Real Simple magazine is running an essay contest where entrants are invited to finish this sentence: “I never thought I’d…” Perhaps I’ll submit an entry about having a daughter with Down syndrome. We’ll see. But I’m pretty sure that what I’m about to write here wouldn’t win. While it’s true that I never thought I’d…

What if someone knew everything about you? Really, everything. All the good and all the bad. What if someone knew the mean words you thought but didn’t say this morning? Or the kind deed you were going to do but didn’t because you were tired, or embarrassed, or because you forgot? What if someone counted…

A few years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts released a report about reading. I wasn’t surprised to find that literacy rates are higher among children whose parents read to them at home. What surprised me was that literacy raters are higher still among children who see their parents reading. In fact, watching their…

Yet another (see last week’s post) Books and Culture article that made me think, encouraged me, and was informative: “The Church on a Justice Mission.”  It describes the work of IJM (the International Justice Mission), the recent commitment among evangelical churches to social justice work, particularly around sex trafficking, and it offers sobering statistics about…

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Amy Julia Becker

Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith—caring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.  A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.

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