The year I turned four, my mother borrowed a witch costume from my aunt and dressed up for Halloween. I will never forget the trauma of watching that beautiful woman transform into a dark disfigured creature. She put on the voluminous black dress first. When she tugged a rubber mask over her face and secured the black stringy wig and pointed hat, she turned to look at me. All trace of her sweet face had disappeared, replaced by wrinkles, warts, and a huge hook nose. I swallowed hard and stepped away. My heart stopped for a moment, I blinked, trying to dislodge the nightmarish image, but it wouldn't go away. << MORE >>

My second daughter is pregnant--at 41. What a blessed surprise! With an eleven year old son and a nine year old daughter, we thought her family--and ours--was complete. But God had a better plan. And His ways are higher and wiser. So we are preparing for another grandson, wondering how this is all going to work out for this very busy family with two working parents.<< MORE >>

"On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. . . . Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went . . . many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy . . ." Acts 8:1-8 Let me see if this adds up--death of Stephen + scattering and persecution = joy. Hmm. Not humanly it doesn't. Yet, in the kingdom of God, often our greatest good and thus our greatest joy results from suffering. This was true in the early church and it is still true today. I've seen it in my own life more than once.<< MORE >>

Have you ever done something that seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out to be really stupid? About two months ago, I thought God was speaking to me to contact an estranged relative and be a peacemaker. << MORE >>

Someone I know committed suicide yesterday leaving all who knew her in a stupifying fog to question WHY? Such a permanent, solution for what? Did she hope it would bring her peace? Did she think of the countless hearts she would leave broken? The lives she would forever alter by such an action? Did she consider the things she would miss being part of in the future?<< MORE >>

Just about every winter Bob grows a beard. Not being a lover of hairy chins, I grit my teeth and tolerate it, usually with only minor groans. So guess what? In honor of Mother’s Day, Bob shaved off his beard on Saturday night so that I would wake up in the morning and have a man with a clean chin to kiss. That was a selfless and loving gift. Perfect. Except, I didn’t even notice.<< MORE >>

"I think God is finished with me." I frowned at my husband. "What do you mean?" "He rejected me. You know, like a bad egg." Theological arguments rose in my mind against such wrong thinking, but I figured I should hear him out before I launched my sermon. 'What makes you think THAT?" Heavy sigh. "I keep praying for help with our income problem. I know it's all my fault. I should have taken better care of what He provided." I let that one pass. "But he's still not answering." His shoulders sagged. << MORE >>

I pray for miracles every day. I plead with God to provide income out of thin air and extend healing to my suffering loved ones. I ask for peace and restoration among my family and in the world. Sometimes I get discouraged because big flashy miraculous answers to repeated prayers don't drop from the sky. That's probably because I see without comprehending what God is doing all around me every day. Today, these verses in Isaiah gave me a peek into the awesome world of God's miraculous provision. << MORE >>

Got a new pain in my lower back this week. Don't know just where it came from, but it has overtaken with vengeance and hangs on as if it had every right to disrupt both my waking and my sleeping. Well--I am at that age. Things are going to start paining me here and there. Soon my blessed years of great good health will be but a fuzzy memory, if I retain the memory at all. My father always said getting old wasn't for sissies. Guess I'm about to find that out. << MORE >>

I'm waiting---again. This time I'm waiting for news that my book is completed or ,at least, that they've made some progress designing the cover and the interior. I really hate to wait. I always have. Yet clearly God designed waiting into His plan. Examples: It takes nine months of waiting for a baby to be developed. Each year in the winter when many things die, we must wait for spring to bring life again.<< MORE >>