My son was about seven years old when we took him up to the mountains of North Carolina to go snow skiing for the first time. For hours I instructed him in my best teacher voice how to stand up, ski down, and get up once he fell. After several hours, it appeared he was not getting the hang of it at all. Read more…
I was wandering around the tourist area of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Shelves with tacky little statues, snow globes with leaning towers, and $10 T-shirts crowded small booths for tourists.
Shifty men with cases of “genuine fake” watches swarmed like bees. Rolex, Cartier, and Infinity—all for fifty bucks or less. Flashing fake gold and flaunting fake brands; Read more…
I was having lunch with a group of friends when one gal made a derogatory comment about another from the group who was late. I gave her that “motherly look” that letting her know the comment wasn’t appropriate.
“Well, it’s true,” she said.
“Just because something is true doesn’t mean that you should say it,” I answered. Read more…
I don’t know about you, but a few of my greatest lessons on how to love other people haven’t come from church folks. For example:
Nestled 50 feet off Highway 17 in Pawley’s Island, S.C., used to rest C.J.’s Beach Club. For years, Steve and I eyed the clapboard building tucked in the grove of myrtle trees, but it wasn’t the sort of place we would tend to visit. Read more…
A sign was posted on a telephone pole by the grocery store: “LOST DOG with three legs, blind in left eye, missing right ear, tail broken, and recently castrated. Answers to the name of Lucky!”
Perhaps you feel just about as “lucky” as that lost dog. Hobbling along. Impaired vision. Broken tail. Well, you get the picture. There was a woman in the Bible who also felt like she was out of luck and had nothing to give. Read more…
Have you ever felt like someone just knocked you over with words…not caring how it made you feel? I know I have. One day my Golden Retriever showed me just how it’s done.
Shortly after we had planted a maple tree in our backyard, we went on vacation. It was the first time we had left Ginger home alone. Read more…
Timing is everything. How many times have I heard that? How many times have I heeded that? Hmmm. Those two answers are not the same.
When my son, Steven, was about seven years old, we went snow skiing. For hours I instructed him how to stand up, ski down, and get up once he fell. In his frustration, 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…
She was at it again. Mrs. Barnett was getting out the scorecards and tallying up the points.
I sat with an older woman as she began enumerating her family’s shortcomings. “Callie never comes to see me,” she began to complain about her granddaughter. “And she never calls me either. I saw her sitting on the other side of the church last week and she didn’t even come over and give me a hug.”
“Benjamin is just as bad,” she continued, Read more…
From the time I could hold a crayon in my chubby little hand, I’ve enjoyed creating various “works of art.” Many of those masterpieces ended up under the Christmas trees for family and friends. One year it was macramé hanging plant holders. Another it was a menagerie of decoupage wooden boxes. Then there were the years of framed cross-stitch, ceramic nativity sets, Read more…