the gray areas that litter every step, and learn to listen to the Spirit of God in you. Black and white isn’t always His way. More often than not, His way is through the confusing and the impossible, because that’s where you’re most likely to hold His hand.”

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Phylicia Masonheimer, “A letter to my 20-year-old self”

"It would be so much easier if God just handed you the blueprint, wouldn’t it? It would be easier to follow 'the plan.' But God is too good for that; too kind. He wants relationship with you too much to hand you a blueprint and let you walk away...So embrace the...

The Girl Who Made Me Mother

The Girl Who Made Me Mother

Theodosia Christine "God dedicated, follower of Christ" December 27, 2018 6 lbs., 12 oz., 18 1/2 in. Photography by Abigail Read  

“Thank you. Thank you, because I know it’s been hard for you. It was hard for you as a young girl having a baby, in Mississippi. No education. No training. No skills. Seventeen, you get pregnant with this baby. Lots of people would have told you to give that baby away. Lots of people would’ve told you to abort that baby. You didn’t do that. I know that was hard. I want you to know that no matter what, I know that you always did the best you knew how to do. And look how it turned out.”

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Oprah Winfrey to her mother, Vernita Lee

"Thank you. Thank you, because I know it’s been hard for you. It was hard for you as a young girl having a baby, in Mississippi. No education. No training. No skills. Seventeen, you get pregnant with this baby. Lots of people would have told you to give that baby...

Time is somehow fleeting and endless at once…

Time is somehow fleeting and endless at once…

I've tended to live with my head in the past or the future, and difficulty focusing on the present. It came more naturally to me to strive against seasons than appreciate them. I made a conscious effort my last two semesters of graduate school to absorb every moment...