In “Mere Christianity,”  C.S. Lewis makes a distinction between what and how we study.

He starts with geology, the study of rocks, as the simplest study because the subject matter is static. You can approach them in any benign fashion because they will always be there at your leisure. Zoology, on the other hand, becomes trickier because there are two outcomes: either the subjects, animals, will fear you are trying to eat them so they run away or you will become who they want to eat so they run at you. They are dynamic, on the move, elusive. According to Lewis, a third area of study is the most profound of all: theology—the study of God. You see we cannot approach theology at our leisure in the field nor in a laboratory, for it is only when God the Father reveals himself to us that we can begin to study him.

This is where HEM-ology is for me: somewhere between zoology and theology. HEM (Harper, Eliza, Margo) -ology is where I study my daughters so that I can ripen them as much as my humanity allows in order to soften them for the calling the Lord places on their lives. It is my obedience to shepherding their hearts. My daughters are dynamic, emotional, capricious, passionate young girls, and I aim to work and defend their souls to a place of theology. 

And I’m grateful I am not doing this of my own strength.

-Kate