whitney dziurawiec

It's the end of June, and our windows are open. After a string of endless rainy days, sopping and muddy, the sun--our knight in shining armor--emerged without its normal end-of-June heat. And so, the windows are open. My daughter has been asleep for awhile, my husband is riding his bike through the glory of a Minnesota summer's evening, and I sit listening to the clock tick, the birds talk, the cars hum. The background noises of life which I usually drown out with music or a podcast or a babbling toddler demand their attention now, greedy backup singers stealing their solos. Last night I spent time with some newer ladies in my life, none of which had kids. I was relieved to find myself able to relate to childless peers as most of my current friends have children who tend to dominate our conversations. We talked of refugees and politics and international students in Mankato. We talked of life plans and I actually enjoyed not lamenting the current 2-1 nap transition ...

I'm sure not many Christians read Leviticus to kick off their Lenten season but that's unfortunately where my Bible plan has plopped me, without much end in sight as I'm plowing straight through Numbers and Deuteronomy next; I haven't counted ahead (perhaps out of denial) but I'm sure I'll read something about not boiling a goat in its mother's milk on Easter Sunday and I'm just letting ya'll know right now I will not have the mental fortitude to write a resurrection spin on it. Maybe that's what I'll tell people I'm giving up for Lent--a carefully-crafted reading plan. I should do something to start gathering my scattered heart in preparation for Easter Sunday, but it doesn't help that this is easily my least favorite time of year. Winter hangs on aggressively (especially here up North) and spring only is able to squeeze out little hints of life as it wages war with the cold and also my sanity. How is one supposed to get in the...

We've been trying to be more intentional about taking days of rest (Sabbaths) on Saturdays because of the rhythms of work & rest we see biblically. So today we took our first Sabbath day of 2018. Taking a day of rest with a one year-old is challenging which is perhaps the exact reason we should be taking a day of rest. Rest days are easy without kids. But with kids, rest must be intentional, planned, and creative. Today that looked like most of our food intake coming straight from the ground to remind us of our reliance upon the ground God has given us. It looked like letting the Christmas decorations stay up for one more day. It looked like reading 12 chapters of Genesis during my daughter's nap and grasping the gravity of Joseph's story a little more. It looked like sending my husband off for a bike ride and it was a promise to look at our phones less. I took the Enneagram test and I'm a 4. I'm not proud of everything about our day: Our dau...

No name Just "Samaritan woman" Approached by a well by an odd man At an odd time: no one is supposed to be here right now, right now, when her shame forced her to draw water alone But shame was no match for the Living Water that baptized the isolated whore, raised her into prophetess, evangelist, beloved. "our Father Jacob," she said, but did she see? Jacob's wife was found at the well, and Isaac's too. Two matriarchs, fountain-heads of descendents, carriers of promise, approached the well and left betrothed and grafted into a covenant. Those women came and offered water, but you came and received it. Do you see, nameless Samaritan woman? You have left the well just as your mothers did: betrothed, dignified, grafted in, chosen. thirst quenched. A new mother to the many who believed your testimony A new matriarch for a new covenant. A new Bride to God himself.