I hugged my pink stuffed poodle to my chest. We were about to have a serious conversation, even though I would be the only one talking. My ten-year-old self looked into his black button eyes and confided the empty ache that I dare not admit to anyone. I didn’t say the words out loud. I didn’t need to. We were close like that. Read more…
It was one of my favorite trees. And it was dying.
We live on a lake, and my dying tree was truly a “tree planted by streams of water.” So how could it be dying? How could branches right in the smack dab middle of the bushy green be turning into kindling? It didn’t make sense.
I called an arborist to come out and take a look. Read more…
I watched a gaggle of eight-year-olds play a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. One was blindfolded, spun around in circles, and then pointed in the direction of a donkey posted on the wall. As she made her way toward where she thought the donkey was waiting, her friends yelled out which way she should go.
“Move to the right!”
“Move to the left!”
“You’re getting cold!”
“Now you’re getting warmer!’
“Go up a little!”
Some of the voices intentionally tried to mislead her, Read more…
I sat on the floor playing a card game with my young son. It was shaping up to be one of the best summers ever. Steven was savoring every minute of the long hot days, our Golden Retriever, Ginger, had delivered seven adorable puppies, and after years of negative pregnancy tests and doctor visits, I had a new life growing in my womb. Read more…
I was 16 years old and about 100 pounds soaking wet.
My friend’s dad, Mr. Evans, gathered up a few of us teenagers and drove us to a church just outside my hometown. We were going to give our testimonies at a Saturday night gathering of strangers. I’d never stood behind a podium, spoken into a mic, or stared at a sea of faces thinking I had something to say. Read more…
Have you ever had trouble believing God’s Word is true? That God is tells the truth? Yikes! Not many of us would throw up our hand and say, “Yes!” And yet, my emotions and actions often tell a different story.
(Last week I posted a devotion about how God not only loves you, but He also likes you. Read more…
All my growing-up years, I knew my parents loved me, but I didn’t think they liked me very much. It seemed I was always in the way — a burden to care for and a financial responsibility to provide for.
Unfortunately, as I started to learn about God, I thought the same way about my heavenly Father. Read more…
I sat on my porch with my Bible in my lap and a hot mug of steamy coffee in my hand. Early morning is my favorite time of day. Just me, Jesus, and a smattering of birds.
I closed my Bible and looked out across the backyard. My eyes landed on a rounded mound of fur nestled in the grass under the willow tree. Read more…
I often hear people say, “It is what it is.” What they mean is, the situation is not going to change, so just accept it; get over it! Let me tell you why I don’t like the saying. “It” rarely is what “it” looks like it is. In fact, what we think the situation is, usually isn’t what it is at all. Read more…
I’ll admit, I don’t like it when someone tells me no. I especially don’t like it when God tells me no. At the same time, I’m so thankful that He does. What a mess my life would be if God gave me everything I thought I wanted when I wanted it. What a spoiled rotten child I would have become. Read more…
