9-29-2026
When You Wish You Had a Different Story
“Mommy, tell me a story.”
When my son, Steven, was little, that was one of his favorite requests. Whether we were riding in the car, waiting for a haircut, or settling down for bedtime, he wanted a story. But there was one requirement: Steven had to give me the first line. Read more…
Have you ever had a hard time forgiving someone? If so, keep reading…
It was a Saturday afternoon college football game, and I was doing what I like best—not watching the game but observing people.
My flip-down seat was the last in a long row of Carolina blue. A steady stream of fans traipsed up and down the concrete steps carrying soft drinks, Read more…
I have a confession to make. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but when I was in high school, I hardly ever read the books we were supposed to have read in English class. I read the Cliffs Notes study guides and got by. I mean, who’s got time for homework? Right?
But a decade later, I decided to go back and get that high school reading list and actually read the books! Read more…
Hi friends, did you know I have been writing devotions for over 25 years! So I’m changing it up a bit. Starting April, 2026, my devotions will release on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, rather than weekly. Thank you for sharing them with your friends and encouraging them to sign up! It means the world to me! Read more…
I hopped up on the counter at the soda fountain and placed my five-year-old feet on the spinning stool in front of me. Dad sipped on a Coke and talked to the lady behind the counter with the red-and-white-striped apron tied around her waist.
“This is my little girl,” Daddy said with a smile. “She’s a little monkey.”
“Why, Read more…
As I sat on my screened-in porch early one morning, I was taken aback with the beauty surrounding me. I held a steamy cup of coffee in my hand and placed my open, well-worn Bible in my lap. As if on cue, as had been our routine for the past several weeks, a visitor hopped from the shrubbery and onto the night-cooled patio. Read more…
I sat across the table from a broken friend. Her life was scattered on the coffee shop floor like spilled grounds from the bean machine. Melissa (not her real name) had had an affair, and she finally mustered up the courage to tell me the truth. I knew about some of it, but not all of it.
While listening to her through tears, Read more…
I watched my friend, Patricia, struggle through more than twenty years of a difficult marriage. Her husband left three times during the two decades—once before their three children were born, and twice after. They lived through nineteen different homes in multiple cities, revolving jobs, rumored affairs, cycles of financial plenty followed by financial deficiency. Eventually, after twenty-three years, Rodney packed his bags for the last time and left. Read more…
Have you ever held a grudge? That’s a silly question. I think we all have. I remember when Nancy Davis asked the boy I had my eye on to the high school dance. Can we all say G-r-u-d-g-e with an extra grrrr?
Esau, now that’s a biblical character who held a grudge…and rightly so. His brother Jacob and his momma grabbed the pen right out of God’s hand, Read more…
I sat on my back porch, wrapped in my fuzzy worn robe—the one that’s twenty years old that I just can’t seem to get rid of. The birch trees waved “good morning,” and the newly planted gerbera daisies stretched their faces to the sun…just a bit higher than the day before. Then I heard him. The rooster.
ER-er-ER-er-ERRRR. Read more…