Not My Own

Parents have been asking me lately how to talk to their preschool kids about God. My response usually involves me spitting out and choking on the current beverage I have poured down my throat. Why on earth anyone would think I know what I am doing in that realm is beyond me. Put me in a room with teenagers and their families and I am delighted to question and wrestle alongside them as we figure out our spiritual journey together. Put me in a room with preschoolers and I am completely clueless how to answer their most blatant questions. Their cuteness and unpredictably are like lethal weapons that cause me great anxiety. I love preschoolers with all my heart but they also terrify me. It's a weird bag of emotions. Anyway, when my own preschooler asks me questions about God I don't know what I am doing and I get all panicky about making sure I give him the right answers so I don't forever screw up his view of God. Truth is, I don't know what I am doing but I try my best...

It's just been one of those weeks. Well, actually it's just been one of those months. I have been dealing with a colitis flare up which led to being on steroids, which means I feel like a crazy person, which means my husband has to deal with a crazy person. Oh yeah, and then there is doing all this while trying to parent a toddler and a preschooler. A toddler who keeps waking up in the night crying for no reason that we understand. Under these circumstances, one can understand why things in our marriage this past week have been a little awkward and a lot tense. Communication when we are both emotionally compromised has been a real bust. My incredible husband is the sweetest and most patient man I have ever known. This is one of the main reasons I married him. He is a true gem. We have a fantastic relationship and it's something I am ever so proud of. I adore him and our deep conversations that are never ending. However, life happens and it doesn't mean that we don...

When I worked as a Youth Director in Tennessee I was once asked to compete with a few other townsfolk to do the football picks for the local news paper. I jumped at the chance even though I knew very little about football. The only reason I agreed to do it was because I thought it would make me look athletic and cool. Knowing my face would be in the paper each week meant town celebrity status right? Hardly! I knew I was in over my head when elderly gentlemen would approach me to comment on my picks. They would often tease me if they disagreed or high five if they thought I rooted for their team. Sometimes they would question why I chose a certain team and my answer would always be, "I am just very confident in their offense this year!" Would you believe I actually won one year? I even got a giftcard as the prize. I still feel a little guilty about this! The truth is, I don't even like football. I LOVE to play football and I really don't enjoy watching it. I have v...

Ash Wednesday is coming up this week are you ready for the beginning of Lent? (Click here to learn more about Ash Wednesday and Lent...  http://www.gotquestions.org/Ash-Wednesday.html )  I always thought of Lent as a weird excuse for Christians to go on a diet. I heard people say it was a time to give up chocolate or junk food. I didn't get what the heck it ever had to do with Jesus. For more on my thoughts of Lent read here...  http://samtidball.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-lent-fail.html . But the past few years I realized Lent can be an awesome time to focus on a specific theme that God is trying to teach me or a time I can put a discipline into practice in order to grow in my faith. However, this Lent I am trying a practice that most people don't think of as a typical discipline, especially in the church. This year I am going to do 40 Days of Vulnerability and I am asking for some brave souls to join me. Here's what I have in mind...  Vulnerability comes from ...

I confess I was THAT Mom today with the screaming kid in Target who was having a tantrum! Before my child rearing days, (when I thought I was going to be the best parent ever) I used to look at those parents with judging eyes. I assumed those kids screaming in Target were the ones who were very spoiled by their rotten parents. Oh how little I knew. In my attempts to be the best parent ever, I decided to teach my four year old about the "true spirit of Christmas"  by showing him the importance of giving to the poor. I did everything I could to prepare him. I don't normally buy my son a toy every time I am out shopping but since his Birthday was last month we had fun Birthday shopping with money he received from family. I guess he got too used to the idea of shopping for himself. Keeping this in mind, I told my son today we wouldn't be shopping for him and we needed to shop for others. In fact, I explained how today was special because we were shopping for some poor...

I will never forget my honeymoon since it is where I learned the depth and beauty of true intimacy in the most unconventional way. My whole marriage started off pretty rough because during my wedding I was battling c-diff (google it) on top of an intestinal disease known as ulcerative colitis. Sometimes I get angry and bitter about how the disease tainted my wedding day and my honeymoon. I have been able to let some of that go because I realized I learned a lesson about vulnerability and intimacy on my honeymoon that most don't get to experience. And no I am not talking about in the bedroom… but in the bathroom where we are most vulnerable.    In the hammock closest to the bathroom of course. First, what you need to know about ulcerative colitis is that this disease is a giant literal pain in the ass. Basically, my immune system freaks out and makes my intestines attack themselves causing me to knock down the bathroom door before I crap my pants between 10-20 times a da...

When I was a kid, I always imagined my future family with a husband and two children of my own. When I physically tried to picture this in my mind the faces were somewhat blurry or faceless. This sounds weird, but it makes sense to me because I didn't know them yet. My brain couldn't fill in the detail of who they were, because they were just an idea. They were unknown characters in the upcoming story of my future. I always thought the best day of my life would be my wedding day. However, my favorite day ever was the day my husband asked me to marry him. This is because for the first time I could picture with certainty who the man by my side was going to be. I had wondered my whole life who I would marry. Our engagement brought an idea into a reality. Even now, I still catch myself staring at my husband thinking… Whoa! There is Andrew Tidball, and we are married . Maybe that’s weird, but we have known each other since our childhood so sometimes it feel...