Joy in the Journey

 "Love is kind". That is what is inscribed on the inside of my wedding ring. It's a reminder to me how important kindness is, and I often need the reminder. Most of you might be thinking I'm a pretty nice person, but I really do struggle with my sinful nature on this one. My kindness muscles are getting a lot of exercise lately, though, as I deal my teenage daughter (who really is wonderful most of the time, but can really have a stinky attitude at other times). Especially when it comes to math... I think the biggest obstacle with math and my oldest is pride. She doesn't like admitting it isn't easy for her to understand and she doesn't like to depend on my help. Her negative attitude about it of course makes it harder to understand. She doesn't want to do the steps needed to complete a complicated problem, she just wants to do it quickly in her head and be done, not realizing that it would probably be quicker and less painful to just grab a piece of s

 My blog last week ended quite nicely, didn’t it? For those of you who didn’t read it, it was about my son's struggling against OCD keeping him from playing basketball. The story ended with him overcoming his fears and loving participating with the rest of the team. Happily ever after, a sweet victory, a little package with a bow on top. Almost like a cute little Disney movie. Except real life is not like a Disney movie... ESPN Open on week four of basketball season. My son runs out and participates with the rest of the team...for about 10 minutes. Then he is back on bleachers, crying and hiding under his hoodie. Sigh... The rotary basketball program depends on volunteers. Last week, the lady who was working with my son was the mother of one of his friends. Someone he sees at least a few times a month and has known a few years. So he was comfortable with that. This week, however, it was mostly boys from the high school team who were helping out (which I think is awesome). The big b