Heather Holleman's Blog, page 210

Updating the Teen Bedroom

Beginning to transform little girl bedrooms into teen bedrooms over the past years has blessed our daughters. It’s a fun way for them to connect with us, and the ideas don’t require lots of money. At this point, they lead the way with color choices and ideas, and we become the labor (well, it’s mostly my husband).

For one of the updated bedroom ideas put forth by my oldest daughter, Ash used whiteboard paint to create an enormous whiteboard that combines with a cork board for notes and photos. He framed the borders and made a ledge for all her dry erase markers. She claims she needs the whiteboard for all her complex math problems! (I, of course, picture Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, working on all his equations).

My younger daughter who will turn 13 soon wished to paint her bedroom a peach color, and Ash will transform the closet space that’s full of old toys into a recessed desk with shelving. We box up most of the stuffed animals and toys from younger days, and we trade them out for craft supplies, books, and study tools.

Years ago, I read how important personal space is for teens. Helping them design a fresh bedroom space as they transitioned to the teenage years functioned as a rite of passage. It does take time and a willingness to endure some chaos of painting and small-scale construction, but helping teens have a space all their own–no matter how humble or small–matters.

Such Wind

Today, high winds whip through our neighborhood. We receive alerts of fallen limbs blocking a roadway and of school buses delayed on their journeys homeward.

In a single moment, the backyard flares with afternoon sun, storm clouds, snow, and wind so strong the thickest oaks sway. It’s like a collection of all the season’s weather in one view. And it’s as if the weather cannot decide who she is.

Some days come like this–all at once and rowdy and unusual–because that’s the nature of spring. Some days, we forget ourselves; we try on different ways of living and remember other versions of ourselves. It’s like our orderly life now erupts because we’re at a crossroads of seasons: winter’s gone, but spring isn’t quite here. It’s a moment of unpredictability, chaos, and uncertainty.

I remember when my neighbor told me to take my cues from nature in order to establish spiritual rhythms. She reminded me of the coming back inside, the hibernation of winter. I think of summer’s rich growth and autumn’s glorious harvest. And today? It’s spring’s unpredictable shooting up in so many places, from so many directions, of possibility.

It feels like a wind storm. And that’s spring.

All the Different Audiences

I find myself so thrilled to speak on Ephesians 2:6 to the State College MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group this evening. Those years were some of the hardest of my whole life. I would have died without Jesus.

As I prepare my presentation to these young mothers on how to heal from the jealousy and comparison of those parenting years, I praise God for a new audience to teach. I cannot wait to be with these moms and see the power of God’s word.

And I marvel that, really, I wrote Seated for Christ for college girls most of all. But God’s word is for everyone, everywhere.

That’s something I’ve learned this year through all these different audiences: God’s word is powerful for anyone. I’ve seen Ephesians 2:6 matter to older folks, graduate students, and even children in party dresses for a seated with Christ tea party. Ephesians 2:6 arrived to the minds of teens and then to retired women and then to church leaders. It didn’t matter the age or the status; God’s word mattered.

(And it also didn’t matter if I performed the speaking task well. It didn’t matter if I was having a good day or felt particularly effective. I’m so thankful God’s work doesn’t depend upon our talent!)

I remember how, in the same month, I spoke to the very wealthy and the very poor. I spoke to the smartest professors and then those never completing high school. I spoke to the grieving and the rejoicing, the addicted and the recovered. And God’s word went forth.

I think of all the audiences for this same talk on being seated with Christ and the power of God’s word to apply to all people, everywhere. I just love to see it. Is there anything more powerful than His word in all the earth?

 

Hold Your Passions Loosely

As I review the manuscript edits from the first round of editing for Chosen for Christ, I remember to hold the words loosely. They’re not mine. These gifts of writing belong to God; my words belong to Him. Learning to revise and consider the input of others in a creative process represents a challenge for most writers, and I’m no different.

But I’m learning, and it’s a wonderful journey.

Happy Easter: A Living Hope

I say this morning what Peter proclaims in 1 Peter 1:3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. . .”

Words fail to capture what happened on that day when Jesus rose from the dead. It was a conquering of sin forever. It was a restoration of what was lost. It was a promise that we’d forever live in God’s presence because the righteous requirements of God’s law were now fully satisfied.

We cannot understand how conquered we were, how lost we are, how separated from Him. We cannot know the distress and death that sin works in us apart from Jesus. We are foolish, distracted, and temporarily believing happiness and meaning exist apart from Him. We claim such intelligence in a culture moving away from the reality that we are dead in our sin. We do not know what life is. We do not know the joy to be had in His presence.

We rush on past this resurrection Sunday. We miss the turn on our journey. But maybe today, you won’t miss this divine signal. You won’t miss His call. You’ll know that all the pain and confusion of your life has everything to do with how far you’ve turned from Jesus.

He is risen!

And Now She’s Growing a Lemon Tree

Ever since the success of the avocado tree that now sits in a pot in a sunny warm place in our home, my daughter has wanted a lemon tree. Why stop with avocados? Why not grow a lemon tree?

On the kitchen window sill, she’s preparing lemon seeds to sprout. She soaked them, and now they sit in potting soil in a cup with plastic wrap over the top. She’s attempting this method first.

I’ll report back. So much of our family life involves watching things grow. I think of the roses climbing on the trellis, the raspberries and blackberries, the tomatoes, and the asparagus. I think of the avocado. And now, it’s lemons I’m watching.

Simple Traditions of Easter

I announce all day long, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’! It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin'”

It’s a good Friday.

We eat Good Friday pastries–little danishes and chocolate filled croissants–and we talk about our cooking plans for the weekend. We’ll go to a Good Friday service this evening, and then tomorrow, we’ll do some spring cleaning. That evening, we’ll tell the story of Easter using our Resurrection Eggs that the girls loved ever since they were little.

We’ll bake the Lemonade Layer Cake and make the Deviled Eggs. We’ll prepare the honey ham and make the potato kugel that our Jewish friends suggested.

On Sunday, we’ll see what fills our Easter Baskets, and we’ll rejoice that He is risen.

Pastries, church, resurrection eggs, the Easter cake, the deviled eggs, the festive baskets, and the Easter meal: it’s what helps us celebrate the greatest day in history that Jesus rose from the dead. He will rise!

When I Showed Millennials the Millennials Video

My oldest class of students considers themselves millennials, so I wanted to show them the “Millennials in the Workplace” video by Simon Sinek.

I honestly hoped they’d all throw down their phones in disgust and agree with everything Sinek tells them. They’d confess their addictions to their phones. They’d talk about how depressed they all are. They’d share their loneliness and low self-esteem and begin the process of transformation back to the old ways, before all these phones.

Some did admit to how they see others experiencing these things, but most completely disagreed with the idea that the cause of all our woes stems purely from our addiction to social media and technology. After all, one student remarked, “Aren’t we watching this video using the very technology he worries about?”

The hands shot into the air as they cried foul on so many fronts ranging from the need for more empirical evidence–over a longer period of time–to prove with certainty that social media harms us to the false analogy of social media working like alcohol to an alcoholic. A student explains, “That analytical framework denies the positive effects of social media like how it connects me to my grandparents who live in another country and how aware we become of global problems.”

Another student asserts that correlation is not causation when it comes to anxiety and depression amongst college students. Other factors like the insistence on having a set life plan by the time you reach kindergarten causes the anxiety we feel now. Another student reminded the class that, historically, times of technological change always create massive amounts of anxiety because we aren’t good at resting in uncertainty. He insists that we live in a period of uncertainty and now adaptation. We will adapt. The answer isn’t to throw away your phone.

What I love about my students is that they don’t just receive what you tell them as truth. Perhaps the very use of social media has taught them how to look at different angles and consider different questions and possibilities. They know how to juggle massive amounts of data and synthesize it quickly. Some good has come about from having all this information available.

As I listened to my students talk today, I realized why I love educating at the college level.

A Video Helping Me Understand Millennial

My friend sends me this video last night, and I love the insights and suggestions the speaker offers. Enjoy! It’s called “Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU  

 

What We’d Do With More Confidence

I think about what we would do if we felt more confident. How many opportunities do we pass by because we lack confidence? I think about the people we don’t walk across the room to meet, the words we don’t say we want to say, and the risks we don’t take.

Imagine the confident you–the one placed in this exact moment by God, the one who isn’t here by accident, the one empowered to do what you want and need to do.