Tanara McCauley

Culturally Imagined Stories

Tag: love

  • Thanks, Mom

    I blog sporadically for Compassion Ministries, an organization that makes it possible for my family to sponsor three children from different countries. In honor of Mother’s Day, this week’s Compassion blogging prompt is to write an open letter to my mom. I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to publicly praise her, despite her love for…

  • Don’t Lose the Wonder

    “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” ~Revelation 2:4~ My kids and I walked through the parking lot looking for our car. “Ooh, a bird!” I pointed to a cute little sparrow as it hopped out from behind a tire. My youngest looked to where I pointed, her eyes…

  • A Wrecked Perspective

    “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Recently, on a day like any other, my three kids and I set out for an evening of gymnastics and Kenpo practice, with a potential coffee stop squeezed in. The smell of mint wafted from…

  • The Nearness of God

    The Nearness of God

    The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. -Psalm 34:18 This will be our first Christmas without my mother-in-law. For some it will be a first Christmas without a spouse, a sibling, a friend, or a child. For others it will be the second…

  • Mercy Despised

    Not too long ago I had a wrestling match with my youngest daughter, something we do quite often. This particular day I had to cut our bout short. I trapped her legs between mine, clamped her arms to her sides and her back to my chest in a one-armed hug, and applied enough pressure so…

  • Promised

    Life–if we’re honest–is hard. That’s not to say it isn’t good. Laughter, the arms of a child thrown around your neck, kisses from the one you love–these are all precious tidbits of the countless things that keep us striving to lengthen our days. But life does throw many a curve ball. And these unexpected hurls…

  • A Little Tact, Please

    Years ago, in a modest California home on a crowded California couch, I sat next to my Great-Grandmother who was visiting with my parents for a few weeks. Remote in hand, I flipped through their zillion channels for something suitable to watch. It went a little like this: Click. Pause. Interesting? No. Click. Pause. Seen it. Click.…

  • Week 6 Book 6: A Review of Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead

    It was the age of Atlantis, when nine kings ruled in peace and prosperity and the lives of their people were saturated with extravagance. It was also an age marked for destruction–a fate to dwarf the devastation caused by the outbreak of war after two millenia of peace. In Taliesin, Stephen R. Lawhead slashes through…

  • Marriage Part III: The Wife’s Role

    Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the Word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives. (1 Peter 3:1) Such a teaching is so unpopular these days that to abide by it seems to warrant a guilty-like confession of some antiquated…

  • Marriage Part II: The Choice

    Imagine you’re two months away from walking down the aisle. You’ve dated your fiancée for two years, been engaged for four months, attended pre-marital counseling for three of those months, and it’s only now that you’ve been forced to look at possibly the hardest choice you’ll ever make…using a different set of rules. I’m not…