In the South, we name our beach cottages. Barb’s Folly was one of our favorites to rent. Her screened-in back porch on the second floor overlooked a weather-worn dock jutting out over a lazy canal, and fuchsia myrtle bushes dotted the landscape like splashes of paint. The outdoor back stairway wrapped around a palm tree that reached for the sky, Read more…
Have you ever felt like you just wanted to quit this thing called the “great race” of life? That’s your spiritual legs ache and you would much rather sit on the side of the road and have a good pity party than take one more step? I certainly have. And then I think of my nephew Stu and his mom, Read more…
I remember as a little girl, hiding under the covers of my bed, trying to shut out my parents’ yelling and screaming in the next room. I heard bad words. I didn’t know what some of them meant, but I did know how they made me feel. Dirty. The next morning, I awoke to the aftermath of the night’s tirade—Mom’s black eye, Read more…
I’ve got something really special to give away at the end of this devotion! But for now, here’s today’s encouragement!
I walked to the mailbox and then to the recycler. Don’t need this one, or this one, or this one I whispered as I dropped the shiny flyers in the red box.
I don’t know about you, Read more…
When my brother was a teenager, my mother used to threaten him when he hunched over at the dinner table. “If you don’t sit up,” she would say, “I’m going to buy you a back brace from Sears.” I don’t even know if Sears made back braces then, but it sounded like a pretty good threat to me.
Then I had a son who seemingly grew to six feet overnight. Read more…
I can do it. No, I can’t. Yes, I can. No, I can’t.
Have you ever had that conversation with yourself? You feel like God is calling you to reach out to someone, start a new venture, teach a Bible study, write a book, or share a story about your past that you’ve never shared before. Read more…
Let me tell you about a girl named Margaret. For almost forty years, she lived with word-inflicted wounds that nearly destroyed her life. From the first day she attended her one room schoolhouse, she and her teacher, Ms. Garner, didn’t get along. Ms. Garner was harsh, bitter, and cruel, and could not tolerate Margaret’s childish idiosyncrasies.
Margaret was nine years old when she frantically raced into class, Read more…
I love Post-It Notes! Yellow, fuchsia, turquoise, buttercup, and magenta. From full-page mega notes to tiny little strips, sticky notes have saved me from embarrassment, kept me organized, and helped me memorize. Mostly, they have served as visual reminders of information, events, and appointments not to forget.
But visual reminders of things not to forget didn’t begin with Post-It Notes. Read more…
It was the incompetent and the inexperienced being led by the inept, the day our Sunday School Class worked on the habitat for humanity house for an unsuspecting, extremely grateful family. Among the crew were two dentists, an investment banker, a lawyer, an engineer, two pastors, a receptionist, several homemakers, and a marriage counselor. It’s always good to have a marriage counselor on hand when a home improvement project is taking place. Read more…
When I was eight years old, my prized possession was a collie dog named, what else, Lassie. Lassie was my shadow. She ran alongside me as I pedaled around the neighborhood on my pink-glittered banana bike. She slept outside the door of my one-room playhouse when my best friend, Wanda, and I “camped out.” She protected me from dangerous strangers, Read more…